Yacht Rock

Maybe we need a hardcore yacht rock term like hardcore punk to denote a purist, extremist version of the genre, with less purist versions emanating out like peaceful, gentle waves on a tasty Saturday afternoon.

Heard it from a friend who
Finally liked hair metal

yacht rock shouldn't have gatekeepers, it should have harbour masters instead

Calling some band he's probably never listed

lol they did a concert together! You're super wrong on this thread.

I had a friend bragging that she finally liked hair metal and then announced the band she liked was REO Speedwagon

o_o

― popeye's arse (Neanderthal)

well, looking at REO Speedwagon as a producer's band, wondering what the board's take on Fortune's S/T from '85, produced by Kevin Beamish, is. I feel like that album is more hard-edged than the REO Speedwagon stuff I've heard. Honestly one of the chief things that differentiates "hair metal" from other forms of metal to me is its concern for the sort of production values espoused by "yacht rock" or "AOR", values which have, I would argue, essential continuity with later forms of chart music, and which certainly are diametrically opposed to the production values espoused by TRVE CVLT metal. It's probably a cliche by now to point out that Max Martin got his start in hair metal...

some guy on rym has actually made a yacht metal list:

https://rateyourmusic.com/list/PhantomOTO/yacht_metal/

incidentally i note that fortune did put out a reunion album last year - beamish appears to now be retired and isn't involved, but i'm surprised at how much i am enjoying it, even if the production lacks the full crispness and sheen Beamish brought to it. still a marked improvement over the boom box demos on their "limited edition prerelease ep" from '17. the idea of shittily recorded (i'm not talking "lo-fi", these are really just abominably shitty recordings) AOR songs is conceptually fascinating but actually listening to them is about as recommended as drinking Kykeon is.

I love the ethos of present-day AOR albums. They're completely unironic and sincere (or at least _pass_ for unironic and sincere) in a way that seems more or less impossible for "yacht rock" these days. This is exemplified by the cover, which is both a call-back to the first album cover - which isn't universally known, but certainly will be familiar to anybody listening to their second album - and an encapsulation of AOR's ethos. Whereas the original album's cover featured a gloved, elegant female hand (possibly _not_ an overt reference to "smell the glove", but I find it impossible to not think of that Spinal Tap record) opening a safe, the second album's cover features the same female hand, this time wearing an even more ridiculously over-the-top bracelet, adjusting the dials on a pre-amp. What a perfect encapsulation of the AOR ethos!

I find it amusing we're talking about REO Speedwagon in this thread when a friend showed me this compilation the other day:

https://www.discogs.com/Various-Now-Thats-What-I-Call-Yacht-Rock-2/release/15457853

some guy on rym has actually made a yacht metal list:

https://rateyourmusic.com/list/PhantomOTO/yacht_metal/

― Boris the Spreader (NickB)

but is there a yacht prog list? speaking as a lady who far prefers "danger money" to uk's self-titled, i'd love to hear more music with that vibe

I was going to say "is there Yacht hip hop" but I remembered Magna Carta Holy Grail came out years ago

@ Kate - fair point on the production side of things. The original Yacht Rock series (in one of its later and somewhat stretched-thin episodes), went to some lengths to make sure the public understood that Ted Templeman produced basically the entire discographies of both the Doobie Brothers and Roth-era Van Halen.

I was going to say "is there Yacht hip hop" but I remembered Magna Carta Holy Grail came out years ago

george duke sample on that too

wait, what am i saying? it's bob james

magna carta doesn't feel yacht to me, other than he's rich

Larry June had v yacht rap vibes

https://youtu.be/Wy1D7FhoJes

@ Kate - fair point on the production side of things. The original Yacht Rock series (in one of its later and somewhat stretched-thin episodes), went to some lengths to make sure the public understood that Ted Templeman produced basically the entire discographies of both the Doobie Brothers and Roth-era Van Halen.

― Doctor Casino

my favorite ted templeman story is that captain beefheart specifically hired him in the hopes that he could do something like "observatory crest" and what came out instead was "big eyed beans from venus". oh my oh my.

"observatory crest" is quality yacht rock mind

the first “yacht rock” thing I saw made fun of hall & Oates “portable radio”, it was extremely not funny

my partner saw REO perform in between Tesla and Def Leppard at some winery a few years ago. sounded like a pretty sad scene (def leppard excepted)

the first “yacht rock” thing I saw made fun of hall & Oates “portable radio”, it was extremely not funny

I'm playing drums for a friend's mom's surprise 60th birthday party this summer, and this is the set list:

Freedom at Midnight - David Benoit
6-String Poet - David Benoit
The Way It Is - Bruce Hornsby
Peg - Steely Dan
Do I Do - Stevie Wonder
What a fool believes - Doobie Bros
Virtual Insanity - Jamiroquai
Got To Get You Into My Life - Earth Wind and Fire
Back Pocket - Vulfpeck
Higher Love - Steve Winwood
Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough - MJ
King of Wishful Thinking - Go West

the Slate “Hit Parade” podcast episode about Yacht Rock is out from behind the paywall - Ned posted about it way upthread
It’s pretty great. Gives a good breakdown of Ryznar & gang’s criteria as well as some chart history of some of the big names — a good refresher if you listened to the show

it made me go back & listen to old eps

real talk though- i avoided the podcast for a long time because it pissed me off that coworkers would say “oh my favorite genre is yacht rock” and talk about seals & croft and i’d get all angry-kermit-the-frog like “aaagh seals & croft isnt even yacht rock! also its not a real genre its made up by writers! you just dont want to say you like adult contemporary!”

but im ok now lol

i now appreciate how music-nerdy it is, and that it’s designed to alienate casual music fans in a way that morbidly delights me

Hate to break it you veg but Seals and Crofts are on the boat

Bread has to be considered 'proto-yacht rock' as much as the Stooges are 'proto-punk' as "Baby I'm a Want You" definitely has the smoothe.

Just the title alone has given me chuckles since I was a teenager.

xpost doh

i’m very into the steve lukather/toto of it all, tbh

does 'yacht rock' alienate casual music listeners? the adult contemporary station in my city does a yacht rock specialty program every saturday night (w/ that specific branding) and given that it's not a very adventurous station otherwise i have to assume it's far from the only one

Yacht rock is meant to alienate people that do not own a yacht.

i didnt mean the broad genre as it exists out in the world -i meant the ryznar group & the podcast & the detailed criteria of why things are or are not yacht rock

ah yeah fair enough, i find all that pretty alienating myself

:D

as long as it alienates parrotheads, thats the most important thing

Do I Do - Stevie Wonder
Virtual Insanity - Jamiroquai
Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough - MJ

If even these are yacht rock, I've been yacht rocking since before yachts rocked.

the problem with the expansive "Yacht rock" playlists and Sirius channels is that they want to include mostly big hits, and many of the most yachty songs were minor hits, non-hits, or deep cuts.

Hate to break it you veg but Seals and Crofts are on the boat

I mean I guess they technically made it onto the boat with a couple later songs, but "Summer Breeze" is decidedly marina rock, nyacht yacht!

I really dug the podcast eps where they would define other new genres, like divorcecore and what have you. Was kind of bummed when that concept eventually fell by the wayside.

Yeah, The divorcecore one is especially great, I’ve revisited that one several times.

the best yacht rock is basically just white dudes doing r&b y/n

already regret that post lol

I just remember when allMusic had some “soft rock” feature and Andy kellman’s list was just cool smooth 70s soul records

xpost calstars thats a great one
pvmic but my fave is the bald metal episode, i freakin love almost every song in that top 10

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6kVRZHsbV6LZEBiqzSzFvq?si=Y0GJdSBsRJW-uxRtzTtQCQ&dl_branch=1

The only reason to pay for Spotify

Yeah the Random Genres I Made Up episodes were incredible podcasts and the most ILM-y podcast I've come across to date. Shame they had to stop under the circumstances they did. Apparently they have some new stuff paywalled but DJ sets isn't really what I want from them.

Michael McDonald performing on 'Soul Train' in 1982 pic.twitter.com/tPm6qOvwIq

— Barney Hurley (@barneyhurley1) September 10, 2021

Where do you go to buy jackets like that in 1982?

literally everywhere iirc

^^Reagan's Finest Executive Order

i've read where ppl say eagles are not yacht. the long run singles sorta fell like yacht in that they all have that miserablist sense of what was lost being gone forever, so they're kinda kinfolk in spirit but lack the essential denialism of escape through hedonistic pursuits. yacht seems peppy and up and slick but what's the impetus? pushing away realty, what a fool believe. yacht is the mellow-presenting counterpart of disco, which goes hard and don't mince words: last dance, last chance, because the end of history. eagles are just full of gripes, and i can't tell you why.

anyway.

if my thesis is that soft rock is warm, open, even in its most melancholic aspects, yacht is closed off, escapist, avoiding the topic re: love and america and the future, and yada yada, hotel california and maybe rumours are critical to the genre because they function as the line of demarcation between soft and yacht in pop, even if they're not included in the yacht canon proper. they're the open declaration of bad vibes being the status quo that yacht is running away from. eagles say you can never leave, that's not yacht but yacht tries anyhoo. the chain is broken but we can still share the night together, for whatever that's worth.

nb i'm off a tangent that extends beyond the original parameters of the toto/ loggins/ cross/ michael mcd axis of what yacht is to include about all of late 70s early 80s soft rock that has that oh yeah, all rught self-serving tip that someone else posited that seems so sum up that whole ... thing (guffman reference).

https://www.yachtornyacht.com/

A useful reference