I had never heard of Yacht Rock till I started
seeing references cross my social media feed recently. Generally in a mocking
tone. So, I thought I would educate these old bones by watching this 90-minute
documentary. Yacht Rock is a newly created term to define a style of music
primarily from the 1980s. White groups with a soft rock sound influenced
by jazz and R&B. The main artists discussed are:
Dooby Brothers
Christopher Cross
Loggins & Messina
Toto
Steely Dan
Seals and Croft
Boz Scaggs
Michael Mcdonald
Ok, some of them may not seem cool any longer,
but hell. Mocking Steely Dan? Fuck them and their shit taste. Steely Dan
are brilliant. The most meticulous clean complex studio sound ever. I love
Boz Scaggs as well. The others I have not spent much time listening to. But
the way I look at music is that any music that has appeal to an audience
larger than their families is worth listening to. It may not end up being
your thing, but you never know till you give it some time. At one point in
my life I never thought I would get into Bollywood music, but I love it now.
French pop is wonderful. Brazilian music moves me, literally. Opera, wow.
I even came to appreciate Chinese opera. So to those folks who mock these
Yacht Rock artists, a big fuck you. Respect those who did it as you sit with
your computer doing nothing. This is a very relaxing enjoyable documentary.
Lots of those artists are still alive and are interviewed. They all seem
like nice people. As one of them explains, all musical trends die out and
are replaced by something new. MTV hastened the end of the Yacht Rock sound
because they just didn't fit. But their music is still here. Listening to
Katy Lied right now.
