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Anyone else enjoy playing Yacht rock??

#21
richntiff said:
I've always thought that the term 'yacht rock' comes from the stereotype of the current listener - the aging baby boomer who fancies themselves as an upscale person, keen on taking part in the finer privileges of life - sipping expensive wine, dining on finger foods and having fluffy, inconsequential discussions about others whilst they traverse the harbor aboard their yacht. Or pontoon boat, or wakeboard boat, or whatever. The stereotype of the genre speaks more to the attitude of that generation and how they view themselves currently. I'm not bandwagoning or making fun here - just saying that's how I've always interpreted the term is applied to the genre. It's really, of course, the 'soft rock' of the 70's, generally speaking. I'll bet audiences eat it up.
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Interesting take; I hadn't thought about that. I thought the gazillion songs about being on sailboats somehow got scrambled up with yachts in somebody's mind. But none of those songs were about opulence or lavishness, they were about the sense of freedom you feel when you're out on the bay on your little 15' single sail boat, or your 65' Ketch rig, doesn't matter, the freedom and timelessness is the thing that those songs really speak to.

I mean, there's a reason a gazillion songs were written about that and it wasn't about wearing silly hats and having money. Chris Cross' Sailing is held up as a quintessential Yacht Rock song and there's nothing about yachting in it at all.

But, given that there's a stereotype for every occasion, I'll entertain that you may be right about this.
 
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#25
I play in a YR band proudly and without irony. I love it, it pays well and it's so much fun. The songs are wicked challenging (I also sing a lot of backing vocals) and it hits all 3 TB Criteria For Being In A Band: the money (yup), the music (wouldn't do it if I didn't like it), the hang (the other 4 mates are great).

I do have an originals band that I also love. I only wish I'd done the YR band earlier. I think it's made me a better player and performer and while some of you are pooping on it, that's ok. More gigs for the rest of us!
 
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#27
LBS-bass said:
"Yacht Rock" as a concept looks like people who weren't there hammering on about a big misconception that soft / studio rock of the 70's somehow had something to do with being on boats.

This may or may not have grown out of the following phenomena:
1) Jimmy Buffett
2) "Sailing" by Christopher Cross
3) Songs like "Southern Cross" by CSNY

Jimmy Buffett certainly played up the laid-back, Caribbean life style but I'm not sure that his music is exactly what most people today would call Yacht Rock. It's more like singer-songwriter acoustic stuff embellished in a studio.

On the second two points, I'd say that the metaphor of sailing as a means of escape was a popular theme back then, in general. But a sailboat is decidedly not a yacht, so we are still not there. It just seems like a tenuously loose way to try to lump together all the soft and/or more acoustic music from the 70's into one pile.

Anyway, I play and have played lots of this music. Audiences love it.
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My assumption: It's short for Yacht Club Rock.
 
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#28
lermgalieu said:
Classic TB: ask if anyone enjoys playing a category of music and 70% of the posts instead analyze and critique the name of said category. Carry on.
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The proper term would be "Genre" and not "Category" of music. Not to mention, the "70%" figure is also a common misconception, oft restated because of a 1997 article in Bass Player magazine where Jaco Pastorious said "If I had to estimate, the bull%#&* posts on Talkbass.com rank somewhere in the 70th percentile." There's also a good chance he was just spitting out something he heard from Gene Simmons, as he was giving Jaco weekly lessons at that time, so the two would have been very close.

Your last sentence is missing a subject and you need to add about 2 commas to your first sentence....



;) :smug:
 
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#31
KevInDaBassment said:
The proper term would be "Genre" and not "Category" of music. Not to mention, the "70%" figure is also a common misconception, oft restated because of a 1997 article in Bass Player magazine where Jaco Pastorious said "If I had to estimate, the bull%#&* posts on Talkbass.com rank somewhere in the 70th percentile." There's also a good chance he was just spitting out something he heard from Gene Simmons, as he was giving Jaco weekly lessons at that time, so the two would have been very close.

Your last sentence is missing a subject and you need to add about 2 commas to your first sentence....



;) :smug:
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Well, 70% of that is wrong... ;-)

I purposefully used "category," because it is indeed a category of music, not a genre.

On the commas, that's, like, your opinion, man. You are not wrong or right.

And the Jaco quote is apocryphal.

Carry on... (see what I did there?)

Yes, I know you are joking. Hopefully you know I am too.
 
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#34
I always thought the term yacht rock was in part due to stuff like this:
captain.jpg
 
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#35
LBS-bass said:
"Yacht Rock" as a concept looks like people who weren't there hammering on about a big misconception that soft / studio rock of the 70's somehow had something to do with being on boats.

This may or may not have grown out of the following phenomena:
1) Jimmy Buffett
2) "Sailing" by Christopher Cross
3) Songs like "Southern Cross" by CSNY

Jimmy Buffett certainly played up the laid-back, Caribbean life style but I'm not sure that his music is exactly what most people today would call Yacht Rock. It's more like singer-songwriter acoustic stuff embellished in a studio.

On the second two points, I'd say that the metaphor of sailing as a means of escape was a popular theme back then, in general. But a sailboat is decidedly not a yacht, so we are still not there. It just seems like a tenuously loose way to try to lump together all the soft and/or more acoustic music from the 70's into one pile.

Anyway, I play and have played lots of this music. Audiences love it.
Click to expand...
The term "Yacht Rock" comes from a mockumentary series about the "history" of these songs. Think "Spinal Tap" for smooth, soft rock. I haven't watched any episodes since it came out like a decade ago, but I always loved "Yacht Rock" and remember enjoying the show.
 
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#36
richntiff said:
I've always thought that the term 'yacht rock' comes from the stereotype of the current listener - the aging baby boomer who fancies themselves as an upscale person, keen on taking part in the finer privileges of life - sipping expensive wine, dining on finger foods and having fluffy, inconsequential discussions about others whilst they traverse the harbor aboard their yacht. Or pontoon boat, or wakeboard boat, or whatever. The stereotype of the genre speaks more to the attitude of that generation and how they view themselves currently. I'm not bandwagoning or making fun here - just saying that's how I've always interpreted the term is applied to the genre. It's really, of course, the 'soft rock' of the 70's, generally speaking. I'll bet audiences eat it up.
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Our last gig was a pool party at a yacht club, so yeah.... not my crowd, but they pay well.
 
#38
6-3-2 said:
The term "Yacht Rock" comes from a mockumentary series about the "history" of these songs. Think "Spinal Tap" for smooth, soft rock. I haven't watched any episodes since it came out like a decade ago, but I always loved "Yacht Rock" and remember enjoying the show.
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Yes I know where it comes from, but I am speculating about why they chose that label as opposed to, you know, sailing music or some other dumb thing :)

The rest of it - the image of people in silly hats on boats - is all made up BS that is fun for parties, I guess but doesn't reflect anything people actually did while listening to this music when it was current. These were just songs on the radio, mixed in with all the other songs of the day.
 
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#40
portpc said:
My trio does a lot of Yacht Rock. As we have no keyboard player we do our own arrangements. The biggest part is getting the harmonies down cold. Songs you don't think are winners actually are as women seem to be huge fans of the genre.
"I Really want to see you tonight" by England Dan & JFC is a home run whenever we perform it.... I had it pegged initially to be a dud.
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Do you have any stuff up on YT or SM? I’d love to hear it.
 

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