Anyone else enjoy playing Yacht rock??

[themickster]

**Banned immediately lol

Even though it's mostly slower tempo I actually find playing a lot of that stuff as a great way to hone your timing, volume, tone, practice fills in-between the changes, etc. Also a lot of it isn't as fall off the log easy as it sounds as far as the changes... I was just playing along to this one from '82 or so (last year of the 70's smoothness lol)

I hadn't heard of yacht rock before. Can it be said of REO Speedwagon?

 

[Barticus]

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.

YES!
You are so right on this one!!

 

[LBS-bass]

Like, lots and lots of cocaine.

You didn’t need to be rich for that back then.

 

[Slevage]

Yacht Rock is music that people who listened to the tunes the first time around are now successful enough to afford a live band to play on their yacht.

 

[LBS-bass]

Why did they call it yacht rock? Oh, I don't know.....

View attachment 5161816

Hint: the guy's nickname is a clue besides the obvious one in the picture...

That music was pop and bubblegum and nobody would have put it in the same category with most of the music associated with this asinine name.

Did you know that Daryl Dragon got the nickname "the Captain" from - I think it was - Mike Love of the Beach Boys? Might have been Brian Wilson or someone else - it was one of those guys, he played with them often, and he loved the name, went out and bought that hat, and made it his trademark. But no, C&T is not Yacht Rock. Sorry.

 

[LBS-bass]

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.

The reason people want to talk about the name is that it is a made up thing from the 90's or 2000's and those of us who were around when this music was current don't find it congruent with any sort of experience we had as music listeners. It's hella annoying.

There were few categories for music back then; radio stations didn't start really targeting specific demographics until the late 70's and 80's and the early targeting was very broad. Contemporary soft rock was played alongside other hits of the day in various genres; you could hear many different kinds of music in a top 40 set and the only thing that sort of got said about these songs, maybe, was that they were soft rock.

The label seems silly to those of us who were actually there, but apparently we don't have a right to act as historians and educate younger generations on music history. That's too bad. I appreciated those who taught me about the music I was too young to know much about but we live in a world where being well-educated is a sign of weakness now.

 

[2112]

I love it and love playing it.

And I'm very entertained by how some people get twisted up over a benign label.

 

[LBS-bass]

I love it and love playing it.

And I'm very entertained by how some people get twisted up over a benign label.

It’s a pejorative label. That’s why people dislike it.

 

[Crawforde]

Never heard “Yacht Rock” before, but based on the descriptions being thrown around, back when I was young this is just what came out of the radio a lot of the time.

 

[Alivefor5]

Sirius/xm has several Yacht rock channels, mainly 311. There is also one called "Yacht Rock Deep Cuts".
Enjoy, heh.

 

[funkinbottom]

well ok, but then since it was metal, with all it's subgenres, you'll need to break it out:

leather rock
NWOBLR (New Wave of British Leather Rock)
Pointy Bits Leather Rock
Doom Leather Rock,
Nu Leather Rock
and so on and so forth......

And lets not forget the wannabes.... Pleather Rock

 

[Plain Old Barry]

I thought I'd hate it, but I surprisingly don't after doing it. I think I like it because it goes over well, which has always been a charge for me, playing something the attendees enjoy, from metal to show tunes. It's nice to see appreciation vs. a dead club gig.

 

[corinpills]

Don't use that stupid term. That music was called soft rock from its early days. There's no need for a cheesy replacement term.

Except as an easily recognizable booking term to get paid money for playing music you know.

 

[micguy]

Did you know that Daryl Dragon got the nickname "the Captain" from - I think it was - Mike Love of the Beach Boys? Might have been Brian Wilson or someone else - it was one of those guys, he played with them often, and he loved the name, went out and bought that hat, and made it his trademark.

What I read was that he got the name because he was always wearing that hat when he was playing with the Beach Boys.

 

[Bunk McNulty]

It is not impossible that my band might play another wedding gig. Also, we have a keyboard player now. When I got divorced, this was the theme song: Yacht Rock all the way:

 

[cxcxcx]

Love it. Lots of that music is well written, with stunning marriages of harmony and melody.

Musically speaking, there isn’t much to NOT like playing that material.

 

[Mark Karwan]

If you play "Yacht" rock while sitting down, does it become Yacht-Butt Rock?

 

[Paul New]

You didn’t need to be rich for that back then.

I heard the same thing!

 

[bmusic]

I started a yacht-rock-adjacent band a few years ago. Not so much the dreamy stuff; more the groovy stuff (i.e Baby Come Back, Love Is Alive, How Long, Brandy). After the guitar player groused about not having much to do on certain songs, it occurred to me that one of the defining characteristics of our set was fun bass lines.

It’s unapologetically fun, I say.

 

[Paul New]

I hate that label. Really. It sticks Steely Dan in the same category as Criss Cross. So dismissive...