# Who listens to yacht rock anyway? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [August 18, 2020, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-listens-to-yacht-rock-anyway/918414 "2020-08-18T14:17:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2020, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-listens-to-yacht-rock-anyway/918414/121 "2020-08-21T13:58:06Z")
Fair enough. I was indeed looking for some songs I really like. I’m sure there must be something. I’m curious, though. Are there any reggae songs that have a yacht rock vibe? Because many nautical songs are pretty good: Please Don’t Rock My Boat, for example. Are the Beach Boys yacht rocky? Sloop John B? Santa Catalina (26 Miles Across The Sea)? ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2020, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-listens-to-yacht-rock-anyway/918414/122 "2020-08-21T14:15:47Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > When people mentioned MJ I did think that Human Nature was the yacht rockiest of the songs from Thriller even not know who it was written by. The rest of the album definitely doesn’t count. The joke in the episode was that they were trying to move him back from hard rock “Beat It” Michael Jackson to smooth “Off The Wall” Michael Jackson. ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2020, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-listens-to-yacht-rock-anyway/918414/123 "2020-08-21T16:37:14Z")
The problem with Yacht is that it is all trivial artists, plus Steely Dan. The Dan provides the gravity. Why not just listen to a Dan channel? There is the effect of grouping things of quality in with garbage in a totally meaningless way that is always inherent in a yacht rock show. The fact is that the yacht identifier musician/players also worked on Dan LPs. Yacht is really those musicians but not the Dan. It’s a structural problem. We’ll survive. ---
**Author:** ![Pavelb1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/439d5e/32.png) [@Pavelb1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pavelb1)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2020, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-listens-to-yacht-rock-anyway/918414/124 "2020-08-21T17:56:04Z")
Thats a great song…“Lady”…as well as the Styx song of the same name. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2020, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-listens-to-yacht-rock-anyway/918414/125 "2020-08-21T17:58:13Z")
Sirius is coming out with a channel of “Driving Music”. Not a bad idea. But I’m guessing we’d define that differently. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2020, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-listens-to-yacht-rock-anyway/918414/126 "2020-08-21T18:00:57Z")
They’ve had a station called “Road Trip Radio” for a couple of years; it sounds like that might be similar. Road Trip Radio is mostly upbeat rock and pop, with a bit of country-rock, from the past 30 years or so. ---
**Author:** ![Pavelb1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/439d5e/32.png) [@Pavelb1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pavelb1)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2020, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-listens-to-yacht-rock-anyway/918414/127 "2020-08-21T18:06:43Z")
Well …lets nail down bedrock performers: The Eagles Glen Frey and Don Henleys 80s work Anything from the Miami Vice soundtrack…particularly Phil Collins 'in the Air Tonight" America Any 80’s song that has driving in the music video: Electric Avenue, Futures So Bright, I Love LA… …thats all i got just off the top of my head ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2020, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-listens-to-yacht-rock-anyway/918414/128 "2020-08-21T19:19:45Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > many nautical songs are pretty good Yes, they are. But I’m baffled why you think that yacht rock has anything at all to do with nautical songs. Not in my world. Other than “Sailing,” the lyrics have no connection. Please stop reading that Wikipedia article that nobody here who listens to yacht rock had ever heard of before you quoted it. It has no connection to any reality I’m familiar with. It does not list any songs other than “Sailing” that have nautical lyrics. It even says that “[Ryznar and co.] have also disputed the use of the term as an umbrella for any song whose lyrics include nautical references.” I think what’s bothering so many of us is that although you had - and still have - no familiarity with the music, you keep insisting you know what it’s like, what it should properly consist of, and how we should react to it. Whether you mean your posts to come across that way, they certainly do. If you want to start a thread about music you might want to listen to, why don’t you drop this insulting thread and start over there? ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2020, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-listens-to-yacht-rock-anyway/918414/129 "2020-08-21T19:38:02Z")
I apologize if you found this insulting. I don’t think any nautical music is the same as what I heard on yacht rock radio. But the last three songs I quoted are songs that I would deem excellent. You don’t like the Wiki article and I get it. Confusion over that article was the main reason I started the thread. If the article is grossly inaccurate, one things it would have been revised. I thank everyone for their views and will not mention yacht rock on this board again. ---
**Author:** ![Grestarian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grestarian/32/3227_2.png) [@Grestarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grestarian)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2020, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-listens-to-yacht-rock-anyway/918414/130 "2020-08-22T07:38:25Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > It seems to me mainly a marketing thing Well, there’s the critical point. Attaching a label to music, (or, for that matter, to literature, or film, or…) is a shortcut for the marketeers. Get enough of a particular style with certain qualifying elements in and certain non-qualifying elements out and you can create a radio station, a channel, a stream that attracts those who like that style and, not un-coincidentally, tend to fit a certain demographic. Then you can MARKET to that demographic, filling the space between and around the stuff attracting your target audience with advertising that suits their tastes and budgets. ~ \* ~ \* ~ Back when I was growing up (_back in my day…_) there was country, classical, jazz, rock, and talk radio. Then rock somehow got split into pop, and punk, and metal and so on and so on… ~ \* ~ \* ~ The other day I started wondering why I like The Pretenders when they’re categorized as Punk and I can’t stand Punk. I looked it up and learned that Punk isn’t just Dead Kennedies, PiL, and I\_hate\_the\_world bands; it’s also what they used to call college rock and garage rock and even some Rockabilly and other stuff with its roots in the 1950’s (not so many effects pedals) sounds. ~ \* ~ \* ~ I have heard a similar complaint in interviews with a lot of different artists: Why does everyone want to put us in a box and say, “This is the style that we’ll put on your albums?” Let me put ideas to music and express my ideas in the most suitable form for the idea, regardless of whether it matches or deviates from my past productions. In other words, let me be an artist, not just a gimmick machine. ~ \* ~ \* ~ > [@Seanette](#): > > ear-shattering volumes from their cars, with bass that can shake my apartment floor from the parking lot. Uh…wait… Aren’t you, like, thirty floors up in Manhattan? 😆 –G! ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2020, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-listens-to-yacht-rock-anyway/918414/131 "2020-08-22T17:02:35Z")
Being able to place a product into a slot is critical for all kinds of marketing. I once had a nonfiction book proposal approved by the editors but rejected in a marketing meeting because they couldn’t figure out instantly what section of the bookstore it would be placed in. Even more maddening I later saw a good dozen books on similar themes in bookstores over the years. I could have been first and built off of that. ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2020, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-listens-to-yacht-rock-anyway/918414/132 "2020-08-22T20:35:31Z")
Boz Scaggs - Lowdown [Boz Scaggs - Lowdown (Official Audio) - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-hKBmTAADo) The Lido Shuffle from the same album is a little too Billy Joel-ish for me, nyacht. However, it does have the very singable whoaa-oh-oh-ooo00hhh part which is always fun. A local station, MeTV FM, WCIU 87.7 does a yacht rock block every Saturday night. It’s really smooth. Here’s a compilation they put together a while ago so some of the links are dead: [These 20 yacht rock jams will send you sailing](https://www.metv.com/lists/these-20-yacht-rock-jams-will-send-you-sailing) Seals & Crofts: “Summer Breeze” seems really early but works in context. Same with Ace: “How Long.” ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2020, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-listens-to-yacht-rock-anyway/918414/133 "2020-08-22T21:48:24Z")
I don’t think the LA-centricity is what disqualifies Joel. He just doesn’t quite have the same laid-back yacht-rock vibe. I’m not entirely sure how to define it, even though I should be able to. I couldn’t tell you if any of the bands mentioned so far are LA bands. But certain Steely Dan stuff sounds yacht rock to me, and they’re clearly East Coast. But none of Joel’s stuff sounds like that to me. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2020, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-listens-to-yacht-rock-anyway/918414/134 "2020-08-22T22:00:23Z")
I think “don’t ask me why” is pretty close. It’s not very fast or hard but breezy and not downbeat. I think of a lot of the songs off of Glass Houses and 52nd street when I think of non-hard-rock of that era, such that I wouldn’t be surprised hearing it on a yacht rock station if they’re tired of playing the same old 10 bands, but most of the stuff is too straight-up rock-and-roll to qualify. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2020, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-listens-to-yacht-rock-anyway/918414/135 "2020-08-22T22:20:37Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > But certain Steely Dan stuff sounds yacht rock to me, and they’re clearly East Coast. They are but they moved to LA by1972 and their first 6 1/2 albums were recorded there with the cream of the LA session players. Their sound is the sound of LA. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2020, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-listens-to-yacht-rock-anyway/918414/136 "2020-08-22T22:22:07Z")
Yeah. Even look at the official members. Jeff Porcaro is on their for a bit. And where he comes there’s a lot of the same cast of characters. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2020, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-listens-to-yacht-rock-anyway/918414/137 "2020-08-22T22:47:15Z")
Fair enough. I guess I ust have a hard time not thinking of Becker and Fagan as quinteseential New York (or New Jersey) types, so I associate them with New York. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2020, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-listens-to-yacht-rock-anyway/918414/138 "2020-08-23T00:23:06Z")
And Michael McDonald did lots of backups, Jeff Baxter joined the Doobie Brothers, and Steve Gadd and Tom Scott played with everybody. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2020, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-listens-to-yacht-rock-anyway/918414/139 "2020-08-23T16:44:58Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > I don’t think the LA-centricity is what disqualifies Joel. He just doesn’t quite have the same laid-back yacht-rock vibe. I’m not entirely sure how to define it, even though I should be able to. I couldn’t tell you if any of the bands mentioned so far are LA bands. But certain Steely Dan stuff sounds yacht rock to me, and they’re clearly East Coast. But none of Joel’s stuff sounds like that to me. What if, hypothetically, Joel did a light and uptempo song about buying a ticket to the West Coast to perform in LA? ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2020, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-listens-to-yacht-rock-anyway/918414/140 "2020-08-23T17:14:07Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > What if, hypothetically, Joel did a light and uptempo song about buying a ticket to the West Coast to perform in LA? Now I’m amusing myself by re-asking that question and substituting other artists’ names for “Joel.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-listens-to-yacht-rock-anyway/918414.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-listens-to-yacht-rock-anyway/918414.md?page=8)