Sounds like plain old soft rock to me.
Yeah, I’d prefer “soft rock”, as would the artists, I’m sure.
My friends and I only used the term “Yacht Rock” dripping with derision. I’ve been uneasy seeing it used to dismiss quality bands like Steely Dan.
Jennifer Warnes?
Rickie Lee Jones?
Channel 15 on Sirius XM bills itself as Yacht Rock radio. A check of their recently played music shows Carly Simon, Carole King, and Olivia Newton-John on the list of artists. But the vast majority are male solo artists or all-male bands, like The Eagles and Atlanta Rhythm Section.
I’ve not heard Warnes during YR programming. With the format edges being fuzzy, maybe she got pigeonholed a bit coming from county music.
Regarding Rickie Lee Jones, I have heard her big hit “Chuck E’s in Love” on YR radio. She’s had a long career and many hit albums, none of which have thrown off a second YR staple.
She wrote the lyrics and McDonald the music. They each put out their own versions. McDonald’s with the Doobie Brothers was first, but Simon’s was way better. I don’t know why she doesn’t get more attention. She was terrific.
Both the original comedy series* (which titled itself yacht rock but never used the term otherwise) and the recent documentary made a point of the genre being soft rock about guys losing their girls. That made it hard to fit female artists into the mix. The modern extension of the few artists who were in the original definition makes no sense from any possible viewpoint, though. Maybe ask the music director at SiriusXM what criteria they use.
* If you already know all about the 70s and 80s bands, then definitely watch the original series of over-the-top parodies of the behind-the-scenes origins of the music. They’re all on YouTube. If you know nothing, stay away. They will baffle and infuriate you.
Yep.
Linda Ronstadt
“Blue Bayou,”
*“Magic” by Olivia Newton-John *
### Nicollette Larson
“Gonna Take a Lotta Love” is a Yacht Rock staple.
She’s probably more in the “smooth jazz” category, but I can definitely imagine a Sade album being played on a yacht.
Was goona mention Emmylou Harris but wondered if she was too country.
Maria Muldaur? “Midnight at the Oasis” comes to mind.
Need to take a shower now.
ETA: Looks like Nicollette Larson actually did GTaLL. Heh.
It’s the lyrics. Songs of wistful regret and aimless cruising are more of a male staple. A woman writing about an ex lover is more likely to be in despair or pissed off.
I like most songs that would be classified as yacht rock and I don’t use the term derisively. To me, yacht rock is a sub genre of soft rock. Like obscenity, I can’t definitively define it but I know it when I hear it..
So far I concur with some of the artists mentioned but only certain songs.
Nicolette Larson - Lotta Love
Toni Tenille - Do it Too Me One More Time
Christine McVie - Hold Me, You Make Loving Fun
Carole King - Jazzman
Olivia Newton John - Magic
Sade - Smooth Operator
Maria Muldaur - Midnight at the Oasis
Obviously I’m not the arbiter of what is and is not yacht rock and I appreciate everyone’s contributions.
Bit of a one-hit wonder but after reading the specifics on what yacht rock is, I think Sophie B. Hawkins is a solid contender.
Juice Newton.
In fact, this particular song was one of the only female-vocals songs which SiriusXM’s “Yacht Rock Radio” channel played for several years. Within the last year, they’ve broadened their playlist, to include more “soft rock” from the late '70s and early '80s, and several of the other female artists and songs suggested in this thread are now regularly played there.
Honestly, that one hit of hers (“Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover,” 1992), is about a decade too late to really fit into the genre/format, which is really centered on circa 1977 to about 1985.
We actually had a lengthy thread on it here, and what defines it, about six months ago.
I think ‘yacht rock’ is a broader classification than just soft rock/adult contemporary; it’s inclusive of pretty much any airplay friendly pop/rock from the mid-'Seventies through the early 'Nineties; so not prog rock, metal, punk, electronica, disco, or (most) grunge, but blues rock maybe fringing on country-ish rock, New Wave, some less heavy glam rock, folk rock, et cetera. So, anything from say Heart or the various individual projects of members of The Eagles through Red Hot Chili Peppers and maybe terminating with Weezer’s ‘Blue Album’. How much you include in that period is kind of subjective; I wouldn’t call Sade or Nicolette Larson ‘rock’ of any kind but as @bordelond says, it really isn’t so much a genre category as it is a radio play format back in the days when actual radio stations had to play a broad variety of different music rather than Sirius XM providing an algorithmically-curated list of the same eighty easy play songs.
Stranger
Not only is she female, she’s also black. I’m of the opinion that Piano in the Dark falls squarely into the category (although I’m far from an expert).
Do you really think 80s Madonna would be unwelcome on a yacht rock set list? “Open Your Heart” would be right at home. Kim Carnes, too.
Wikipedia lists the artists who are considered to be part of the Yacht Rock genre, and many of them are women: