Yacht Rock Guide: A Brief History of Yacht Rock

Yacht rock refers to the soft rock that dominated FM radio airwaves in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Yacht rock is characterized by glossy production, breezy vocals, and bouncy rhythms—all elements thought to evoke relaxing bay cruises in Southern California, where the genre originated. Some artists commonly included in the yacht rock genre are: The Doobie Brothers, The Eagles, Christopher Cross, Robbie Dupree, Daryl Hall & John Oates, Fleetwood Mac, Michael McDonald, Rupert Holmes, Toto, and Steely Dan.

Yacht Rock music was most prevalent in the 1970s and 1980s, far before the term “yacht rock” originated. Artists like Loggins & Messina, Hall & Oates, Steely Dan, Toto, and more dominated the airwaves, with glossy soft rock that stood in contrast to disco, punk, hip hop, and heavy metal. Hits include: “Escape (The Piña Colada Song)” by Rupert Holmes, “I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do)” by Hall & Oates, “Brandy (You’re A Fine Girl)” by Looking Glass, “Baby Come Back” by Player, “Africa” by Toto, and “The Boys of Summer” by Don Henley.

The yacht rock name comes from the comedy web series Yacht Rock that the popular LA-based website Channel 101 ran in 2005. Creators JD Ryznar, Hunter Stair, and Lane Farnham wrote a fictional take on the life of real yacht rock stars—like Michael McDonald, Kenny Loggins, The Doobie Brothers, Hall & Oates, and Kenny Loggins—imagining them as a group of friends and rivals lounging and recording in Los Angeles's Marina del Rey. While the events in the Yacht Rock series were fictionalized, the show represents the smooth music that dominated the soft rock scene during the time period. The show enjoyed cult hit status, and its extended word of mouth helped revive interest in many of the artists it covered.

When comedians JD Ryznar, Hunter Stair, and Lane Farnham coined the term "yacht rock," they tapped into a real style of music from the 1970s and 1980s sharing certain characteristics. These characteristics are:

• Crystalline production: Music producers like Ted Templeman and Gary Katz brought intense precision to their soft rock and jazz fusion recordings. This production has helped define the sound of a yacht rock song, from “Rosanna” by Toto, to” Escape (The Piña Colada Song)” by Rupert Holmes, to “Time Out of Mind” by Steely Dan.
• Harmonic sophistication: Yacht rockers often had classical musical training, and their productions often used top-notch set musicians. Lots of harmonic and rhythmic ideas of yacht rock were borrowed from jazz and funk. Yacht rock grooves would later form the basis for samples used by hip hop producers in LA, Atlanta, and New York.
• Centered in Los Angeles: LA was the center of the yacht rock universe in the late ’70s and early ’80s. Yacht rock became known as “the west coast sound” because so much of the music in this genre was produced in the area. Of the major figures in the Yacht Rock series, only Hall and Oates remained planted on the east coast, mostly in their hometown of Philadelphia.

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