![]() ![]() These guys wrote Earth, Wind & Fire’s “After the Love Has Gone,” then this absolute stunner from 1980, a bouncy, giddy, and gentle pop classic. Who is Airplay? A one-album band created by mega-producer David Foster and session guitarist Jay Graydon. The 1982 hit “Rosanna” proves this in spades-the drum shuffle is iconic, the twists are remarkable, and the sound is smoother than a well-sanded skiff. Speaking of Toto, these guys were and still are awesome musicians. How about "Summer Breeze" by Seals & Crofts? A little too folky, but close. ![]() Rupert Holmes's "Escape (The Piña Colada Song)"? Too wordy and not musically interesting-not yacht rock. ![]() Those folkie songs from America, Pure Prairie League, and Crosby, Stills & Nash? Nope. Daryl Hall & John Oates are 98 percent not yacht rock. The songs are as light and bubbly as champagne on the high seas, yet oddly complex and intellectual.Īnd just to hammer this home: Fleetwood Mac is not yacht rock. Lyrics don’t get in the way of the song’s usually high musicality (some of the finest Los Angeles session players, including members of the band Toto, play on many yacht rock tunes.) The lyrics may, however, speak about fools. You’ll hear very little acoustic guitar (get that “Horse With No Name” out of there) but a lot of Fender Rhodes electric piano. Yacht rock is music, primarily created between 1976 and ‘84, that can be characterized as smooth and melodic, and typically combines elements of jazz, rhythm and blues, and rock. I’m here to set the record straight-or smooth. There’s even a new BBC series about yacht rock, and while it went into great detail providing context on the emergence of the musical style, it still turned out to be one person’s definition that included songs that were-as some of us might say- nyacht rock. Google “yacht rock” and you’ll find articles from across the media spectrum attempting to define the term, failing hard because these writers just don’t get it. But here’s the thing about terms that permeate our culture today: They get compromised and bastardized to fit other people’s cozy narratives, typically based on their own nostalgia. ![]()
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