Sailing

Whoever knew there was a term for the kind of music I like? It’s called “Yacht Rock.” I heard it in an interesting Rick Beato video — The Greatest Guitar Solo You Can’t HEAR! And the funny thing is, it’s supposed to be a pejorative term.

WIkipedia’s entry starts, “Yacht rock (originally known as the West Coast sound or adult-oriented rock) is a broad music style and aesthetic commonly associated with soft rock, one of the most commercially successful genres from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s. Drawing on sources such as smooth soul, smooth jazz, R&B, and disco, common stylistic traits include high-quality production, clean vocals, and a focus on light, catchy melodies.”

Pejorative? I kind of like it. Maybe because it gives me the words for the music I grew up with. I mean, I remember to this day when our senior class was voting on a prom song and we picked Sailing by Christopher Cross. I don’t remember it because my prom was memorable — in four years of high school I never went to any such events. I remember it because a thoughtful girl in my class (I even remember her name) objected, arguing that the song was about escaping — getting away from the weariness of life — and I actually thought she was right. But then again, a bunch of high school seniors? C’mon — that probably only goaded them on more.

There’s a link on the “Yacht Rock” wikipedia page leading to a list of artists, and I see a lot I recognize. And to me, that’s entirely not a bad thing. You know how much I’ve raved here about Steely Dan, and I love the Chicago covers done by Leonid and Friends. So now I’ve got something to recommend to you all.

“Yacht Rock.” I can live with that.