I very much enjoyed the Yacht Rock documentary. I’ve never liked that kind of music – probably because of its ubiquity growing up – but it was a well-told story that had a light touch, and the participants seemed philosophical about it all. Even one of the Steely Dans’ involvement seemed a humorous nod to their grumpy reputation rather than casting any mean-spirited pall over the flick. I still don’t like the music, mind, but that’s OK. Not everyone has to like everything.
Rick Beato who, like many of us here I’m sure, I hold in high esteem, wasn’t having it. Such was Rick’s umbrage on his recent video about the doco I had to turn to my son and say “OK, Boomer”.
My thoughts, though, are these: I can only think of Northern Soul as another genre whose boundaries are defined by retrospective curation (rather than, say, New Romantic who were labelled and defined as such at the time). Were NWOBHM acts termed as such at the time or was this retrospective? With musical culture moving the way it is, is there likely to be any organic genres that have enough shared to purpose to be regarded as a ‘scene’, or will genres only be applied with a postmodern distance after the fact?
Also, while I admire Beato’s sense of commitment, is he an outlier in how much we care enough to (as the young people say) gatekeep a set of musical ideals, codes and conventions?
Just some assorted thoughts on a humid, overcast post-Christmas-season morning.
NWOBHM was coined by Geoff Barton in Sounds. The big 3 were Iron Maiden, Saxons, and Def Leppard (although they didn’t see themselves as part of it). There were more bands about, and indie labels supported them enough to make Sounds suggested “movement” a reality
Deaf Barton to his mates.
Yacht Rock – hat are the boundaries?
US West Coast stuff that isn’t AOR or coming out of Laurel Canyon (although it could be both)
Hat? Thank you for buying Hat?
(Sorry…)
Grebo? The Wonder Stuff, Pop Will Eat Itself, Eat, Crazyhead, Ned’s Atomic Dustbin, Diesel Park West. The only common thread being they came from the Midlands. Carter USM, from Sarf Lahdahn, sometimes got lumped in with them, too.
Eat weren’t really grebo and they didn’t come from the Midlands.
Yeah, I know, I didn’t really explain that very well. But they were lumped in with the scene, at least by MM, for supporting the Stuffies.
Ange got very internecine with the Wonder Stuff in the years after the 2 Eat albums, I believe. Whatever floats his boat. I’m just glad that the Trabant Tape was made available to download recently. Took me right back to their glory days.
Diesel Park West? More like classic rock than Grebo for me
Yeah, but Leicester is almost Stourbridge when viewed from the IPC building in That London.
Around the time, I saw Cambridge described as East Midlands in the MM. Well, it is East of the Midlands.
Luton used to be considered East Angular in footie terms. Ridiculous!
See also: where does The North start? It isn’t Watford.
By “North of Watford”, what was meant was “Beyond London”, which is fairly accurate but only really of meaning to London-phile Londoners.
I always understood it to mean Watford Gap services
Watford Gap is about 60 miles from Watford, and is about the same distance West (and about 5 miles North) of me as I type.
Cambridge is not anywhere near The North, despite only being 5 miles South of the beginning of the North. If you see what I mean.
I’d go for, I dunno, Doncaster?
The London-centric “North” includes the midlands.
But if you take a straight edge due east on a map, along the north coast of Wales: Liverpool, Manchester and Doncaster are all above it; while Chester and Lincoln are below it. A line of demarcation between the midlands and the north! Huzzah!
I’d agree with that, Fitz. Lincoln doesn’t feel like The North to me, but Donny does. Which puts the border somewhere near Retford or Worksop.
Watford Gap works for me. Anywhere North of me that takes over two hours to get to sounds about right.
With “a plate of grease and a load of crap.”
It’s Hatfield, isn’t it?
Applies once you’re past Hatfield, I think.
They wouldn’t put it on the signs if it wasn’t true.
Loosely at the same latitude, if it applied to Hatfield Peverel, Witham in Essex would be in the north…
Ee bah gum!
It depends if, by “Hatfield and the North” they mean “Hatfield and (then, some distance further on) the North” or “The North including Hatfield”.
Could this be a AW first for Boolean logic?
“Boolean Logic” – is that she either had her head chopped off or she didn’t ?
Or “Narrerbiytruk” as it was known in the Black Country
Yacht Rock is a bit thin and meaningless as a term. It was meant as a joke of course but the HBO documentary is very much a tribute to the acts, affectionate and an intelligent analysis of the records. It is not a genre but it is a valid observation and idea of the style of the music. You can make fun of music, it lends itself to such an approach, that doesn’t mean you don’t also love and admire the records. Beato is a bit of a dad rock muso bore. He rips apart the top ten singles, but the top ten has been full of crap for as long as I can remember. He kind of misses the point of the Yacht Rock phenomenon, he takes the joy out of pop, he does pieces on the ‘greatness’ of Oasis and Coldplay songs.
Yes.
Not a Beato fan. I have very little time for him.
If I do happen to play one of his clips I’m always glad to hear him STFU and let somebody worth listening to hold forth, as with his Rick Wakeman interview.
I’ve always regarded the term “Yacht Rock” to be deliberately slurring. In reference to a musical style I have little or no interest in. Musical pablum.
Confected outrage for clicks, IMHO.
I love a bit of yacht, me. And so do these guys.
His point was simply that it’s a stupid reductive term which doesn’t mean anything and is vaguely insulting. But he does take music very seriously. FWIW I kind of agree with him.
In my weekly trawl of the Weekend Art sections, there was a piece on yacht rock which name-checked about a dozen acts.
How useful… it virtually acted as a Public Service Health Warning.
Diligently writing them all down, I gave it a sub-heading: “2025: Avoid These B’stards At All Costs!!!”
Good lad.
Well I am bemused. This is the first time that I have come across the concept of ‘yacht rock’.
The idea that sticks with me is that it is/was apolitical. (I’m sure that many of the supposed purveyors would bridle at the suggestion, but that’s by-the-by.)
In the folk world, the overwhelming assumption is of left-leaning sympathies. I notice folkies without those sympathies tending towards a preference for instrumental sessions and, shall we say, the more patriarchal end of the trad canon.
I’m guessing that this is a different Yacht Rock doc to the BBC4 Yacht Rock doc of a few years ago presented by Katie Puckrik. That one was really good, and so seductive that I was almost – almost – convinced to have a deep dive into the genre (swidt?).
Yup, this on Netflix.
I think the BBC4 was a better convincer than this one, but this still worth a watch. Even if it does bypass Dennis Wilson Pacific Ocean Blue which I believe was the creation point of the retrospective genre.
@black-type
Deep dive?
Surely that’s more of a thing with bathysphere rock
Arf!
Rick Beato does put out a lot of stuff, but for me, the interviews with musicians are outstanding. He clearly knows a lot about the industry from his background as a working musician and producer, and also knows about the work of the people he talks to. You really get an idea that the things they discuss, like Ron Carter on playing on sessions or Rick Wakeman talking about the difficulties of touring with Hammond organs or Mellotrons, are probably what they deal with most of the time. It reminds you that music is as much of a craft as an art. A wide range of guests as well, and he is a good listener.
I like most of his stuff. He’s very knowledgeable and enthusiastic and an excellent musician himself and gets into interesting nerdiness on things like string gauges as well as the big interviews.
Another frequent RB watcher here; I nearly always enjoy his videos, and his knowledge and enthusiasm are admirable and infectious.
I think the point for me with the HBO doc is that it spotlights some great acts and records and says hey, a lot of this stuff is really good and a new audience is getting into it. So good for the yacht guys. There are people who are now just taking it at face value and are not prejudiced by the attitudes of the past. Seems like a good thing.
I wasn’t really clear about the term “gatekeeping” and this Reddit discussion helped clear that up.
Most of the time, it doesn’t really matter. Yikes! There are some rapid purists out there!
Interesting link! I wonder what age the most rabid perpetrators are – it seems a very teenage mind-set (to me, anyway…).
Blimey! I’ve got back home & am catching up on things I’ve missed. Thought I’d watch Beato’s video before seeing the doco. He does go on a bit. It reminds me of when “the greatest punk songs…ever” compilations appeared on CD & friends would be going through the tracks saying “that’s not punk!” There are bigger things to get worked up about & if it gains exposure, new fans, and maybe some money for the artists, it’s a good thing.
I enjoy his interviews, but as with his rants about the top ten singles, it’s not aimed at him.