Almost 20 years ago, the irreverent comedy series Yacht Rock debuted on the web, lovingly
spoofing popular '70s and '80s artists — such as Steely Dan, the Doobie Brothers, Michael McDonald, Kenny
Loggins, Christopher Cross, Toto, and Hall and Oates — whose smooth music blended rock, pop, jazz and
soul. The HBO documentary - Music Box: Yacht
Rock: A DOCKumentary - depicts an aspect of the Southern California music
scene from over 40 years ago when soft rock dominated the charts and became commercially successful.
It is perfect for anyone, who needs a primer on yacht rock AKA Westcoast Pop, R&B, Soft Rock, AOR, but
as some of you also have pointed out, it does not paint the full picture of the Southern California music
scene from over 40 years ago, when soft rock dominated the charts and became commercially successful. There was so much more than
Christopher Cross, Michael McDonald, Kenny Loggins, Steely Dan, and Toto, during that music period.
Garret Price, the director of this documentary, says:
"I think a lot of people still to this day think this music was called yacht rock in the late '70s, and that's
definitely not the case. In the early 2000s, a group of comedians created a low-budget web series called "Yacht Rock," where
they had these kind of imaginary alt history stories of these musicians in Southern California, you know, who were all
friends making this really expensive, smooth, polished sound together."
J.D. Ryznar and Steve Huey helped coin this imprecise term in their 2005 mockumentary series Yacht Rock, long
after the music it attempted to brand, was out of style. Each episode traced the activities of goofy, fictionalized
versions of McDonald, his contemporaries, and his collaborators.
For some reason the term "Yacht Rock" has lived on, although no actual yachts have ever been involved in this music style.
Jay's comments about the Westcoast (Yacht Rock) genre
Hey everyone,
I assume you have heard about the documentary on
HBO - Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary which premiered on
November 29, 2024. Doing the yacht rock documentary was a lot of fun and of course brought back memories.
Over the years I have mentioned that songs aren't oldies if you haven't heard them before. With that in
mind, for any generation, let's hope that people not familiar with the genre, will watch the documentary
and become interested in pop/R&B music that breaks the rules! To take this to another level, the music may
inspire young musicians that haven't been exposed to jazz chord changes used in pop songs!
A very good example of this is when Kenny Loggins heard Stevie Wonder's albums wanting to figure out the
chord changes Stevie was using! Stevie was the first cat to really expand R&B/pop using such delicious chord voicings!
He changed my musical vocabulary as well. Even though I was kind of a jazzer, I didn’t think I could get away with
it in pop songs until I heard Stevie’s album - "Music of My Mind"! His next four or five albums were incredible as
well! Some of the albums after that may not have been quite as good, but there were always at least three
or four songs that were masterpieces!
Back to the documentary. I hoped that they would use the footage in which I talked about albums, I produced,
and the songs I co-wrote such as all the Jarreau albums, Airplay, JaR, the Dionne Warwick album "Friends In Love", the
Steve Kipner and Marc Jordan albums, and more.
Even though Yacht Rock is a stupid name, at least it's a heading to put the music under and on this page we are noting a
bunch of albums that fall into that category, although we are more used to call it the Westcoast Sound!
Anyway, I hope you enjoy the documentary and I did have fun making the film. - Jay
A Few Westcoast Pop Gems for You to Enjoy!
Starting with the father of them all - AIRPLAY by Airplay (Jay Graydon and David Foster).
Japanese music lovers coined the term "Westcoast Sound" for the genre, which originated with this specific
album - AIRPLAY. This album is even labeled the "Holy Grail of Westcoast Pop" by aficionados - the very start of the whole Westcoast Pop
genre. The album AIRPLAY - remastered
by Jay Graydon in 2018 with liner notes written by Jay, who is reminiscing the song
concepts, stories and recording sessions, is available from Sony Japan. This album is a feast for your ears!!!
Current Albums Keeping the Westcoast Pop Flame Alive
More details in the song catalogue, the discography, the recording session pages, and on
the production page.
All written material, all images and photos in all
sections of this website copyright © Jay Graydon/KEO 1996 - 2025. All rights
reserved. Comments, suggestions, appreciation,
corrections...whatever... talk to us.
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Airplay - AIRPLAY (2018 Remaster)
Steve Kipner - KNOCK THE WALLS DOWN
Marc Jordan - BLUE DESERT
Pages - PAGES
Steely Dan - AJA
Al Jarreau - BREAKIN' AWAY
Al Jarreau - JARREAU
George Benson - TURN YOUR LOVE AROUND
DeBarge - RHYTHM OF THE NIGHT
Dionne Warwick - FRIENDS IN LOVE
Manhattan Transfer - EXTENSIONS
Manhattan Transfer - MECCA FOR MODERNS
Jay Graydon - PAST TO PRESENT - the 70s
JaR - SCENE 29
JaR - SOMETIMES YOU WIN
Jay Graydon - AIRPLAY FOR THE PLANET - Remastered at 96k
State Cows - STATE COWS
State Cows - THE SECOND ONE REDUX