Hall & Oates star Daryl Hall has blasted the „yacht rock“ subgenre as a „joke“.
During a recent interview with Justin Richmond for the Broken Record podcast, the Rich Girl hitmaker rejected the label sometimes associated with the easy-listening rock tracks of the late 1970s and early 1980s.
„This is something I don’t understand,“ he said. „First of all, yacht rock was a f**king joke by two j**koffs in California, and suddenly it became a genre. I don’t even understand it. I never understood it… It’s just R&B, with maybe some jazz in there. It’s mellow R&B, smooth R&B. I don’t see what the yacht part is.“
Hall went on to argue that the inclusion of Hall & Oates in the „yacht rock“ subgenre was a result of him and bandmate John Oates refusing to be constrained by the conventions of rock music.
„People misjudged us because they couldn’t label us. They always came up with all this kind of c**p, soft rock and yacht rock, and all this other nonsense. And none of it, none of it really describes anything that I do, really,“ the 78-year-old continued.
While Hall didn’t name the people who apparently coined the „yacht rock“ term, he is most likely referring to J. D. Ryznar, Hunter D. Stair, and Lane Farnham.
The trio created an online mockumentary series titled Yacht Rock, which aired from 2005 until 2010.
The influence of the music also inspired Garret Price’s 2024 HBO project, Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary, which focused on the rise of West Coast artists like Steely Dan, Toto, and Michael McDonald.
Previously, Oates gave a more positive view of the „yacht rock“ label during a 2007 interview for Seattle Weekly.
„I think (web show) Yacht Rock was the beginning of this whole Hall & Oates resurrection,“ he said at the time. „They were the first ones to start to parody us and put us out there again, and a lot of things have happened because of Yacht Rock.“
Daryl Hall labels 'yacht rock' genre a 'joke' – Music-News.com
