Daryl Hall is not a fan of yacht rock.
The “You Make My Dreams” singer did not hold back when discussing the genre during his Thursday, May 8, appearance on the Broken Record podcast with host Justin Richmond.
When Richmond brings up the Doobie Brothers being “pigeon-holed” as “yacht rock” for one of their albums that didn’t do well and had leaned more R&B after getting airtime on Black radio, Hall, 78, aired his grievances about the terminology.
“This is something I don’t understand,” Hall began. “First of all, yacht rock was a f—ing joke by two jerk-offs in California, and suddenly it became a genre and I don’t even understand it. I never understood it.”
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Daryl Hall in San Diego in August 2018
“I’m glad you say that it’s just R&B. It’s just another with some maybe some jazz in there. It’s mellow R&B. It’s smooth R&B. Yeah, I don’t see what the yacht part is.”
Hall said that people “misjudged” him and his former partner John Oates’ music and included them in playlists that featured the easy listening genre “because they couldn’t label us.”
“They came up with all this kind of crap, soft rock and yacht rock, and all this other nonsense. And none of it, none of it really describes anything that I do, really.”
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Hall isn’t the first artist to hold nothing back when criticizing yacht rock. Steely Dan’s Donald Fagen spoke out about the genre in the 2024 film Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary. When director Garret Price brings up the genre while on an audio interview, Fagen, 77, gave an unfiltered response.
“Oh, yacht rock. Well, I tell you what. Why don’t you go f— yourself?” he said before promptly hanging up.
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Daryl Hall in Austin in May 2022
Though the music had been around for decades before, the term “yacht rock” was born in the early aughts thanks to an online series called Yacht Rock, which poked fun at the multifaceted music and the musicians who were part of its origin in the late ’70s in southern California.
JD Ryznar coined the term, per Seattle Times after noticing the musicians frequently collaborating, the music featuring album covers with guys on boats and songs about boats, and the music sounding “really good on boats because it’s good for relaxing, sitting back and drinking.”
Steely Dan, the Doobie Brothers, and Toto are considered major artists in the yacht rock genre, which features smooth, catchy songs that apparently could be best enjoyed while on a boat.
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