What is Yacht Rock and why has it kept careers sailing?

The mellow music is a soft and trendy style

Yacht Rock is keeping afloat careers of some oldies musicians.

There’s an FM-radio friendly brand of musicians that held a significant bandwidth from the mid-1970s to the 1980s that has recently seen (or heard, rather?) an unlikely comeback: Kenny Loggins, Michael McDonald, Hall & Oates, Christopher Cross, Steely Dan and lesser known artists that had a handful of hits.

The material is described in one word — “Smooth.”

Yacht Rock musicians — Ambrosia, John Ford Coley and others — gathered for a show recently in Paducah, Kentucky. (Photo by John Naughton.)

Audiences have embraced the singalong tunes that have relaunched careers and created an entire minor genre of pop and rock music.

The term comes from a web-based show of highly fictionalized versions of famous musicians clad in Hawaiian shirts and tacky wigs. “Yacht Rock” was launched.

Tribute bands started playing songs from the catalogues of such vanilla rockers. There was no disco or heavy metal, no R&B or punk. Just smooth, beach-ready tunes.

Ahoy! I dressed the part at a Yacht Rock concert. (Photo by John Naughton.)

The music is good, but the attitude can be a bit tongue in cheek. (“Do you believe retired rockers are going on tour in their 70s and 80s?”)