‘Yacht rock’ is not a term I was even familiar with! I just watched the first part of BBC4’s two parter that went out tonight. A spectacular amount of revisionism there for sure! From a personal perspective I like Steely Dan and George Benson, but you can keep the rest! I’m not seeing it as one thing/scene. The implication being that the term was coined in about 2010, probably by people who weren’t even around at the time...
It comes from a US TV series first shown in 2005:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yacht_Rock_(web_series)
'The series was written, directed, and produced by
J. D. Ryznar, co-produced by David Lyons and Hunter D. Stair, and edited by Lane Farnham. The production has a "bad-on-purpose aesthetic".
[2]
Ryznar and Stair devised the series after noticing the converging recording careers of such bands as
Steely Dan,
Toto, and
The Doobie Brothers and the singer-songwriters
Kenny Loggins and
Michael McDonald. For example, McDonald co-wrote Loggins' "
This Is It" and Loggins co-wrote McDonald's hit, "
What a Fool Believes," for his band The Doobie Brothers. McDonald also performed backing vocals for several other 'yacht rock' artists, including Steely Dan, Toto and
Christopher Cross.
Ryznar admits to having a fascination with the music of the period. As he explained, "Getting into Steely Dan really started this for me. As did the ability to buy dollar records at
Amoeba and put them on tapes for my car. Kenny Loggins has made his way into all the
pilots I've been involved with except [one]."
[3] As Ryznar told
Reuters contributor Andy Sullivan, "I'm making fun of the songwriting process, but the music is generally treated pretty lovingly."
[4]'
Michael McDonald seems to be the key figure. Nice quote from him in the Wiki article:
'Michael McDonald commented on
Yacht Rock in a 2008 interview:
Have you ever owned a yacht?
No, but I thought
Yacht Rock was hilarious. And uncannily, you know, those things always have a little bit of truth to them. It’s kind of like when you get a letter from a stalker who’s never met you. They somehow hit on something, and you have to admit they’re pretty intuitive.'