HBO’s “Yacht Rock: A DOCKumentary” sets sail on the high seas of easy listening, covering a catalog of pop records produced in the ‘70s and ‘80s.
The impossible-to-escape easy-listening soft rock phenomenon of the 1970s and 1980s has been retroactively referred to as Yacht Rock, and HBO Max’s new documentary celebrates the rise, fall, and rise again of the genre.
Artists like Christopher Cross, Michael McDonald, Kenny Loggins, Steely Dan, and Toto produced a catalog of hits in the late 1970s and the early 1980s that have come to be gently ribbed (and sometimes even dismissed) by rock enthusiasts and critics alike. But it has since reclaimed its place in music history, and HBO’s “Yacht Rock: A DOCKumentary” is here to tell the tale.
The film includes participants like Kenny Loggins, Christopher Cross, Michael McDonald (Steely Dan; The Doobie Brothers), Toto’s Steve Porcaro, Steve Lukather, and David Paich, as well as De La Soul’s Prince Paul, Vampire Weekend’s Brian Robert Jones, Thundercat, Questlove, and “Yacht Rock” web series creator JD Ryznar.
“There is a great deal of infectious music in ‘Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary,’ which is the point, one supposes — slick, listenable pop played by experts,” writes The Wall Street Journal’s John Anderson. “Music that one can enjoy while sipping at a flute of Veuve Clicquot on the deck of one’s pleasure craft. Or sitting in the La-Z-Boy, per Questlove, groovin’ to the oldies.”
HBO Documentary Films’ Music Box presents “Yacht Rock: A DOCKumentary” is a Ringer Films production in association with Margot Station. The film was directed by Garret Price, with producers Price, Adam Gibbs, and Madison Cross, executive producers Jody Gerson, Marc Cimino, and Bill Simmons, co-executive producers Geoff Chow and Sean Fennessey, and HBO executive producers Nancy Abraham, Lisa Heller, and Tina Nguyen.
HBO’s Music Box is a Ringer Films production in association with Polygram Entertainment, and features a collection of documentary films created by Bill Simmons which explore pivotal moments in the music world. The series includes “Woodstock 99: Peace, Love, and Rage,” “Jagged,” “DMX: Don’t Try to Understand,” “Listening to Kenny G,” “Mr. Saturday Night,” “Juice WRLD: Into the Abyss,” and “Jason Isbell: Running With Our Eyes Closed.”
