Yacht Rock, Butt Rock, and Why Critics Can’t Kill the Hits

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Consequence is continuing Post-Grunge Week with a look at what the backlashes against so-called “yacht rock” and “butt rock” can teach us about fandom. Check out our picks for the 50 Greatest Post-Grunge Songs, and loop back throughout the week for more lists, artist-driven content, games, and more.

These days, we pretty much never listen to music we don’t like. But back when radio was the dominant means of consuming songs, audiences had few choices for programming and no skip button. And something weird but probably inevitable happened: People formed violent opinions about music that they otherwise would have been happy to ignore.

Today, it’s hard to imagine any new artist experiencing the strange and vicious fame cycles of the biggest post-grunge bands, Creed and Nickelback. In a previous feature, we spoke with Scott Stapp of Creed, charting the group’s dizzying ascent, the cruel reviews and ferocious backlash that led to the derogatory term of “Butt Rock,” and now, their reemergence as a favorite among Gen Z.

Here’s something that might sound familiar: Extremely online hipsters and some kids who just like to party, many with unusual facial hair, re-popularized old commercial rock that their parents’ generation called uncool. The rise, fall, and rise again of these post-grunge rockers helps shed light on another backlash from a few decades prior.

“A reporter from Variety called me up the other day, and he said that the consensus among music journalists is that the two darkest days in the history of the Grammys are when Milli Vanilli won and when I won,” Christopher Cross said shortly after his 70th birthday in 2021. “I just couldn’t believe how cruel that comment was.”

Cross, born Christopher Geppert, has endured more than a few cruel comments over the years. In 1979 his debut album Christopher Cross swept the Big Four categories at the 1981 Grammys — Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best New Artist — in a feat that wouldn’t be equalled until an earthquake named Billie Eilish rocked the 2020 ceremony.

Eilish has remained a superstar since her record-tying debut. But Cross became a punching bag, the victim of what in retrospect looks like rotten luck. His first album had some wonderfully catchy songs that justifiably became hits. It wasn’t his fault that the members of the Recording Academy were so bad at their jobs, they chose “Sailing” over the instant Frank Sinatra classic, “Theme from New York, New York.”

It also wasn’t Cross’ fault that MTV just about ended the whole adult contemporary genre. Suddenly, a man who (as the meme goes) has looked like both members of Tenacious D had to compete with beautiful idols like Michael Jackson and Madonna. He reached peak over-saturation at perhaps exactly the wrong moment, winning an Academy Award for “Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do)” just months before MTV symbolically (and then literally) killed the radio star.

Cross wasn’t the only artist to ride smooth pop to the top of the charts. But while Kenny Loggins, Michael McDonald, Steely Dan, and Hall & Oates avoided the dramatic Grammy highs and backlash lows, Cross became the public face for a certain brand of commercial rock — later called yacht rock. “Where the hell did we invent that thing that became called yacht rock?” Loggins wondered in a 2022 interview.  “Some of those are not great songs, but they have that smooth pop thing that became very popular for a period of time. I don’t know where it actually came from.”

Well, Kenny, it came from Yacht Rock, a 12-episode mockumentary web series that debuted at the influential Channel 101 short film festival in 2006. Together, creators and cast including JD Ryznar, Hunter Stair, Dave Lyons, Lane Farnham, and Steve Huey set out to both celebrate and satirize a bygone era of music: the popular but unfashionably smooth stuff from when they were kids.

“I turned 30 right before we started doing the series, and I thought, well, this is a nice round number. What do 30-year-olds do?” Huey recalled to Rolling Stone. “I feel like it’s time I get into Steely Dan. I bought most of the catalogue and was like, This is my new identity. I’m gonna unwind, start listening to Steely Dan, and leave parties early.”

Lots of young people could relate, and the web series became a durable hit. Within a few years yacht rock had grown into the official name for a certain era of smooth pop, as yacht rock-themed parties spread to college campuses around the world. [Editor’s note: It wasn’t exactly my scene, but those white boys in the captain’s hats always bought good beer.]

When my colleague Jonah Krueger wrote about today’s college crowd embracing so-called butt rock, it all sounded familiar. “Go to your local college bar and wait; ‘Higher’ or ‘How You Remind Me’ will almost certainly get the biggest cheers of the night,” he said, and while I remember it with “Sailing” and “What a Fool Believes,” I know exactly what he means.

Both “Yacht Rock” and “Butt Rock” are said with a bit more pride than previously, and each resurgence helps put the other in context. In a world before social media and poptimism, a few (mostly white male) critics felt comfortable shitting all over some popular music. Now, the pendulum has probably swung too far the other way, but let’s not pretend like the old system was perfect.

The episodes also reveal something critical about how we decide what’s classic. One 1999 pan of Creed’s music called it “lunkheaded kegger rock sculpted from tiresome grunge riffs and aggressive discharge,” which is some good writing that hasn’t quite held up as criticism. Songs can be schlocky and deeply moving, and a critic’s first impression can lead them astray. Over 20 years later, after Texas Ranger fans staged a stadium sing-along of “Higher” to celebrate a playoff win, Creed’s impact is impossible to argue.

This is the great lesson of Christopher Cross and Creed and so many other backlashes that faded. Over time, hate burns itself out. And the fans who love the music get the final word.

Yacht Rock, Butt Rock, and Why Critics Can’t Kill the Hits
Wren Graves

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