Yacht Rock – The Official Music of Dallas City Council

Credit: Dallas Observer

Landlocked Dallas may seem like the last location on earth to be a center for yacht rock, yet there was a bold assertion made about the genre this week.

There was a tweet from the Texas Music Office about yacht rock legend Christopher Cross quoted by Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson to establish yacht rock as "the official music of the Dallas City Council."

According to Johnson, the "ad hoc committee on musical taste" enshrined this choice into law. This led us to ask why do Dallas City Council members get to enjoy comfortable chambers while criticizing music. Were there no genres that were even loosely related to Dallas?

Although it pains us to admit so, Mayor Johnson has a point. Aside from its status as an archaic subgenre despised by the masses, yacht rock has played an important role in shaping more recent subgenres such as vapourwave and Future Funk. There is even a mixtape series called "Modern Yacht Rock Summer Mix" on Dallas' music blog Gorilla vs. Bear, which curates songs.

Even Thundercat's 2017 song "Show You the Way" featured yacht rock legends Kenny Loggins and Michael McDonald. It is not good enough as street cred, then nothing else does either.

This was either pure coincidence or the mayor was trying to tap into that post-ironic yacht rock spirit among online youth, but it was a  good statement that showed at least a surface-level display of good musical taste.

That is fine, but what is the point. It is time for the Dallas City Plan Commission's Ad Hoc Committee on Musical Taste to declare grind-core as the official music. There is precedent for this even when bands like Nasum and Agoraphobic Nosebleed do not hail from North Texas. 

The Dallas City Plan Commission should make grind-core the city's official music if Johnson is serious about his job of declaring the city's official music and overseeing musical taste.

Although other boards and commissions, such as the Animal Services Commission and the Park and Recreation Board will be responsible for selecting "official music," Johnson plainly takes delight in his ability to do so.

According to him, establishing yacht rock as the official music of the Dallas City Council leaves him woefully unprepared for the arduous responsibilities that music writers face regularly, such as writing about how Kid Rock looks like a wax figure of Bret Michaels after being left in an overheated automobile.

To paraphrase a famous scene from Jerry Maguire, “It’s not arbitrating musical taste, friends, it’s arbitrating musical taste business.”

Your thoughts on this would be very appreciated so do share them in the comments below. 

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