A new HBO documentary about Yacht Rock is on the way
HBO recently released a new trailer for a documentary they are developing. The film Music Box: Yacht Rock: A Documentary will follow the history of yacht rock and cover how it emerged, rose in popularity, and impacted music as a whole. It will be available on November 29th.
The film will be directed by Garrett Price, who has a good history working on musically-centric work. He recently contributed to the Emmy-nominated Daisy Jones & The Six. The new documentary will speak to musicians and industry experts to uncover how the genre became so loved globally and the challenges it faced once it was subject to more challenges.
Some of the people who have contributed to the documentary are still yet to be revealed; however, in the trailer, we see it features Kenny Loggins, Questlove, Thundercat, Michael McDonald, Mac Demarco and Christopher Cross. Fred Armisen also makes an appearance in the trailer, saying, “The singers all seem to be saying, ‘Hey, it’s going to be OK’.”
Having a mixed bag of commentators will give the documentary much more depth. While it was objectively popular for a period, some people don’t entirely take to it. By having a range of people discussing the sound of the genre, its history and its cultural standing, we will get unbiased opinions on the rise of such a unique sound and whether or not they thought that it was justified. This will be an unprecedented look at an underrated and under-discussed music genre.
The sound of Yacht Rock is an interesting one to donate. While the tempo and tone of many songs sound somewhat similar, a number of different genres come together to create such a recognisable style of music. The merging of jazz, funk and R&B was capable of selling millions of records and became the face of hit music for years.
The documentary will be HBO’s latest addition to their Music Box series, which is proving to be a treasure trove of musical history. The series has previously touched on DMX, Kenny G and Woodstock ’99.
In other positive, Yacht Rock news, Pat Simmons of The Doobie Brothers confirmed that he was in the process of making new music. The news came following his recent reunion tour with Michael McDonald, meaning they could be working on this new music together.
Watch the trailer for Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary below. On November 29th, it will be available to stream on Max, HBO’s streaming service.
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