Styles, classifications and genres of music have devolved into a million different categories. There is everything from classic rock, prog rock, 2-step garage, acid jazz, and blackened metal to djent, freakbeat, folk, folk pop, folk punk, folktronica and a thousand other delineations. You can add yacht rock to that list [though it’s apparently been around for some time, albeit hiding in the shadows]. Thanks to writer and music scholar Greg Prato and his new book on the subject, we now know everything there is to know about the style.

The genre is described as “Music that would not sound out of place being played aboard a yacht back in the good old days.” No, you didn’t need to have owned a yacht to listen to the music, but apparently it helped.

Prato dives into his subject by examining the hit pop songs from the 1970s and 1980s by such artists as The Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, Hall & Oates, Steely Dan, Toto, Doobie Brothers, and others. He interviews members of these bands and they talk about the creation of such diamonds as “Rosanna,” “Celebrate,” “Baby Come Back,” “Magnet and Steel,” and a host of others.

A fun book about a very fun time in music.