Hit Parade: What a Fool Believes, Part 1
b"In the late \\u201970s and early \\u201980s, a scene and a sound cropped up on the West Coast: polished, perfectionist studio musicians who generated sleek, jazzy, R&B-flavored music. About a quarter-century later, this sound was given a name: Yacht\\xa0Rock. The inventors of the genre name weren\\u2019t thinking about boats\\u2026well, unless the song was Christopher Cross\\u2019s \\u201cSailing.\\u201d Yacht Rock was meant to signify deluxe, yuppified, \\u201csmooth\\u201d music suitable for playing on luxury nautical craft.\\nWhatever you call it, this music really did command the charts at the turn of the \\u201980s: from Steely Dan to George Benson, Michael McDonald to Kenny Loggins, Toto to\\u2026Michael Jackson?! Believe it: even Thriller is partially a Yacht Rock album. This month, Hit Parade breaks down what Yacht Rock was and how it took over the charts four decades ago\\u2014from the perfectionism of \\u201cPeg,\\u201d to the bounce of \\u201cWhat a Fool Believes,\\u201d to the epic smoothness of \\u201cAfrica.\\u201d\\n\\nThis episode was released in August 2020 exclusively for Slate Plus listeners. Sign up for Slate Plus now to get episodes in one installment as soon as they're out. You'll also get The Bridge, our trivia show and bonus deep dive. Click here for more info.\\xa0\\xa0\\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices"