The pop culture world can be an endless churn of regurgitated trends.
This time around it's the easy listening, soft rock by Kenny Loggins, Chris Cross, Steely Dan, Michael McDonald, Boz Scaggs, Phil Collins, Toto and Styx made popular primarily between 1976 and 1984.
Only now the tunes are dubbed yacht rock. HBO, on top of the trend, released "Yacht Rock: A DOCKumentary" last year.
"It's warm breezes, smooth grooves. It's a little champagne. It's music that makes you feel good," said Emily Saunar, a vocalist and founder of the Denver-based, yacht rock tribute band Yachty Got Back. "It's you and friends having a good time. It's whatever you would listen to on your yacht with your friends."
Yachty Got Back will perform Friday at Phil Long Music Hall at Bourbon Brothers.
A primer on yacht rock: It features the soft sounds of a Fender Rhodes electric piano; harmonies and layered vocals -- think Doobie Brothers and Steely Dan; slick guitar solos; a saxophone; and themes of escapism, like love, heartbreak and an idyllic life living by the water.
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But why yacht rock now?
"It's that chill vibe, that feel-good vibe that people need more of," Saunar said. "We live in such a crazy, rush-around, go-go world. It's relaxed; everyone's here to have a good time. It doesn't matter how old or young you are, music is a universal language, but this language is timeless. There's an effortless cool vibe about it."
The 13-piece band, which features four vocalists, three of whom are women, and four horn instruments, caught the yacht rock wave at the right moment. The professional musicians knew each other after playing in bands together through the years when singer Heather Wright expressed interest in doing a yacht rock band. Saunar started the group in 2021.
"It really was good timing," Saunar said. "I don't think everyone knew what it was when we started, including me. But she (Heather) was the one who said this style of music is going to be big."
Saunar describes their shows as an experience, with videos playing behind them on stage and multiple costume changes. And she especially likes that their group has three front-line female singers, notable because yacht rock is a male-heavy genre.
"We still have a male vocalist lead the band," she said. "We all want to sing. It was hard when you go through and pick songs and they're almost all male songs, so we have to figure out how will we make it work for a woman."