The “NOW That's What I Call Music” Dad Rock compilation will haunt you

And they play an essential role in the KLF’s hit-making methodology outlined in The Manual!

9 Likes

You could retitle this cd as “Road Trip Rock” or “Beach Volleyball Jams.” Catering to dads is just a marketing gimmick. Or is this mix scientifically designed to make diaper changing more pleasant?

12 Likes

only problem i have with this is that they play “we will rock you” without playing “we are the champions” next

its sacrosanct!

17 Likes

Doesn’t seem any more random that what I would expect to hear on a mediocre classic-rock station. Not sure what makes this list particularly “dad rock” versus just “classic.” As noted, Wilco belongs on this list somewhere although their more-recent output is much more Granddad-Rock.

Also, War on Drugs for something semi-modern. And Foo Fighters.

9 Likes

If mom and dad rock exist, there must be a complete family rock out there. I think you can picture a granny rock, cousin from countryside rock, that guy who married your sister rock…

14 Likes

The white-centric-ness is certainly a valid point. Though I suppose, it is focused on Rock Music, and non-white rock are often ignored in the popular music canon. There is a Lenny Kravitz song, though Thin Lizzy and Van Halen are both conspicuously absent.

Who are some other popular non-white rock acts that would fit?

Regarding your other point: it is a Dad Rock compilation. Mom Rock would be a different compilation; certainly they could just do a “Parent Rock” one, too.

I do find it interesting that one of the only woman-sung songs on the list is a mellow Avril Lavigne song. Like, at least “Sk8r Boi” rocks, ya know? (Natalie Imbruglia’s “Torn” cover fuckin rips though, let’s be real).

7 Likes

Now, here’s the question: is this what you call Dad Rock?

Oh, fuck no.

I grew up listening to surf, swing, and punk. My kids grew up listening to the Ramones, the Stray Cats, and the Squirrel Nut Zippers. My Dad Rock list would be a combination of the two.

8 Likes

Middle-aged dad of two here. As with any random list of 59 pop/rock songs from the last 40-50 years, I love a handful of these, hate a handful, am meh about 55%, and don’t recognize the rest.

9 Likes

Yeah, Wilco is like, the king of the “Dad Rock” moniker … even though they don’t really have any “hits” that would fit some mainstream manufactured list like this.

I think the first time I saw Wilco live was 2006, so I was 20 or 21. Probably seen them a dozen times since then … and, to be fair, I have always been on the younger end of the audience.

4 Likes

Living Colour’s “Cult of personality” and Eddy Grant’s “Electric Avenue” wouldn’t be out of place on this abomination.

Edited to correct Electric Avenue’s rightful artist.

13 Likes

(Unless that’s not FM radio Classic Hits enough)

And dont Classic Rock stations always pepper in some Hendrix here and there?

16 Likes

Eddy Grant. Billy Ocean wouldn’t exactly fit.

4 Likes

Oh jeez, that’s embarrassing. I can’t let that sit there unedited.

5 Likes
16 Likes

Speaking from the point of view of a white male born nearly 67 years ago, and whose earliest memory is hearing ‘Freight Train’ by Nancy Whiskey on the radio, when I would have been around 3-4 years old, who grew up through the 60’s listening to the Stones, Beatles, then Simon and Garfunkel, Jethro Tull, had his musical perception utterly smashed open on hearing an album a classmate loaned me, King Crimson’s ‘In The Court Of The Crimson King’, then went through punk, New Wave, Indie, and still loves folk, country, metal, in fact ABBA to Zappa/ZZ Top, I find the whole ‘Dad Rock’ classification a little limiting, although I did see Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd, Yes, Thin Lizzy, it took me fifty years to finally get to see King Crimson a couple of years ago!
And I truly cannot wait for live music to become available again!

10 Likes

“Perennial Favorites” still gets play in my house; if that’s dad rock, then rock on.

1 Like

Here’s an album that is in a similar vein (I suppose), but it’s actually quite coherently selected and sequenced. (They even have the decency to put the seven minute Frampton tune at the very end, where it can be easily skipped.) Purely rooted in the 70s-80s, but that does provide focus.

1 Like

Oh, duh! In Living Color is a good call!

I thought of Hendrix, but I think he would have been a little older than most of the other songs on this list — making it more “classic rock” than “dad rock,” if we’re arbitrarily genre-ifying these things.

My dad was a big Hootie and the Blowfish, and they definitely have some songs that would belong on here.

7 Likes

I think they were once popular.

13 Likes

When your kids are old enough to be exasperated by Dad Rock, give them some Uncle Rock.

3 Likes