
What Exactly Is Dad Rock? 21 Songs that Explain the Totally Not Embarrassing Genre Bruce Springsteen, Foo Fighters, Metallica-obviously dad rock at this point. But the genre is bigger than you might guess. In this Fathers Day playlist, listen to songs from various generations that bring dad energy.
By
Bryan Parys
June 14, 2024
I was doing the dishes one weeknight back in 2018 when I realized I was . . . dancing. Like, full-on grooving, swaying side to side, but just enough to stay rooted in front of the sink, cleaning up whatever dinner I'd made for my family of four. I was blasting the song Committed to the Cause by Swedish dream pop band the Radio Dept., and then I caught myself, mid-shimmy, to pose the question: Wait, is this dad rock?
I mean, just try not to groove to this bass line:
The dictionary-and most of the internet-would say no. Conventionally, dad rock is thought of as older music, though opinions differ on just how old. A scan of Spotify playlists on the topic include mostly '70s and '80s classic rock-your Steve Miller Band, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Tom Petty, Def Leppard, the standard fare for any classic rock FM radio station over the last 30-plus years. On Spotify's official Cool Dad Rock playlist, you get Radiohead alongside Steely Dan.
For Gen Z, however, most of those artists would more accurately be considered grandad rock. For the TikTok generation, dad rock is more along the lines of Nickelback and Creed-that husky brand '90s/00s mainstream radio rock with big distorted guitars, low-growl vocals, and the sense that everyone in the band is somehow holding a cold beverage even while playing their instrument. In our student spotlight of Andrea Recalde, Nickelback's How You Remind Me was cited as one of Recaldes current favorite songs, saying that its classic dad-rock vibe was something she found herself returning to.
Mackenzie Hurst, a reporter for Hofstra University's student newspaper, suggests that Gen Z finds comfort in these older songs. When we associate an entire genre with our dads, we're establishing the idea that this music is nostalgic for our childhood, she says. Nostalgia psychologically evokes that feeling of comfort along with a sense of belonging, which is often difficult for Gen Z to find with the wide array of content, aesthetics, and ever-changing social groups we are subjected to.
Dad rock has its punchlines, but it also has heart, whether that's something in the music itself, or an emotion brought by the listener.
One Redditor provides an explanation for why my dish-dance felt like dad rock, despite it not being a nostalgic experience. Id say [dad rock is] anything that makes a dad get serious about dancing or just loosen up to the beat. That act of a dad trying to be cool is what becomes cheesy, not so much the music itself, they said.
Perhaps it's the combination of serious and cheesy that makes a song, regardless of era or genre, dad rock. When Mike Sempert, assistant professor of songwriting, released Hold on to the Light, a song he wrote for Hanukkah, he described the musical quality as having elements of dad rock. I called it dad rock' to be a bit self-deprecating, but deep down I honestly love this sound, he said. Dad rock has its punchlines, but it also has heart, whether that's something in the music itself, or an emotion brought by the listener.
It bears mentioning that the word dad carries more significance and complexity than can be described in a few paragraphs. Dad rock is really more a vibe than a statement about an artists or fans identity-its less about whos making the music and more about how we as fans associate the music with a particular time, place, or person. In the following playlist, Ive broken things into six categories that aim to show the breadth of said vibes, from the tried-and-true image of the suburban dad behind a grill to TikTok users coming to terms with how they actually love the music their dads subjected them to.
Tracklist and Notes Dads Who GrillThe vibe: Songs heard through a staticky radio over a backdrop of sizzling burgers, cans cracking open, and the swooshing sound bathing suit fabric makes when doing a little dance while monitoring the grill.
1. Take the Money and Run, Steve Miller Band 2. September, Earth, Wind & FireDad says: Earth, Wind & Fire were helping dads find their groove long before I started dancing in front of the sink.
3. I Only Wanna Be with You, Hootie and the Blowfish 4. Free Fallin, Tom Petty
Dads Who ChillThe vibe: Laid-back grooves, setlist comparisons, bootleg trades, and the sense of a cool breeze, regardless of the time of year.
5. Flake, Jack Johnson Dad says: Did dads wear flip-flops before Jack Johnson? We just don't know.
6. Truckin, Grateful Dead Dad says: Children who went to Dead shows with their dads . . .
7. The Squirming Coil, Phish . . . brought their children to Phish shows . . .
8. Hot Tea, Goose . . . and now those children bring their whole family to Goose shows.
Dads Who ShredThe vibe: Interrupting a conversation to make room for an air-guitar solo. The adjective face-melting.
9. Hey Joe, Jimi Hendrix 10. One Big Holiday, My Morning Jacket11. Broken Man, St. Vincent Dad says: If the surviving members of Nirvana keep asking you to fill in for the late Kurt Cobain, you have more than earned your license to shred.
Dads with Cred The vibe: Irrationally strong opinions and did-you-know fun facts. Songs dad knew before they were cool.
12. Harness Your Hopes, Pavement Dad says: A quintessential touchstone of the cool Gen-X dad, Pavement recently experienced an unexpected resurgence when this b-side started making the rounds on social media and Spotify.
13. I Against I, Bad Brains 14. Dig Me Out, Sleater-Kinney15. At the Chime of a City Clock, Nick DrakeDad says:
North America Stories
07/11/2025
NEW YORK DoubleVerify has launched a streaming TV offering designed to give advertisers greater transparency, control and efficiency across their streaming TV i...
07/11/2025
PARIS Ateme said it has been working with Spain-based multinational telco Telef nica to deploy a cloud-native media processing platform for next-generation vide...
07/11/2025
The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers has announced it will hold its annual meeting on Wednesday, Dec. 10, via a Zoom webinar at 11 a.m. ET....
07/11/2025
NEW YORK The Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM) and TVB have released a study examining how local viewing is measured across television, mobile d...
07/11/2025
LONG ISLAND CITY, N.Y. Altice USA announced it will change its corporate name to Optimum Communications Inc., effective Nov. 7. The company will cease trading u...
06/11/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Athlos NYC CEO Kayla Green on Building the Brand of the Young Trac...
06/11/2025
ESPN Exits ESPN BET Deal With PENN, Goes Into Business With DraftKingsDraftKings will integrate innovative fan experiences' across ESPN platforms and DTC s...
06/11/2025
SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Voyage Audio's Colin Ritchie on How the Spatial M...
06/11/2025
Ben Whishaw at the premiere of Peter Hujar's Day (photo by Robin Marshall / Shutterstock for Sundance Film Festival)
By Bailey Pennick
The premise is si...
06/11/2025
With nearly 50% of streamers willing to cancel a service based on difficulty fin...
06/11/2025
BRISTOL, Conn., and BOSTON ESPN and DraftKings today announced an agreement naming DraftKings the sports programmer's exclusive official sportsbook and odds...
06/11/2025
MELVILLE, N.Y. Canon USA has launched the CR-N400 and CR-N350, two new Pan-Tilt-Zoom (PTZ) cameras designed to deliver high image quality, versatile connectivit...
06/11/2025
NEW YORK Fox Sports said its coverage of the Los Angeles Dodgers' win over the Toronto Blue Jays in the decisive Game 7 of the 2025 World Series delivered 2...
06/11/2025
NEW YORK DoubleVerify and Roku, Inc. are reporting that they have seen a marked reduction in fraudulent ad requests imitating Roku device traffic across the s...
06/11/2025
CAMBRIDGE, England Faced with rising inflation and worries that the economy is weakening, consumers are prioritizing their spending on popular streaming service...
06/11/2025
STAMFORD, Conn. NBC Sports is mounting mics in unconventional places to bring the sounds of NASCAR into the living rooms of sports fans....
06/11/2025
BRANSON, Mo. Link Electronics has partnered with Aberdeen Broadcast Services to provide a real-time, dual-stream translation and captioning service....
06/11/2025
Telos Alliance Partners to Showcase Professional Audio Processing and Next-Gen ...
06/11/2025
Back to All News
Mystery Thriller The Price of Confession' Starring Jeon D...
06/11/2025
The company will highlight its recent ecosystem expansions and strategic innovat...
06/11/2025
NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang and chief scientist Bill Dally were honored ...
06/11/2025
Editor's note: This blog has been updated to reflect the correct launch date for Call of Duty: Black Ops 7', November 14.
A crisp chill's in the...
06/11/2025
Scripps Research team identifies sugar molecules that trigger placental formation Study reveals how sugar-protein interactions are critical for the placenta dur...
05/11/2025
College Hoops Preview 2025: ESPN Remote-Ops Team Preps for Massive Slate of Men&...
05/11/2025
University of Iowa Centralizes Video Production With Dual Control Rooms at Carve...
05/11/2025
Photo credit: CIVMEC...
05/11/2025
A Nielsen survey of 500 directors and millions of monday.com workflows reveals t...
05/11/2025
Prime Video's VoD offerings included for the first time in standardized AGF Measurement
Frankfurt, October 28, 2025. AGF Videoforschung, together with Ama...
05/11/2025
A 13-year-old company that serves as a master control/disaster recovery hub for PBS stations says it has seen little financial impact from cuts to public broadc...
05/11/2025
To no one's surprise, the NFL's most dominant franchise in recent years attracts the most TV viewers, according to new research by S&P Global Market Int...
05/11/2025
MELBOURNE, Australia Atomos today introduced Ninja TX GO, a new HDMI monitor-recorder that combines a brighter screen, advanced monitoring tools, professional c...
05/11/2025
WASHINGTON Despite the ongoing government shutdown, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr has announced a tentative agenda for the agency'...
05/11/2025
The College Football Playoff (CFP), ESPN and TNT Sports have announced kick times and broadcast information for the 2025 CFP First Round, which will launch the ...
05/11/2025
NEW YORK IAB Tech Lab, the global digital advertising technical standards-setting body, has announced the release of device attestation support in the industry ...
05/11/2025
SINGAPORE Appear, an Oslo-based provider of live production technology, is opening a new facility in Singapore as part of the company's expansion into the A...
05/11/2025
DALLAS Parks Associates has released new data showing just how far the dramatic shift to streaming services has gone in recent years. Currently, more than nine ...
05/11/2025
Back to All News
It Started with a Kiss: Sparks Fly When Dynamite Kiss' Premieres November 12
Entertainment
05 November 2025
GlobalSouth Korea
Link co...
05/11/2025
Back to All News
Netflix's Third Season of Ads and a Look Ahead at Whats Next
Amy Reinhard
President, Advertising
Business
05 November 2025
United Sta...
04/11/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Why Professional Fight League CEO John Martin Believes Growth Is I...
04/11/2025
SVG All-Stars: David Koppett, Executive Producer, Live Sports and Studio, NESN a...
04/11/2025
From concept to kick-off: How TAMS could transform sports workflows By Paul Markham
Tuesday, October 28, 2025 - 09:43
Print This Story
Techex tx darwin pr...
04/11/2025
College Hoops Preview 2025: The CW Tips Off Third Season of ACC Men's/Women&...
04/11/2025
College Hoops Preview 2025: Big Ten Network Heats Up for Busy Season With 500 Me...
04/11/2025
College Hoops Preview 2025: CBS Sports Readies 300+ Game Broadcasts Across Its P...
04/11/2025
College Hoops Preview 2025: NBC Sports Slate Features 200+ Big Ten, BIG EAST, an...
04/11/2025
College Hoops Preview 2025: ESPN Remote-Ops Team Preps for Massive Slate of 7,40...
04/11/2025
Never-before-seen footage of Selena Quintanilla and her family's band offers...
04/11/2025
Joel Edgerton at Train Dreams Park City premiere (photo by Soul Brother / Shutterstock for Sundance Film Festival)...
04/11/2025
Tomorrow's fight will demand networks that deliver both capacity and survivability, the speed to move mission applications at scale, and the resilience to e...
04/11/2025
New York, NY - November 3, 2025 - Neptune BidCo US Inc. (the Issuer or the Co...