Dad Rock this, Cigarette Mom that, aesthetics and genres and yadda yadda yadda. It’s all made up anyway, so here are several supplementary genres I’d like to submit to the Dad Rock and Cigarette Mom musical canons. Based mostly on personal experience, but also on some vague definitions of what these two aesthetics entail. It’s the list you weren’t looking for that you didn’t know you needed. You’re welcome.
What is Dad Rock, Really?
Initially, Dad Rock was used to describe a sort of mellow style of classic rock. Technically proficient guitar and quality songwriting, but nothing too ostentatious. Nothing that couldn’t serve as easy background music for building a deck. This was your Tom Petty, your Eric Clapton, your Bruce Springsteen. Maybe a little Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, Steely Dan, or The Grateful Dead. Definitely the Allman Brothers Band and Creedence Clearwater Revival. And if you were born in the 80s or 90s, these were artists your dad definitely saw live at some point.
Along the way, Dad Rock lost some of its original definition. It became anything that was a little more substantial than yacht or soft rock. But not quite as technically complicated as prog, overbearing as heavy metal, or lyrically dense as many singer-songwriters. As more subgenres emerged and aesthetics grew more complex, Dad Rock’s original essence grew a little murky. Music critic Rob Mitchum claimed he introduced the term to the world in a review of Wilco’s 2007 album Sky Blue Sky. Allegedly, he heard it from fellow Pitchfork writer Chris Ott, who learned it from U.K. critics calling out “retro-fetish” bands in the 90s.
So, Dad Rock as a descriptor has been around for a while. But musically, it’s best used for mainstream white bands that someone’s mainstream white dad would listen to.
Supplemental Dad Rock Genres
Raise your hand if your Boomer-age dad is also kind of weird. Okay, so, along with the typical mellow 70s Dad Rock above, I’d like to include more psych-rock, post-rock, and experimental-progressive-unidentifiable rock. For starters, artists like Talking Heads, Elvis Costello, Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart, King Crimson, and The B-52’s.
For the more modern dad, I’d like to include 2000s nu-metal and alt-rock, first wave pop-punk, and white rappers. Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park, Creed, Nickelback, Papa Roach, Green Day, Blink-182, and Eminem come to mind. And personally, my 70-year-old dad is really into Mac Miller, so he’s going on the list too.
What Even is A Cigarette Mom?
I’ve done some previous research into this fairly recent aesthetic, but a Cigarette Mom is an older, typically white woman who sits on the porch and chainsmokes while dispensing homespun wisdom that you didn’t know you needed. Often, they have voices like sandpaper and skin like leather, and at first glance might seem wickedly judgemental. But once a cigarette mom likes you, you’re set for life. You have to prove yourself worthy to gain her favor, but she’s a load-bearing member of both Midwest and rural southern communities.
The Forgotten Genre of Southern Cigarette Moms
That said, there’s a certain genre of music that’s been associated with the Cigarette Mom aesthetic. Usually soft alternative rock made by women, singer-songwriter types mostly on acoustic guitar. It can lean 80s, but the majority of these artists were mainstream in the 90s.
This is your Melissa Etheridge, Alanis Morissette, Aimee Mann, and Liz Phair. PJ Harvey on occasion, but definitely Sarah McLachlan, Tracy Chapman, Jewel, Sheryl Crow, and Paula Cole. Basically, any woman who headlined Lilith Fair at any point.
But from my personal experience with an old boss of mine, a true-blue Florida Cigarette Mom, I have one important addition. 90s and early 2000s mainstream country music. I’m talking Reba McEntire, The Dixie Chicks, Shania Twain, Martina McBride, Wynonna Judd, Faith Hill, LeAnn Rimes, and Trisha Yearwood. But most importantly, this list wouldn’t be complete without the epitome of Cigarette Mom music: Gretchen Wilson.
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