Yacht rock was, in fact, pivotal in the etiolation of pop music in a time of cultural darkness, serving as a dialectical pole to progressive rock as well as to punk, postpunk and even proto-postpunk, spurring drastic retrenchments.

etiolate (adj) 1: (especially of plants) developed without chlorophyll by being deprived of light [syn: etiolate, etiolated, blanched] (v) 1: make weak by stunting the growth or development of 2: bleach and alter the natural development of (a green plant) by excluding sunlight 3: make pale or sickly – source: The Birth of the Uncool: Yacht Rock and Libidinal Subversion