Dad Rock & Classic Rock Hats

Dad rock started as a putdown. In Steven Hyden's definition, "a dad-rock band is a band that your dad liked when he was young," and he notes that calling a band dad rock "is generally understood to be a putdown." These hats take the putdown back. Classic rock, the radio format the term stands in for, grew out of album-oriented rock in the early-to-mid 1980s: Cleveland's M105 billed itself "Cleveland's Classic Rock" in 1980, and Billboard's Kim Freeman dates the format's birth to 1986. Fatherly's road-trip advice still begins with turning on "the local classic rock (aka 'dad rock') station." A Treble writer put the listener's case best: "It's bloated and mockable and cheesy as hell, and I love it." Plain badges say DAD ROCK and CLASSIC ROCK, and DAD ROCK IS MOCKABLE AND CHEESY AND I LOVE IT wears that same defence. The sentence designs keep the loyalty jokes: a car radio that has not left one station since 1991, air guitar at red lights, a standing request for Free Bird, and DAD ROCK IS JUST ROCK WITH A MORTGAGE. MY MUSIC TASTE IS DIVORCED DAD ROCK and STILL LIKE THAT OLD TIME ROCK 'N' ROLL are phrases already selling on classic-rock dad shirts. Every design is custom embroidered on an unstructured dad hat. The mortgage definition and the divorced dad rock taste test each get a second colorway.