Post #106107 by Satan's Sin on Tue, Aug 3, 2004 9:40 PM

I agree with Tikibars. This thing has yet to peak.

This is more than the suits at Target or Spencers trying to shake a few nickels loose. There are books, there are new restaurants and bars, there are an increasing number of tiki events taking place across the country ...

In my opinion, this has the same "feel" as "lounge" and dance club music did circa 1997. At that time lounge was peaking in the record stores and dance music was being looked at as "the next big thing" (in the face of declining rock sales).

Well, dance club music simply went back to being a sub-genre and never came close to displacing rock, and lounge disappeared as a bona fide category in record stores (usually now found in the "easy listening" section), with of course hard-core aficianados keeping the candle lit.

But perhaps music isn't the correct anaolgy. Perhaps architecture would be better. Interest in midcentury architecture started to climb in the late 90s and is now extremely hot -- but not quite hot enough to tip over into the mainstream and actually result in whole developments being designed along modernist lines. Perhaps this is the fate of "neo-Tiki." It will get "bigger" in the near future, but then reach a point where everyone who's interested in it is "signed up" -- and then stays at that level of cultural consciousness. In other words, it will build like a fad, but it will not die like a fad. The whole country will never "get" this -- but those who do "get" it, get it forever. A tiki is never going into the back of the garage with the thigh crunchers.

So I say ... buy stock in Target! And supprt your local tiki bar!