Post #297676 by MrBaliHai on Sun, Apr 8, 2007 1:35 PM

On 2007-04-08 12:29, bigbrotiki wrote:
Basically, Polynesian pop started as soon as the the first explorers brought back their travelogues from the islands and embellished and romanticized them, inspiring further tall tales of earthly paradise that were the foundation of the cliched iconography that persists 'til today.

I agree, but that's a very broad swath of time you're delineating. I can find examples of romantic south-seas imagery going back well into the 19th-century, like this 1873 lithograph from Harper's Weekly of half-naked savages dancing around highly-stylized Moai, and I'm sure there's imagery going back even farther, that also made it into the mass-media of its day. So even though its technically correct, the term "Polynesian pop" seems a bit too modern to me to really describe what filtered into the public consciousness in the pre-Beachcomber era. I guess I'd prefer something more evocative of those times.

Your mileage may vary, of course.