Post #420424 by MadDogMike on Sun, Nov 23, 2008 9:14 AM

Welcome to TC rbloch66. You have stumbled into a bit of a hornet's nest! TC is a great community filled with people who have an interest in Polynesian Pop, but there are many different views on exactly what Poly Pop is. The problem is that Poly Pop is much more of an art than a science which leaves it open to interpretation.

Remember that Polynesian Pop is not so much about Polynesia as it is about mid 20th century American interpretation of Polynesia. For some people that means 1950's exotic bar drinks and mugs. For others it means carving tikis, maybe exactly based on the few surviving ancient tikis, maybe loosely based on ancient tikis, maybe just anything carved from palm wood. Some people are very narrow in their interpretation of what "Poly Pop" is and think a broad interpretation waters it down. Others are very broad in their interpretation and think they bring fresh life-giving blood to a stale culture. Most people fall somewhere inbetween.

If you are an Polynesian archeology student, this site probably won't help you much. If you like to drink frozen blender drinks out of garish plastic Party City tiki glasses while wearing a parrot hat and dancing to Jimmy Buffett, people will laugh you off of this site :) But if you are interested in all things tiki, if you are an artist or aspiring artist, check TC out and you'll find a lot of cool things. You will develop your own style and sense of Polynesian Pop.