If You Like Exotica, Check These Out - Tiki Music

A aquarj Tiki Socialite SF bay area, CA Joined: Apr 02, 2002 Posts: 1125	A aquarj Posted posted on Tue, Jun 30, 2009 12:26 PM Oh brother, here we go again. WhiteDevil, those posts are straight out of the rulebook for posting with a chip on your shoulder. This kind of behavior has been characterized here before... After getting ruffled feathers, post something to indicate standing up to THE MAN! There are endless examples of this... "I don't care what you all say, I'm going to decorate my home how I want to, not how you tell me too!" Or "I thought tiki was about fun and freedom from rules!" Or "Well I think I'll go somewhere else if this site is just a bunch of tiki police!" (substitute other terms like "hoity toities" for tiki police). Or "I'm tired of people telling me what I should like." Or "Tiki has to grow and expand its boundaries" - one of my favorites for its sheer meaninglessness. But that doesn't make it any more of a joy to read each time it comes up again. True, we got to see some new epithets though (Shi'ite Tikiphile militia - haha! haven't seen that one before!). Anyway, WhiteDevil's words have inspired me (especially the part about pulling my ears out of an orifice), and it's all clear to me now. I shall henceforth visit TC to read about things that are NOT topical to TC! And you should too! That is the point, right? On a more serious note, I actually do think it's interesting that there are some pretty unclear boundaries for the music that's considered related to the tiki culture. Surf music generally seems to count, although there have been some threads disputing whether it should. Even though I've been into surf for years and years (and I'll be including some when I deejay at Oasis, plug plug) it's always seemed to me that surf gets included by kind of a special exception. Likewise for rockabilly and some other stuff. I don't really have a clear concept of "tiki music." In the strictest sense, it tends to be midcentury exotica, and even exclude things like hapa haole. Somehow that seems too narrow to be practical, but then there's a lot of genres that are far enough unrelated that they don't count. For the purposes of the Tiki Music forum, I think the list of genres that are given is pretty clear. Even if you don't agree with that list, it's easy (and considerate) to try to see if your subject is consistent or not. More broadly, I think "tiki music" is more of a question of context. Obviously the criteria for what you listen to at home, or even what people would like to hear at an event like Oasis, is different from the question of what is topical on a themed forum. I've been to "tiki" parties at people's houses where there was a lot of 60s and 90s garage music playing. That doesn't mean I'm gonna start talking about those genres in Tiki Music (but maybe Beyond!). As always, exceptions are the rule, so even though I consider the initial post offtopic, I didn't have any problem with it being here. All the ruffled feathers nonsense is a drag though. -Randy

Oh brother, here we go again. WhiteDevil, those posts are straight out of the rulebook for posting with a chip on your shoulder. This kind of behavior has been characterized here before...

After getting ruffled feathers, post something to indicate standing up to THE MAN! There are endless examples of this... "I don't care what you all say, I'm going to decorate my home how I want to, not how you tell me too!" Or "I thought tiki was about fun and freedom from rules!" Or "Well I think I'll go somewhere else if this site is just a bunch of tiki police!" (substitute other terms like "hoity toities" for tiki police). Or "I'm tired of people telling me what I should like." Or "Tiki has to grow and expand its boundaries" - one of my favorites for its sheer meaninglessness.

But that doesn't make it any more of a joy to read each time it comes up again. True, we got to see some new epithets though (Shi'ite Tikiphile militia - haha! haven't seen that one before!).

Anyway, WhiteDevil's words have inspired me (especially the part about pulling my ears out of an orifice), and it's all clear to me now. I shall henceforth visit TC to read about things that are NOT topical to TC! And you should too! That is the point, right?

On a more serious note, I actually do think it's interesting that there are some pretty unclear boundaries for the music that's considered related to the tiki culture. Surf music generally seems to count, although there have been some threads disputing whether it should. Even though I've been into surf for years and years (and I'll be including some when I deejay at Oasis, plug plug) it's always seemed to me that surf gets included by kind of a special exception. Likewise for rockabilly and some other stuff.

I don't really have a clear concept of "tiki music." In the strictest sense, it tends to be midcentury exotica, and even exclude things like hapa haole. Somehow that seems too narrow to be practical, but then there's a lot of genres that are far enough unrelated that they don't count. For the purposes of the Tiki Music forum, I think the list of genres that are given is pretty clear. Even if you don't agree with that list, it's easy (and considerate) to try to see if your subject is consistent or not.

More broadly, I think "tiki music" is more of a question of context. Obviously the criteria for what you listen to at home, or even what people would like to hear at an event like Oasis, is different from the question of what is topical on a themed forum. I've been to "tiki" parties at people's houses where there was a lot of 60s and 90s garage music playing. That doesn't mean I'm gonna start talking about those genres in Tiki Music (but maybe Beyond!).

As always, exceptions are the rule, so even though I consider the initial post offtopic, I didn't have any problem with it being here. All the ruffled feathers nonsense is a drag though.

-Randy

Post #465811 by aquarj on Tue, Jun 30, 2009 12:26 PM