Post #491593 by aquarj on Mon, Nov 2, 2009 7:33 PM

Interesting to see some comments on this thread. I know it comes up periodically on TC as to whether surf is tiki music. Hopefully without rehashing or sounding preachy, I think it boils down to perspective.

From a classic perspective, as in the original poly pop era, surf music really had little to do with tiki. Different sounds and different audiences. Painting with a broad brush, tiki and poly pop were in the realm of adult escapism, while surf music was a mainstream teenage pop phenomenon. A little overlap here and there, but not much. As Sabu suggested, pop vocals, easy listening, and maybe even jazz were probably much more common at backyard luaus than surf. Meanwhile, surf covers of exotica songs had an appeal for the teenage crowd, but actually the Latin oriented stuff was much more present in surf than anything tiki or polynesian. For that matter, I guess that'd be a whole separate topic, whether the Latin, Asian, and African influences in exotica are "tiki" either.

From our modern perspective though, many people who have a taste for exotica also like surf. I'm definitely one of them. But does that mean that surf has become tiki music in a way that it didn't use to be? Maybe these kind of definitions don't matter anyway?

-Randy