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Tiki Central / Tiki Music / Tiny Bubbles - with a real tiki - on Lawrence Welk

Post #525180 by woofmutt on Tue, Apr 20, 2010 11:02 PM

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I'd love to blame the Beatles and hippies for the downfall of Tiki culture but I can't think of any 20th century popular culture style/trend that lasted longer than a couple decades.

A desire for novelty comes from having the leisure time to be able to think of something other than hunting and gathering. Novelty needs to be "different, new and unusual" and once something has been around a while it's no longer novel.

While most the offspring of the Cocktail Generation definitely wanted something different to set themselves apart from their parents* they weren't entirely to blame for the demise of Tiki. There had to be more than a few grownups who lost interest in the once exotic Tiki joint or rolled their eyes at the idea of another patio luau.

Tiki couldn't last in the form of its Golden Era, no pop trend ever has. Thank God we all had the taste and brilliance to keep it from being almost completely forgotten.

*Years ago I read something by someone somewhere who pointed out how the Boomers vowed they would not live the cocktail culture of their parents and then went on to create the wine and cheese culture of the 70s.