Burlesque, Surf Culture, Hot Rods, Mexican Wrestling, etc. (pick one) in Tiki Culture - General Tiki

T Thomas Member Lake Mojave Joined: Mar 15, 2005 Posts: 372	T Thomas Posted posted on Thu, Aug 26, 2010 5:39 PM Tiki for me is about decompressing from a frenetic modern world which, much as I love it, tends to scream, "Buy this! Do this! Think this!" a bit too much in my opinion. Thus I'm sorry to say that surf music is about the last thing I want to hear in such a context. I want to have some control over my own attention span, to enjoy some relaxed conversation one minute, then drift off and enjoy some sonorous, non aggressive music the next. Surf music makes a great soundtrack to activity like driving or dancing, but when I'm relaxing and trying to mellow out? Not in a million years. Anyway, just my personal preferences there; not suggesting they carry any more weight than anyone else's. I think we all enjoy creating linkages among cultural artifacts we like, and kind of promoting those linkages to others; it's an arena for personal creativity that makes this stuff more interesting than just collecting and reassembling things as they (presumably) were. So yeah, temporal and geographical proximities between surf music and tiki style can be identified; a historical narrative linking them can be developed. Who can argue with such good clean fun? One thing I find interesting is that material like this, however, is apparently taboo in contemporary tiki circles: "Rainy Day Mushroom Pillow," from the 1968 movie, "Psych-Out" even though the "temporal and geographical proximities" are comparable (sixties California) and the music is, I'd argue, a good deal MORE akin to Exotica than is surf. Even the fashion -- Nehru jackets, proudly worn -- is, to me at least, a rather lovably retro nod to the "exotic east," rather akin to the beloved fez. I'm not making the preposterous assertion that "The Strawberry Alarm Clock is Tiki!" (though it was great fun to type those words). Rather, I'm suggesting that the broad agreement that surf music is akin to tiki, but something like the above, which I guess is usually labelled "soft psych," is a million miles away from it, is pretty arbitrary, and carries a whiff of groupthink. If anything, I'd personally rather hear music like the above in a tiki setting than surf music.

Tiki for me is about decompressing from a frenetic modern world which, much as I love it, tends to scream, "Buy this! Do this! Think this!" a bit too much in my opinion. Thus I'm sorry to say that surf music is about the last thing I want to hear in such a context. I want to have some control over my own attention span, to enjoy some relaxed conversation one minute, then drift off and enjoy some sonorous, non aggressive music the next. Surf music makes a great soundtrack to activity like driving or dancing, but when I'm relaxing and trying to mellow out? Not in a million years.

Anyway, just my personal preferences there; not suggesting they carry any more weight than anyone else's. I think we all enjoy creating linkages among cultural artifacts we like, and kind of promoting those linkages to others; it's an arena for personal creativity that makes this stuff more interesting than just collecting and reassembling things as they (presumably) were. So yeah, temporal and geographical proximities between surf music and tiki style can be identified; a historical narrative linking them can be developed. Who can argue with such good clean fun?

One thing I find interesting is that material like this, however, is apparently taboo in contemporary tiki circles:
"Rainy Day Mushroom Pillow," from the 1968 movie, "Psych-Out"
even though the "temporal and geographical proximities" are comparable (sixties California) and the music is, I'd argue, a good deal MORE akin to Exotica than is surf. Even the fashion -- Nehru jackets, proudly worn -- is, to me at least, a rather lovably retro nod to the "exotic east," rather akin to the beloved fez.

I'm not making the preposterous assertion that "The Strawberry Alarm Clock is Tiki!" (though it was great fun to type those words). Rather, I'm suggesting that the broad agreement that surf music is akin to tiki, but something like the above, which I guess is usually labelled "soft psych," is a million miles away from it, is pretty arbitrary, and carries a whiff of groupthink. If anything, I'd personally rather hear music like the above in a tiki setting than surf music.

Post #550394 by Thomas on Thu, Aug 26, 2010 5:39 PM