Post #605935 by tiki mick on Thu, Sep 8, 2011 10:47 AM

Lucas tend to agree with grog on this. In my mind, surf rock is rock, period. I don't believe it is tiki....however, popular opinion shows that it is very much a part of current tiki revival.

If you look at all the bands that are included in "tiki", you will see that the vast majority of them are in fact, surf rock, or even garage rock, who simply include tiki iconography in thier act to some degree or another.

As much as I respect the musicianship of some of these bands (slacktone and insect surfers being my favorites) I still see little or no relation to the original tiki scene.

Simply put, tiki music was an extension of lounge/cocktail culture, which was the equivelent of yes, "yuppie" culture of that period. The music was influenced by jazz and the hollywood version of ethnic music.

Nowhere in any of it was loud guitar, drum sets, electric basses or any of the trappings of rock. I am sure there may have been some exceptions (such as arthur Lyman's use of electric bass on later recordings during the 70s)but on the whole, the original tiki music was so far away from rock that I have never understood how some make a connection between them.

Doesn't really matter at this point, though. Surf music is firmly established in today's tiki scene. Some of it is quite good, actually. Though not really my cup of tea.

Not to say one type of music is better then the other, but from a sheer technical standpoint, surf music is very easy to play compared to the music of Denny, Baxter or lyman, and hence it's popularity. There are only a handful of players in our scene that could handle the intricate chord changes and music theory issues of real tiki music. yet, I could teach anyone, and I mean ANYONE, to be able to play the few chords needed for surf music in less then one month. Conversly, it would take years of professional quality education to be able to handle the music of Denny and Lyman and make it work. There are exceptions of course...many self-taught people here who have over the years, learned enough theory to be able to pull it off.

But if you look at most of the professional exotica bands still around, they are filled with true musicians. People with classical and jazz training.