Post #610123 by Sabu The Coconut Boy on Thu, Oct 13, 2011 4:44 PM

My mind likes to categorize things. It calms me. So I find less discordance and disagreement when I re-frame the question into What is "Classic Tiki Music" and What is "Tiki Revival Music". Of course, as Jeff Central pointed out, there is no such thing as Tiki Music. At least there wasn't (history is messy and flexible and not rigid). Tiki Music is a modern definition by us based on past trends and current trends, and it's still being defined today. Heck, this thread is probably helping to define it.

Tiki Revival Music has embraced a bunch of retro or nostalgic music genres of the same era (50s/60s) and has created some new hybrids as well. I dig it all, and I think it all has a place here in Tiki Music because it's part of Tiki Revival. I think that Jimmy Buffett's music is like the guy in shorts and flip-flops that tries to get a seat at Trader Vic's during the suit-and-tie era and is swiftly and politely refused service. He and his friends might be offended because they thought that Trader Vic's was the same thing as the Rusty Pelican Fish Shack because they both had an anchor and fish floats out front, but they aren't. Similarly there's still a majority of Tiki-Revival folks who like their music to taste of "Mid-Century" and have a bit of the sophisticated, the urbane, or the exotic in it, (heck, even the surf bands wore suits!)

This isn't new. Back in the mid-sixties, there was a culture clash at a beach-side tiki bar in Long Beach, California because guys in swimsuits and shorts were walking over from the beach to catch the lunch-time bikini fashion show that was supposed to draw the businessmen in. There were angry editorials in the local papers, citing this as a prime example of the decay of culture as it applied to dinner-dress that was occurring at other restaurants and bars in Los Angeles as well. For better or worse, that change happened in the end. Who knows? In 10 or 20 years the same change may eventually occur with Tiki Revival music, and Jimmy Buffett might be lumped in with it whether we like it or not.

Now, when we talk of Classic Tiki Music, (a term we've made up, because we like to categorize history), I'm content with confining it to those types of music that were "unique" to tiki restaurants of the mid-century - namely Hawaiian and Exotica. That's not to say that tiki restaurants ONLY played those two genres, because they played a fair amount of dance music as well. But so did every restaurant.

When we get down to the smaller tiki bars, it gets messier. I'd say, (based on newspaper research), that a slight majority of them had a Hawaiian combo playing hapa-haole music or a girl in the corner playing the ukulele - but not a large majority. You were just as likely to find a Jazz combo or a Greek combo or a polka band or a torch-singer. The Chinese restaurants that converted to Tiki often only added the decor and drinks but booked a staggering array of music and performers, including country-music, magicians, comedians and psychics to entertain the guests.

In the late 60's, most places, (if they could afford it), added a room in the back or the basement for the Go-Go dancing and Rock bands the younger crowd wanted. Later, in the 1970s, the majority of tiki restaurants converted completely to Rock and Disco, because the musical tastes of society changed faster than their taste for ribs and won-tons and rum drinks, which lasted much longer.

[ Edited by: Sabu The Coconut Boy 2011-10-13 17:27 ]