Post #681274 by bigbrotiki on Sun, Jun 9, 2013 4:37 AM

Here is my take take on this matter: Folks tend to forget (or have never been aware of) that until the mid- to late 50s, the Tiki was not used much in Polynesian pop as image or name. As the memory of my publications is fading into the background, all kinds of things Hawaiian, bamboo, cocktail or South Seas are being called "Tiki" now. But why would one call a film that was always called a "South Seas movie" a "Tiki movie" now? These are related but different cultural genres to me.

What defines Tiki style and makes it unique is the fact that, yes, it was informed by all that Polynesian pop which came in the decades before it, but it was a new urban American phenomenon, defined by the juxtaposition of modernism and primitivism, by the two antipodes co-exisiting together. AND it was a cultural current unrecognized by the media, that is why there is practically NO film footage that adequately portrays "Tiki style" out there, and no clear "Tiki Movie".

Around the time Tiki became popular in the late 50s, and definitely by the early 60s, TV was becoming the new medium, while Hollywood movies were repeating themselves. That's why there is "Tiki TV", with series like "Hawaiian Eye" and "Adventures in Paradise", using Tikis as major props ( though with many of the plots repeating time-worn South Seas cliches :) )

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2013-06-09 04:39 ]