Post #696884 by tiki mick on Mon, Oct 21, 2013 7:39 AM

It all really depends on who is doing the labeling...

Is it the jazz loving mid century purist like me?

Or is it the rockabilly/punk/surf/Kar Kuture/low brow person for whom tiki is just a sub-set of low brow culture?

I don't have any proof, but I would estimate today's neo-tiki scene is about 70-30. 70% being the low brow enthusiasts, 30 % being those that like pure tiki. That seems to be the make-up on this forum.

(of course, some, like Lucky Designs dabble in BOTH, and like BOTH, but that seems to be an exception, and not really a rule....most seem to come from one or the other viewpoints exclusively)

The thing to consider is that the original tiki scene (if you can call it that) was one of Yuppies. Yes, Yuppies. They were the yuppies of that era. What proof do I have? The faces in BOT. Especially the Luau scene (forgot what page)...but these were NOT youth culture. They were the parents of youth culture. Women still wore beehives, men still wore suits. Cocktails were cool, drugs were not. And they did NOT surf! Neither were they all tatted up! They didn't drive hot rods. They were urban people who liked to become urban savages on the weekend. They had the money to invest in fancy hi-fi stereo home consoles, with tubes and made of wood but otherwise hi-fi, and those Arthur Lyman records were often used as demo recordings in the stereo shops (sears, woolworth, etc) Some of these people would probably feel very out of place watching the Creep Creeps headlining some big "tiki" festival, but they would absolutely LOVE the Martini kings (probably without the burlesqe, though)

So it really depends on what age you were in 1965. 40, or 20.

Me, I was Zero, so I am clearly a product of the neo-tiki scene...but damn, I wish some times I was living back then!

http://soundcloud.com/lucas-vigor/sets/set-3/

I AM A SOCIOPATH!

[ Edited by: Lucas Vigor 2013-10-21 07:53 ]