Credit: SUPERCRITICAL FLOWS Archive

Easy listening music that will sooth the surf soul and drift you off to a paradise either at a tiki-bar or in your brain.

(Lists of bands, albums, tiki-bars, and cool kitschy stuff..)

Exotica Genre:

Exotica is easy-listening bar lounge music (typically without singing) that emulates a made-up world of Polynesian island lifestyle and/or outer space travels. The genre was pop-music back in the 1950’s and 1960’s to the generation who grew up during WW-II.

Exotica music, the name that was given to this genre of music, is almost dead except for an underground re-birth in tiki bars hidden in larger cities that most people are unaware of and by hip vinyl record collectors.

Really need to listen exotica to understand it and then dig into it beyond this e-zine.

Exotica Radio Shows

Quiet Village Radio

For online streaming https://www.digitiki.com/radio.html

Musicians/Bands

Les Baxter (March 14, 1922 –January 15, 1996)

Known as the person who started exotica music.

Martin Denny (April 10, 1911 – March 2, 2005)

But it was Martin Denny and his album “Exotica” that named the genre. Below is Martin Denny’s version of Les Baxter’s “Quiet Village” but embellished deeper base, louder keys, and kicked in with plenty of faux island jungle sounds.

Ixtahuele (? -present day)

Ixtahuele is a Swedish band in a more classic exotica sound.

Waitiki 7 (2003- present day)

Per their web page, “Founded in Boston (2003) by two frost-bitten Honolulu college transplants, WAITIKI (a portmanteau of “Waikiki” and “Tiki”) is a professional musical ensemble specializing in midcentury Exotica music.” Now based in Honolulu, HI & Boston, MA.

Stolen Idols (2008- present day)

Tampa based exotica and Latin jazz ensemble.

Mr. Ho’s Orchestrotica (2010-present day)

Mr. Ho’s Orchestrotica is a collection of multiple ensemble formations, “Esquivel Megaband” and “Quintet”.

Johnny Rad & the Eggplants (1987)

Probably the most famous skateboard lounge lizard was Johnny Rad from the iconic skate movie “The Search for Animal Chin”.

Tiki Bars and Lounges:

Tiki bars came about in the 1930’s and have survived to this day as a place selling sugary cocktail mixes in kitschy ambiences of dark establishments.

Tiki Bars Locator (USA);

Looking to get responsibly exotica lounged out, check this tiki bar finder-https://thesearchfortiki.com/map/

Tiki Bar History:

The history of tiki bars is on-going and at times problematic as it reflects the historical whitewashing of colonialism and unfortunately racism. But the tastes, kitschy art, and sounds of tiki bars can and do diverge from the underlying historical realities of the genre.

Unfortunately information on the history of tiki bars are hard to come by. The internet web pages/chat rooms dedicated to tiki bars are limited in numbers and seem to be more focused on mixing cocktails, collecting tiki mugs, building basement private tiki bars, as well as discussions of local tiki bar establishments that far too often go out of business. Books on tiki bar history are extremely expensive, lack in public library stacks, and are held in guarded private collections.

After surfing the internet for tiki bar history, one very succinct description of tiki bar history was found on the Inuhele web page out of Atlanta, GA https://inuhele.com/about

“…We recognize mid-century modern/Polynesian pop as a specific American art style lasting from around 1933 to 1976 (excellently described and demarcated by Sven Kirsten in his book and including ‘pre-tiki, beachcomber, tiki, and tiki devolution’ styles.) We also recognize Tiki revival (1988-2000), Craft Cocktail (2000-2010), and “3rd wave” Tiki (2011-2018) as different, related scenes with their own features…”

The third wave of tiki bars may have actually lasted longer up to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. Like many other businesses, the pandemic put many tiki bars at bay or out of business.

But in May of 2023, the pandemic was declared over and the economy in the US roared back to life at a staggering pace that was reflected by high inflation and high interest rates in an effort to slow down the overheated economy. Tiki bar establishments (public and private) seemed to have survived it all, that is until the next low-tide of questionable financial dealings may show who do not have swimsuits on and who gets a good spanking of financial disaster…. Early 2025 and the tide is about to drop..