Post #4097562

2026-07-25 20:15 UTC

@ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org The South Seas record is awesome...part of a long-dead musical movement of the 50s and 60s called Exotica. Basically highly watered down and cliche-driven versions of non-European music, made for white folks in the US. (It coincided with the Tiki bar trend.) Usually involved scantily clad models. Eventually supplanted by what record labels called World Music; stuff watered down for white folks in the US and EU. For collectors like me of cheezy corny music, it's a gold mine.

Replies (2)

@W6KME@mastodon.radio 2026-07-25 21:10

@ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org The Exotica craze started in 1951 with an album by Les Baxter, The Ritual of the Savage. Mid-century cultural gold, but the entire movement has not stood the test of time well (and rightly so obviously). Over the next 20 years, Baxter would release album after album of watered-down music from around the globe. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Her1FR9svRo&list=PLdl1y1w4PGIoaIzADQILkoTPRA62Ugp3_ Not all Exotica is as condescending, and some was genuinely presented. This is what people listened to in those Eames chairs.

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@icastico@c.im 2026-07-25 22:04

@W6KME@mastodon.radio @ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org It spawned interest in legitimate artists from other parts of the world too and may have contributed to the success of artists like Belefonte, Makeba, and Guy Warren. Some serious jazz records resulted as well. One that comes to mind is Art Blakey’s Drum Suite (1957, iirc).

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