Should Tiki Central be stripped of any hawaiiana discussions? - General Tiki

TS Tom Slick Tiki Socialite The Beaches of South Bay, SoCal Joined: Aug 26, 2005 Posts: 1093	TS Tom Slick Posted posted on Sat, Jan 24, 2009 9:41 PM Correct me if I'm wrong, but basically what is being said by BigBro is that in so many words....That polynesian/hawaiiana bars first started in the 30s-40s...Then in the late 40s-early 50s, the restaurants/bars evolved/devolved (depending on what side of the fence you are on) with a single paganistic additive and ingredient, that being the Tiki.....From there the Tiki Style (which evolved from Polynesian/Hawaiiana/South Pacific styles from the 30s-40s), thrived and lasted through out the 1950s or "mid century" until the 1970s, when all of the "tiki" style "started" to dissapear. Would this be a fair assesment? As for timelines, I'll go out on a limb, and say that, In my opinion, Tiki style from the 50s started dissapearing in the 70s due to the Disco becoming a strong fad. Notice in the 80s, discos were starting to be coined "nightclubs", and hence evolution of some thing caused the devolution of another, directly and indirectly. I get it. Tiki Central and Sven's vision of polynesian pop culture starts with the tiki, which didn't make it's way into mainstream U.S. until "around" the 1950's, Which reinforces the mid century coinage. It probably had to do alot with pagansitic ideals which is what a tiki god is, and represents, as the 30's and 40's seem so prude compared to the mid century era. True, these were real gods to certain indigenous peoples prior and even up to the 1950's, but when tiki was brought to the mainland, I would have to say,(my opinion and my speculation only) "it was passed off as forbidden or dark/mysterious, all of which were the cool things in the 50's." Same goes for the plastic Shrunken heads that first made their way into 1950's society. Kind of like being taboo, which made the rebelling 50's embrace it all the more. Hawaiiana and Polynesiana influenced the tiki style, which is the major focal point of this website. However, just because the main intent of this website is to preserve the ideas and ideals of the tiki style, does not mean hawaiiana cannot be discussed here. It can. It runs parallel to tiki, but it is not tiki all by itself. Obviously things continue to change. That is what keeps this forum fresh and interesting. I appreciate most of the artists and authors here. Without them, there would be no tiki central, and possibly for some, vice versa. There has been vast amounts of detective work done and solved here due to the sharing of knowledges, and I enjoy reading the stories.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but basically what is being said by BigBro is that in so many words....That polynesian/hawaiiana bars first started in the 30s-40s...Then in the late 40s-early 50s, the restaurants/bars evolved/devolved (depending on what side of the fence you are on) with a single paganistic additive and ingredient, that being the Tiki.....From there the Tiki Style (which evolved from Polynesian/Hawaiiana/South Pacific styles from the 30s-40s), thrived and lasted through out the 1950s or "mid century" until the 1970s, when all of the "tiki" style "started" to dissapear. Would this be a fair assesment?

As for timelines, I'll go out on a limb, and say that, In my opinion, Tiki style from the 50s started dissapearing in the 70s due to the Disco becoming a strong fad. Notice in the 80s, discos were starting to be coined "nightclubs", and hence evolution of some thing caused the devolution of another, directly and indirectly.

I get it. Tiki Central and Sven's vision of polynesian pop culture starts with the tiki, which didn't make it's way into mainstream U.S. until "around" the 1950's, Which reinforces the mid century coinage. It probably had to do alot with pagansitic ideals which is what a tiki god is, and represents, as the 30's and 40's seem so prude compared to the mid century era. True, these were real gods to certain indigenous peoples prior and even up to the 1950's, but when tiki was brought to the mainland, I would have to say,(my opinion and my speculation only) "it was passed off as forbidden or dark/mysterious, all of which were the cool things in the 50's." Same goes for the plastic Shrunken heads that first made their way into 1950's society. Kind of like being taboo, which made the rebelling 50's embrace it all the more.

Hawaiiana and Polynesiana influenced the tiki style, which is the major focal point of this website. However, just because the main intent of this website is to preserve the ideas and ideals of the tiki style, does not mean hawaiiana cannot be discussed here. It can. It runs parallel to tiki, but it is not tiki all by itself.

Obviously things continue to change. That is what keeps this forum fresh and interesting. I appreciate most of the artists and authors here. Without them, there would be no tiki central, and possibly for some, vice versa. There has been vast amounts of detective work done and solved here due to the sharing of knowledges, and I enjoy reading the stories.

Post #430502 by Tom Slick on Sat, Jan 24, 2009 9:41 PM