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Exotica is a musical genre that was popular during the 1950s to mid-1960s with Americans who came of age during World War II. The term was coined by Simon "Si" Waronker, Liberty Records co-founder and board chairman, named after the 1957 Martin Denny album Exotica. The musical colloquialism exotica means tropical ersatz, the non-native, pseudo experience of insular Oceania, Southeast Asia, Hawaii, the Amazon basin, the Andes, the Caribbean and tribal Africa. Denny described the musical style as "a combination of the South Pacific and the Orient...what a lot of people imagined the islands to be like...it's pure fantasy though." While the South Seas forms the core region, exotica reflects the "musical impressions" of every place from standard travel destinations to the mythical "shangri-las" dreamt of by armchair safari-ers.
Exotica | |
---|---|
Stylistic origins | |
Cultural origins | 1950s, United States |
Typical instruments | Conga, bongos, vibes, Indonesian and Burmese gongs, boobams, Tahitian log, Chinese bell tree, and Japanese kotos |
Audio sample | |
"Quiet Village," by Martin Denny | |
Derivative forms | Lounge music |
English
Noun
exotica
- plural of exotic
- curious, strange, unusual and exotic things.
Translations
Noun
exotica (uncountable)
- (music) A genre of American music from the 1950s, characterized by an evocative musical focus on the islands of the South Pacific.
References
- 2012. Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World Volume 8. Pg. 204.
Anagrams
- caoxite
Latin
Adjective
exōtica
- inflection of exōticus: