Exotica is an hybrid pop music genre which first appeared in the middle of the Twentieth Century. Of particular note is the aesthetic associated with exotica, which has little to do with its history but everything to do with its historical milieu, and with its attitude. It is essentially a form of small-band jazz characterized by tribal percussion, early synthesizer organ instrumentals, and crazy sound effects including human voices and animal calls.
Musically speaking, exotica arose from a pan-American tradition of big band jazz. Most of the standards of "first wave" exotica are actually, structurally speaking, Afro-Cuban instrumentals. In fact, by the time exotica proper entered the music scene, most exotica conventions had already been defined by Latin composers within mainstream jazz years prior. However, exotica began to come into its own in the 1940's, when conductors like Xavier Cugat began to add unusual instruments and percussion beats to achieve exotic effects. But in the early 1950's, these deviations began to become standardized as an alternative scene. It was in this era that the progenitor of all exotica LP's, Les Baxter's milestone 10" Le Sacre du Sauvage, was released.
However, over the next twenty years, exotica underwent certain definitive changes in the hands of lounge musicians like Martin Denny (whose debut album, Exotica, gave the genre its name) and Arthur Lyman (who had played with Denny's band until his own debut, Taboo), and a tradition was formed. Baxter's and Cugat's larger orchestras were pared down to intimate lounge bands, often with a bizarre array of drums. Bird calls, cat howls, and even human ululation were added to the instrumentals in order to evoke the mystique of the jungle. According to legend, when Denny and Lyman's band were first perfecting their style in open-air subtropical bars, frogs would actually sing along with the beat. It was in these lounges that exotica music wed chemically with the Tiki aesthetic of War-era suburbanite culture, and this is how it came to be associated with Hawai'i and Polynesia despite having little to do with the Pacific in terms of influence, except insofar as it was invented by men who had fought or had friends who had fought in the Pacific Theater during World War II. After the connection was made, though, some artists began to incorporate Hawai'ian instruments like the slack key guitar. Above all, the drums were the engine of exotica. Some have said that the sensual beats served as a "safe" release from strict neo-Victorian mores during the 1950's.
This all served only to make exotica more fun.
As exotica continued to enchant America (and as it continued to sell millions of records), it began to attract the attention of more musicians, and more seminal works of exotica were produced by Michael Magne, Rex Kona, and Sabu Martinez. However, like most indiepop, it eventually became part of America's collective cultural kitsch, and by the late 60's all that really survived of exotica in the imagination of America were some moth-eaten Hawai'ian shirts and backyard luau torches.
And, of course, the records.
In the 1990's, when musicians began experimenting with forms of music from throughout the past century, exotica experienced some amount of revival. Old LP's were remastered for CD, and influenced a whole new generation of musicians. Perhaps the most successful neo-exotica band was Massachusetts lounge-revival quintet Combustible Edison, though Man... or Astro-Man? also did some work with an exotica dimension. In all, this "second wave" exotica has earned itself a quite successful cult status.
http://www.wildsscene.com/music/exotica.html
http://www.kevdo.com/exotica/evolution.html
http://home.texoma.net/~kgreg/exotica.html
