Widening the Horizon: Exoticism in Post-War Popular Music

209 Pages·1999·2.006 MB·English

by  Philip Hayward (Ed.)

WIDENING THE
HORIZON
Dedicated to Amelia, who made her own wonderfully ‘exotic’
sounds while ‘assisting’ me in the editing of this book.
WIDENING THE
HORIZON
Exoticism in Post-War
Popular Music
Edited by
Philip Hayward
perfect
beat
publications
Cataloguing in Publication Data
Wideningthehorizon: exoticisminpost-warpopularmusic.
Bibliography.
Includesindex.
1.Popularmusic–Historyandcriticism.2.Music–Effectofmulticulturalismon.
3.Exoticisminmusic. I.Hayward,Philip.
781.63
ISBN: 978186462 0474(Paperback)
ISBN: 978086196 9333(Electronicedition)
Published by
JohnLibbey Publishing Ltd,3LeicesterRoad,NewBarnet,HertsEN55EW,
United Kingdom e-mail: [email protected];
web site: www.johnlibbey.com
Distributed Worldwide by
Indiana University Press, Herman B Wells Library—350, 1320 E. 10th St.,
Bloomington, IN 47405, USA. www.iupress.indiana.edu
© 1999 Copyright John Libbey Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved.
Unauthorised duplication contravenes applicable laws.
Printed and bound in the United States of America..
iv
Contents
Editor’s Note vii
Introduction The Cocktail Shift: Aligning Musical Exotica
Philip Hayward 1
Chapter 1 Korla Pandit and Musical Indianism
Tim Taylor 19
Chapter 2 Utopias of the Tropics –
The Exotic Music of Les Baxter and Yma Sumac
Rebecca Leydon 45
Chapter 3 Martin Denny and the Development of Musical Exotica
Shuhei Hosokawa 72
Chapter 4 Tropical Cool: The Arthur Lyman Sound
Jon Fitzgerald and Philip Hayward 94
Chapter 5 Soy Sauce Music: Haruomi Hosono and Japanese
Self-Orientalism
Shuhei Hosokawa 114
Chapter 6 Musical Transport: Van Dyke Parks, Americana
and the applied Orientalism of Tokyo Rose
Jon Fitzgerald and Philip Hayward 145
Chapter 7 The Yanni Phenomenon
Karl Neuenfeldt 168
Information About the Authors 190
Bibliography 192
Index 199
v
Acknowledgements
T
hanksfirstlytoShuheiHosokawa,forencouragingmetoeditthisanthol-
ogy. Further thanks are due to Rob Bowman, Claire Butkus, Brent Clough,
Jackey Coyle, Mark Evans, Jon Fitzgerald, Nicholas Kent, Tony Langford,
RalphLocke, DavidMitchell, Tony Mitchell, ToruMitsui, StuartRogers,Aline
Scott-Maxwell, Yngar Steinholt, Amy Stillman, Will Straw, Van Dyke Parks,
Karen Ward, John Whiteoak and Mark Worth for their various assistances.
Bruce Johnson also contributed a valuable critique of the first version of my
Introduction to the volume.
RebeccaCoyle,asever, providedall-roundhelp,guidanceandassistance;and
Rosa Coyle-Hayward kept me sane and well-cuddled.
Van Dyke Parks and Stony Browder Jr. also merit acknowledgement for
widening my own musical horizons during formative teenage years.
I should also note the contribution of three cities, Honolulu, Montreal and
Sydney,whoseclubs,bars,universitiesandsecond-handrecordshopshelped
me to triangulate the phenomena analysed in these pages.
Research for this book was assisted, in various ways, by the departments of
Media and Communication Studies and Music Studies at Macquarie Univer-
sity, Sydney – for which many thanks.
vi
Editor’s Note
Bibliography – the bibliographical references for individual chapters are col-
lated on pages 192-198.
Discography – all original recordings are referred to in the body of text of
individual chapters by dates. Details of relevant CD reissues/compilations of
this material are included at the end of each chapter.
Internet Sources – individual articles published on world wide web sites are
included (together with their web site addresses), in the book’s end bibliog-
raphy; general web site references are included at the end of each chapter
(where relevant).
Cover photograph: Philip Hayward.
Widening the Horizon is co-published in Sydney by John Libbey and Co and
Perfect Beat Publications.
Perfect Beat Publications also publish Perfect Beat – the Pacific Journal of
Contemporary Music and Popular Culture.
General information about the journal can be obtained from:
The Music Office, Division of Humanities, Macquarie University, NSW 2109,
Australia
http://www.ccms.mq.edu.au/pbeat
[email protected]
vii

Introduction
THE COCKTAIL SHIFT
Aligning Musical Exotica
THECOCKTAILSHIFT
PHILIP HAYWARD
F
or anyone interested in exploring beyond the boundaries of the contem-
porary popular music scene, the past is a strange and wonderful place. Much
of itisalso arealm of amnesia. While the histories of formssuch asthe blues
and jazz have been studiously recovered, recorded and analysed, other styles
and genres remain obscure. Taste (and its politics) are the key factors here.
The histories of blues and jazz have been explored by a loose association of
enthusiasts, collectors and scholars. The motivation for such initiatives has
beenacuriositywhichderivesfromparticularcombinationsofpersonal,class
and/or cultural/sub-cultural tastes1. Due to its reliance on such taste agendas
the archaeology of popular music – both popular and academic – has been
essentiallyarbitraryandadhoc.WhilePopularMusicStudieshasestablished
itself as an academic discipline in the West over the last 10–15 years, it has
not identified any methodical excavation and characterisation of its historical
object of study as essential to its project. Even in its most accomplished and
insightful forms, it is still largely premised on the curiosity of the individual
researcher/writer and thefortuities of funding,institutionalenablementetc.It
has thereforealloweditselfto settlewithinaframeinheritedfrom(traditional
forms of) Art History and Literary Studies, where the gourmet aesthetic of
leading practitioners creates explicit and implicit canons2 which act as focal
points for the construction of critical and/or historical discourse.
There are two principal ways of addressing this weakness in the field. One
involves the external revision of the whole project. The other, a revision and
displacementofthecentralcanonandthespecificanalyticalmodelswhichled
to its establishment. Noble as the former option is, such a meta-analytical
enterprise has never been attempted, nor accomplished, by a Humanities
discipline– old or New –and remainsa task unlikely to beundertaken by the
1