Exotica defined a place in time, but only a handful of artists defined it.
Martin Denny coined the term in 1957 when he called an album
Exotica but at that point, the fad was well underway, kicked off at the dawn of the '50s by
Les Baxter, who released his own groundbreaking album,
Ritual of the Savage, in addition to producing and arranging
Voice of the Xtabay, the 1950 debut by
Yma Sumac. What all these records had in common was a fascination with the island culture of the Pacific Ocean -- specifically the island of Hawaii, which had yet to become an American state when exotica was all the rage in the '50s. Eventually, Hawaii entered the union and the South Pacific craze waned, but exotica lingered into the '60s, only to resurface during the '90s as the anchor of the lounge revival.