Legend Of The Jivaro - Yma Sumac (1957)

ideated from: the weird world of pop music in 1957

The genre called “exotica” was a very specific niche of 50s music. It wasn’t an earnest attempt to get attention for artists from the non-English-speaking world. It strikes me that it was more like a circus side show: come listen to the freaks that make weird music. But at the same time, the music was great, and I think a lot of people probably said they liked it because it was silly, when in reality they liked it because it was a lot more interesting and challenging than Pat Boone and Paul Anka. Irony didn’t really exist as a concept that people could hang a name on in this era, I think; so this was the beginning of several interesting threads in music and pop culture and an early example of music that was culturally relevant without actually being objectively very good.

Sumac may or may not have been (probably wasn’t) a “descendant of Inca kings” but she had a wildly great voice and made music that may or may not have been (certainly wasn’t) authentically indigenous South American. On doing some further reading and listening, I find that this is one of her weaker albums, all caricature and no substance. But it is fun, and you can see why many people might have preferred it to the more “serious” alternatives of the time.