Critique of Exotica Music, Politics and the Culture Industry
London: Pluto Press, 2000
In this innovative book, John Hutnyk questions the meaning of cultural hybridity. Using the growing popularity of Asian culture in the West as a case study, he looks at just who benefits from this intermingling of culture. /What does it mean when Madonna dons a bindi or Kula Shaker incorporate sitar music in their music? When Cherie Blair wears a sari to a public dinner? When the national dish in the UK is chicken tikka masala? Is this a celebration of multiculturalism or cultural appropriation?/Focusing on music, race and politics, Hutnyk offers a cogently theorised critique of the culture industry. He looks at artists such as Asian Dub Foundation, FunDaMental and Apache Indian to see how their music is both produced and received. He analyses ‘world’ music festivals, racist policing and the power of corporate pop stars to market exotica across the globe. Throughout, Hutnyk provides a searing critique of a world that sells exotica as race relations and visibility as redress
Trinketization 
Richard Smith – Review of Critique of Exotica
In Intensities: Journal of Cult Media – issue 3.
“John Hutnyk has written a significant work, one that everyone working in the area of contemporary cultural studies needs to engage with. He deals with the central issues of hybridity and authenticity in the context of the appropriation of diverse cultural forms (‘Exotica’) within the global cultural industries by key popular cultural stars. At the heart of the book is a personal commitment to a form of radical politics…”
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