“Tropical” is a new genre of action/adventure and mystery books, The general requirement is that they are set in paradise. Including boats, beaches, and bars helps (credit to Jimmy). The genre is not new in the sense that these kinds of books were never grouped together. Amazon’s granular system of categorizing everything is responsible and now, it’s a thing.
Eight years ago, when I released my first novel, Wood’s Reef, eBooks were just starting to take off. At that time the Kindle store had around 2,000,000 titles, now it is approaching 10,000,000. The “Sea Adventures” category where this all started had about five or six writers—now there are twenty or thirty.
We have become a close-knit group with a website: Tropical Authors, a newsletter, and a Facebook page. It’s a pretty cool fraternity.
Books didn’t start the trend though. To give credit where it’s due, it was everything Jimmy Buffett and his legions of Parrot Heads who are more responsible than anyone else for the movement.
Buffett is an icon. Kudos to him for everything he’s accomplished, but he’s become a distasteful memory of what he used to be. In some circles that could be construed as heresy—sorry, I call it like I see it. I never officially joined the Parrot Head legions, but I was a fan. I’ve bought most of his albums and a few of his books over the years. I’ve also seen him live.
I get his popularity. A Jimmy Buffett concert is an escape, and if you close your eyes and don’t realize it’s the same show regurgitated repeatedly, then it probably is. But here’s the thing. It’s the Parrot Heads that create the escape, the performance is secondary. The pre-show tailgate party is as unique of an experience as you’ll find anywhere and more fun than the show. A Jimmy Buffett concert is a party.
Jimmy is the glue that holds it all together. Though he still releases an occasional album his music or show hasn’t changed in years, but the tours keep churning and burning. I’m not a fan of “old man rock”, but if these guys want to keep playing and people want to pay and go, that’s cool.
It’s the other side of Jimmy Buffett that bothers me. Margaritaville, his only #1 hit, was brilliant, as a song, a state of mind, and a concept as evidenced by his resorts and restaurants. But with two billion dollars in annual sales, it’s not cool anymore. Instead of the counterculture “Let’s all get drunk and screw” guy who would day drink and spend the afternoon in a hammock, Jimmy is a CEO. He probably has people for that, but it’s his name on the sign.
But there’s more. In one defining moment he became dead to me.
The 2019 NFC Championship game was hosted by the New Orleans Saints and Jimmy, born next door in Mississippi and raised in Mobile, was asked to sing the national anthem. The rendition was fair. The mic drop was disgraceful. His performance aside, the theatrical motion of extending one arm and dropping the mic showed that he is bigger than the national anthem and by extension bigger than all of us. Not a good look for a beach bum.
So sorry you have let one moment define a man’s contribution to our culture. My wife and I are in our late 70s and Jimmy is our favorite musician, but we don’t exclude all the other great artists out there. I have read most of your books and enjoy them, but don’t consider them great literature. Same goes for all the Tropical Authors and I read all of them. It is mindless reading, but that is my enjoyment and I try not to judge anyone else lest I be judged.