<SMALL>I don't think the steel guitar by itself is considered an embarassment, but many of the Hawaiian recordings that featured the steel guitar in 1960's could be.</SMALL>
The author of the EnRoute article is a photojournalist/multimedia freelancer. I would suspect that his statement on steel came from something the ukelele players had said.
If that's true, then I think Gerald's comment above is probably correct.
When Hawaii became a pop phenomenom (i.e. marketable and lucrative), its main export to the western world became its culture-- rather, a sterotyped, iconic version of its culture. Hawaiian steel guitar was front and center.
Everyone on this forum knows the undeniable beauty and influence of Hawaiian steel. Most of the world, sadly, seems only familiar with the co-opted, cheesed-up and watered-down "Hawaiian" music that was pandering to the commercial North American market during this period. A lot of it wasn't even coming from Hawaii.
Like all commercial fads, it became a cliche, ate itself alive, passed out of the public mind, and perhaps the "out" sound of the Hawaiian steel guitar became a joke to some people.
Now, of course, when someone says "steel," they almost always mean the ubiquitous Nashville-country pedal steel sound. Some great stuff there too, but very often-- cliche.
Just as some residents of Prince Edward Island here in Canada will cringe slightly when you mention "Anne of Green Gables," (the popular icon of
their island) perhaps some young Hawaiians want to get as far away from the steel as possible, feeling that it has become an embarrassment to their rich musical and cultural heritage. Maybe they don't want to be associated with modern country steel.
The resurgence of ukelele among Hawaiian youngsters could be a sort of reverse orientalism-- rather than taking up the instrument that defined Hawaii to non-Hawaiians (and has since come to define mainstream mainland country music), why not rebel and make excellent music on the most forgotten, misunderstood, and derided instrument of them all?
Tiny Tim ensured that a generation of North Americans would have no further interest in ukelele. Maybe Hawaiians feel like the coast is clear to start playing again without that stigma hanging over them.
I love ukeleles. While recording, we've even ripped half the strings off a mandolin to make it sound more like a uke.
Anyway, sorry to ramble. I think I'm getting a cold.
P.S. I'm a Canadian who has spent lots of time in the U.S. I've found the ratio of kind people to jackasses to be pretty much the same no matter where you are.
