John Leland in Hip: The History indicates that urbanization plays an important role in hip. I would have to agree.
When I think of hip in today’s world I do not think of my relatives living in a small farm town in eastern Washington. Hip is not something that is important to a farmer. Paying their mortgages, putting food on the table, and the health of the upcoming crops are their main concerns. They do not care what the "big city folks" do for entertainment or what they are listening to on the radio. I’ve never seen an entertainment television show playing in any of their houses; I’ve hardly seen a television set playing at all.
Things that are hip today are hip hop, Hollywood, and going green. These are all things that the masses in urbanized areas are partaking in; the city provides a sanctuary for people with the same interests to further identify themselves. With more than half of our population concentrated in urbanized areas hip has a pool to fester in.
Hip can exist or even start from outside the urban setting. Here are three examples of modern day hipness moving from rural or suburban areas to the city:
1. Grunge Music – This phenomena and movement had everyone dressing like a street
person, and it came from the suburban garages of the Pacific West Coast.
person, and it came from the suburban garages of the Pacific West Coast.
2. Line Dancing – Don’t pretend that if you were bar hoping in the 90’s you didn’t do a little
Achy Breaky Heart with a group of urban two steppers. This movement was born straight out
of the barn.
Achy Breaky Heart with a group of urban two steppers. This movement was born straight out
of the barn.
3. YouTube – Sure urban communities have the same connection to the internet as do rural ones,
except now those people from small towns can display their hipness and let it spread through
the use of the internet. Beiber fever baby!
except now those people from small towns can display their hipness and let it spread through
the use of the internet. Beiber fever baby!
Leland says, “Hip flourishes during periods of technology or economic changes…..and this produces new freedoms and anxieties” (61). Will we see an emergence of a new standard of hip from what is happening today with the IPad and the unemployment rate? We may indeed see a new movement towards revolutionary hipness. Being of the unhip crowd I cannot imagine what the next new hip thing will be.
What I can still imagine is the power of the Achy Breaky Heart, see video below:
"Things that are hip today are hip hop, Hollywood, and going green. These are all things that the masses in urbanized areas are partaking in; the city provides a sanctuary for people with the same interests to further identify themselves."
ReplyDeleteI agree with the first two on this list: hip hop and Hollywood. But isn't "going green" something that started in rural locales? Doesn't it have a rural, anti-urban ethos to it?
If so, how do you explain it?
When I wrote, "going green," I was not trying to make an argument that the idea started in an urban area, I believe my words were “partaking.”
ReplyDeleteBut, I disagree with you, I don't think the cities movement to live life a little “greener” has anything to do with wanting to live a rural lifestyle, it stems from wanting to preserve the urban culture by reducing waste and pollution, and providing cleaning products that clean rather than poison.
The urbanites idea of green is not tree filled forests and rolling pasture hills; they are not trying to emulate the rural communities. They are the ones who started this movement, and are the ones who have made it hip.
You may argue that the idea of the word “green” means rural, green grass, green trees, just like I argued that “gansters” are organized criminals. Apparently words are just words and their true meanings are subjective, damn the dictionary, damn the rules. We will continue to stretch anything we want to mean, into anything we want it to mean.