Hip: The History

What does it mean to be "hip?" The simple answer, of course, is that if you have to ask, you have no hope (as I tell my kids, I'm so unhip that according to the arcane rules of hipness, I qualify because I don't adhere to any particular trend or fashion, but I'm not sure they're buying it). John Leland's new book, Hip: The History attempts not so much to quantify what makes something hip as to chart the evolution of the idea as a uniquely American form of expression. Let's face it: hipness is, as Leland recognizes, an American obsession, and these days the culture of hip is America's greatest export to the world. Leland sets out to examine where the whole idea came from, and how we got here from there.

"There" in this instance was actually colonial America, a new country forged in a unique dance between invader and indigenous populations, between master and slave. Leland describes hip as "the dance between black and white - or insider and outsider - that gives America its unique flavor and rhythm." It is a dance of "conflict and curiosity," full of history "defined by racial clash," and ultimately offering (as perhaps is appropriate) a truly alternate account of "centuries of contact and emulation, of back and forth." For Leland, hip is not just about the "theft" of black culture by whites, but rather an occasionally uncomfortable exchange and emulation, often by osmosis.

As he points out, America formed a rather unique version of slavery, where there was often little to separate master from slave (save on large plantations). Often the two races would live, sleep, and work side by side, the only distinction being that one owned the other (a rather big distinction, to be true). The two groups shared folklore, religion, and more; the intriguing thing was that both emerged changed by the experience. Leland argues that hip ultimately represents a component of the African folklore figure of the trickster, modified to suit by generations of outsiders and scoundrels who challenged the status quo, "archetypes of hip" like Mark Twain, P.T. Barnum, Miles Davis, Muhammad Ali, Bob Dylan, and many more.

Hip is an amazingly fluid concept under which that which is old is often new again while at the same time newcomers crash the "American experiment" - hustlers, outlaws, junkies, Beats, and all the other hipsters who shaped American culture over the past two centuries. Leland's examination of the movement's fledgling steps and then its ultimate dominance around the world is fascinating; as he puts it, American culture began to reach beyond its shores in an age of technology and change, just at the same moment that it was "finding its voice, and that voice was a mixture of black and white vernaculars."

Article Author: W.E. Wallo

W.E. Wallo is a book and movie junkie whose writings have appeared in a variety of print and online publications.

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