129:
527:
722:"At that time musicians used jive talk among themselves and many customers were picking up on it. One of these words was hep which described someone in the know. When lots of people started using hep, musicians changed to hip. I started calling people hipsters and greeted customers who dug the kind of jazz we were playing as 'all you hipsters.' Musicians at the club began calling me Harry the Hipster; so I wrote a new tune called 'Handsome Harry the Hipster.'" – Harry Gibson, "Everybody's Crazy But Me" (1986).
270:
600:, has become the paradigmatic example of hipster ideology. Mailer described the hipsters as individuals "with a middle-class background (who) attempt to put down their whiteness and adopt what they believe is the carefree, spontaneous, cool lifestyle of Negro hipsters: their manner of speaking and language, their use of milder narcotics, their appreciation of jazz and the blues, and their supposed concern with the good orgasm." In a nod to Mailer's discussion of hipsterism, the
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slang or vocabulary that was developed in urban
African American communities. It was adopted more widely in African-American society and then later into the mainstream. This style of English dialect peaked in the 1940s.
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defined them as "characters who like hot jazz." In 1947, Gibson sought to clarify the switch in the record "It Ain't Hep" which musically describes the difference between the two terms.
701:
128:
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was the popular style amongst hepcats. It incorporated baggy suits with loud colors, thick chalk stripes, floppy hats, and long chains. Many zoot suiters would often wear a
261:
published the first dictionary by an
African-American. This dictionary was specified for jive talk and other phrases that were popular amongst African-American youth.
542:
described hipsters as "rising and roaming
America, bumming and hitchhiking everywhere characters of a special spirituality". Toward the beginning of his poem
582:—and electing instead to "divorce from society, to exist without roots, to set out on that uncharted journey into the rebellious imperatives of the self".
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who ought to be counted as some of the "true" original hipsters as they were instrumental in turning the White
American audience onto jazz and its
333:
remarked that "Cab
Calloway was taking ownership of language for a people who, just a few generations before, had their own languages taken away."
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mentioned "angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night". In his 1957 essay
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of racial diversity and their exploratory sexual nature and drug habits. The drug of choice was marijuana, and many hipster
242:, color-coordinated with the suit. Occasionally they would have a long feather on the fedora or pork pie hat as decoration.
999:
404:(originally writing under the pen name Francis Newton) described hipster language—i.e., "jive-talk or hipster-talk"—as "an
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Kerouac, Jack. "About the Beat
Generation", (1957), published as "Aftermath: The Philosophy of the Beat Generation" in
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and "hot" jazz than they were in swing, which by the late 1940s was becoming old-fashioned and watered down by "
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designed to set the group apart from outsiders". This group crucially included White jazz musicians such as
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The new philosophy of racial role reversal was transcribed by many popular hipster authors of the time.
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in his short glossary "For
Characters Who Don't Dig Jive Talk", published in 1944 with the album
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are of uncertain origin, with numerous competing theories being proposed. In the early days of
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and Robert Coates. In the 1940s, White youth began to frequent Black communities for their
848:"The White Negro and the Negro White / In Phylon. Summer 1967, vol. 28, no. 2, pp.168-177"
8:
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described singer Bing Crosby as "the first hip white person born in the United States."
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Artistic
Ambassadors: Literary and International Representation of the New Negro Era
526:
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702:"The 'Hepster Dictionary' Was the First Dictionary Written By an African American"
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132:
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This article is about the 1940s subculture. For the contemporary subculture, see
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820:"Norman Mailer, "The White Negro," Fall 1957, reprinted in Dissent, Winter 2008"
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variant to describe anybody who was "in the know" about an emerging, mostly
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began to be used commonly in mainstream "square" culture, so by the 1940s
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hairstyles, loose fitting or oversize suits with loud colors,
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249:. Jive talk (also known as Harlem jive or simply Jive) is an
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966:, a critical dissection of the hipster phenomenon from 1948.
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youths seeking to emulate the lifestyle of the largely
183:, which became popular in the early 1940s. The hipster
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rose in popularity among jazz musicians, to replace
534:The hipster subculture rapidly expanded, and after
319:
Cab
Calloway's Cat-ologue: A "Hepster's" Dictionary
191:, including some or all of the following features:
56:. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
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913:The Dark Ages: Life in the United States 1945–1960
400:(1959), the British historian and social theorist
325:as "a guy who knows all the answers, understands
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245:When conversing, hepcats would communicate in
750:
620:has been discussed as "hipster diplomacy".
843:
699:
116:Learn how and when to remove this message
525:
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127:
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585:
562:, the American novelist and journalist
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480:in the 1930s and 1940s. Clarinetist
344:By the late 1930s, with the rise of
257:In 1938, jazz bandleader and singer
167:, as used in the 1940s, referred to
54:adding citations to reliable sources
25:
891:Dig: Sound and Music in Hip Culture
566:characterized hipsters as American
251:African-American Vernacular English
13:
1025:Youth culture in the United States
882:
700:Blakemore, Erin (August 1, 2017).
14:
1036:
953:
670:Hipster (contemporary subculture)
487:Hipsters were more interested in
396:jazz musicians they followed. In
385:Initially, hipsters were usually
21:Hipster (contemporary subculture)
515:were dedicated to the substance.
317:in the title of his dictionary,
30:
65:"Hipster" 1940s subculture
41:needs additional citations for
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837:
812:
790:
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751:Dan Fletcher (July 29, 2009).
725:
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693:
570:, living a life surrounded by
1:
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211:, relaxed attitude, love for
187:adopted the lifestyle of the
870:University of Virginia Press
7:
1000:Counterculture of the 1940s
960:"A Portrait of the Hipster"
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594:'s 1957 pamphlet, entitled
329:". British author and poet
294:, musicians were using the
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779:The First Hip White Person
755:. time.com. Archived from
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151:in New York City, wearing
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806:November 7, 2008, at the
630:Aftermath of World War II
610:African-American culture
273:African American men in
16:American jazz subculture
313:was used by bandleader
1005:History of subcultures
787:. Retrieved 2008-03-02
650:Cultural appropriation
548:, the Jewish-American
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523:
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930:Tirro, Frank (1977).
529:
521:
376:Boogie Woogie In Blue
339:
272:
219:music, and styles of
131:
616:for the purposes of
586:Racial role reversal
574:—annihilated by the
309:. In 1938, the word
50:improve this article
915:. South End Press.
889:Ford, Phil (2013).
665:Greatest Generation
655:Etymology of hippie
478:underground culture
362:. In 1944, pianist
995:Fashion aesthetics
733:"Hipster Glossary"
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342:
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209:recreational drugs
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149:Minton's Playhouse
580:social conformity
390:European American
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990:1940s neologisms
970:"The White Negro
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860:Roberts, B. R.,
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784:Atlantic Monthly
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759:on July 30, 2009
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708:. Archived from
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676:How to Speak Hip
645:Cannabis culture
618:public diplomacy
578:or strangled by
394:African-American
321:, which defines
300:African-American
179:, in particular
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934:Jazz: A History
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883:Further reading
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866:Charlottesville
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712:on Oct 8, 2017.
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608:deployments of
597:The White Negro
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568:existentialists
559:The White Negro
505:music and dance
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197:jive talk slang
133:Thelonious Monk
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954:External links
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660:Generation Gap
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554:Allen Ginsberg
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398:The Jazz Scene
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67: –
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61:Find sources:
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51:
45:
44:
39:This article
37:
33:
28:
27:
22:
1010:Jazz culture
933:
912:
909:Jezer, Marty
890:
861:
856:
839:
828:. Retrieved
824:the original
814:
801:, March 1958
798:
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761:. Retrieved
757:the original
727:
718:
710:the original
705:
695:
674:
595:
589:
557:
543:
540:Jack Kerouac
536:World War II
533:
509:philosophies
501:Guy Lombardo
486:
466:Tony Bennett
430:Mezz Mezzrow
397:
387:middle-class
384:
379:
375:
371:
367:
364:Harry Gibson
359:
353:
349:
343:
322:
318:
315:Cab Calloway
310:
306:
295:
285:
281:
279:
259:Cab Calloway
256:
244:
240:pork pie hat
229:
207:, and other
164:
160:
158:
141:Roy Eldridge
112:
106:January 2022
103:
93:
86:
79:
72:
60:
48:Please help
43:verification
40:
1020:Stereotypes
1015:Subcultures
874:pp. 145–148
763:November 1,
640:Bohemianism
513:slang terms
458:Joey Bishop
454:Jerry Lewis
450:Dean Martin
442:Bing Crosby
331:Lemn Sissay
169:aficionados
984:Categories
976:from 1957.
945:0393961877
938:. Norton.
922:0896081281
893:. Oxford.
830:2010-09-02
753:"Hipsters"
688:References
576:atomic war
482:Artie Shaw
474:Gene Krupa
470:Chet Baker
462:Perry Como
303:subculture
280:The words
275:zoot suits
217:Jump blues
185:subculture
173:jump blues
159:The terms
153:zoot suits
145:Teddy Hill
76:newspapers
872:, 2013),
781:." 2001.
438:Doc Pomus
426:Stan Getz
366:modified
340:A hep cat
247:jive talk
232:zoot suit
225:Lindy hop
199:, use of
911:(1999).
804:Archived
624:See also
606:Cold War
530:Hep cats
522:Hep cats
380:hipsters
205:cannabis
799:Esquire
706:History
635:Beatnik
550:Beatnik
495:" like
493:squares
418:Al Cohn
372:hipster
323:hep cat
311:hepster
307:hepcats
265:History
201:tobacco
161:hipster
90:scholar
942:
919:
897:
682:Wigger
472:, and
368:hepcat
236:fedora
165:hepcat
143:, and
92:
85:
78:
71:
63:
972:" by
572:death
552:poet
489:bebop
406:argot
346:swing
181:bebop
97:JSTOR
83:books
940:ISBN
917:ISBN
895:ISBN
765:2009
612:and
545:Howl
410:cant
327:jive
292:jazz
284:and
230:The
213:Jazz
193:Conk
177:jazz
175:and
69:news
962:by
408:or
370:to
360:hep
355:hip
350:hep
296:hep
287:hip
282:hep
238:or
227:.
215:or
171:of
163:or
52:by
986::
868::
741:^
704:.
604:'
499:,
468:,
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448:,
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348:,
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903:.
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864:(
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833:.
767:.
735:.
155:.
119:)
113:(
108:)
104:(
94:·
87:·
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23:.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
