It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Hipster (contemporary subculture). (Discuss)

A hipster is a person who is strongly associated with a subculture that considers itself hip. The term was used originally in the early 1940s to describe aficionados of jazz, and it eventually described many members of the Beat Generation, but its usage declined in the 1960s, with the term hippies coming into wide usage. Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Hipster (1940s subculture). ... In sociology, anthropology and cultural studies, a subculture is a set of people with distinct sets of behavior and beliefs that differentiate them from a larger culture of which they are a part. ... Hip, or hep, is a slang term; an adjective meaning fashionably current. The term originated in African American Vernacular English (AAVE). ... Year 1940 (MCMXL) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1940 calendar). ... For an alternate meaning, see Fan (implement). ... The Beat Generation was a group of American writers who came to prominence in the late 1950s and early 1960s. ... 1960 (MCMLX) was a leap year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1960 calendar). ... Singer at contemporary Russian Rainbow gathering Hippie, usually spelled hippy in the United Kingdom, refers to a subgroup of the 1960s and early 1970s counterculture that began in the United States, becoming an established social group by 1965 before declining during the mid-1970s. ...

In the purest sense, the original hipsters were the hip, mostly black performers of jazz and swing music in the 1940s, or strong followers of such music, at a time when "hip" music was equated with African-American-originated forms of musical expression. Hip, or hep, is a slang term; an adjective meaning fashionably current. The term originated in African American Vernacular English (AAVE). ... A Kenyan man This article is about the different definitions of the term black people. For other terms related to black people, see Black people (terminology). ... Jazz is a musical art form that originated in New Orleans at around the start of the 20th century. ... Swing music, also known as swing jazz, is a form of jazz music that developed during the 1920s and had solidified as a distinctive style by 1935 in the United States. ... Year 1940 (MCMXL) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1940 calendar). ...

Although hipsters could be black or white, the term later and more predominantly came to be used to refer to whites who were aficionados of the music, groupies and members of the so-called Bohemian set, or Beat Generation. Because the jazz scene had long been integrated, hipster culture, too, became integrated before much of the rest of society. The use of the term hipster for whites who had an affinity for the avant-garde and for African-American culture was popularized in Norman Mailer's 1956 essay The White Negro: Superficial Reflections on the Hipster. Hipsters were sometimes referred to as beatniks, a term coined by San Francisco columnist Herb Caen after the Sputnik satellite from Russia. This article does not cite its references or sources. ... The term Bohemian was used in the nineteenth century to describe the non-traditional lifestyles of marginalized and impoverished artists, writers, musicians, and actors in major European cities. ... The Beat Generation was a group of American writers who came to prominence in the late 1950s and early 1960s. ... Children at a parade in North College Hill, Ohio Racial integration, or simply integration includes desegregation (the process of ending systematic racial segregation). ... A work similar to Marcel Duchamps Fountain Avant garde (written avant-garde) is a French phrase, one of many French phrases used by English speakers. ... Norman Mailer, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1948 Norman Kingsley Mailer (born January 31, 1923) is an American novelist, journalist, playwright, screenwriter and film director who, along with Truman Capote and Tom Wolfe, is considered an innovator of creative nonfiction, a genre sometimes called New Journalism. ... Year 1956 (MCMLVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Beatnik cartoon The term beatnik was coined by Herb Caen in an article in the San Francisco Chronicle on April 2, 1958. ... This page is a candidate for speedy deletion. ... Herbert Eugene Caen (April 3, 1916 – February 1, 1997) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist working in San Francisco. ... Sputnik 1 The Sputnik program was a series of unmanned space missions launched by the Soviet Union in the late 1950s to demonstrate the viability of artificial satellites. ... An Earth observation satellite, ERS 2 For other uses, see Satellite (disambiguation). ...

Hipsters were cool. That is, they exhibited a mellow, laid-back attitude that is still called hip. Many also were users and popularizers of recreational drugs, particularly marijuana, amphetamines, and to some extent heroin, which was epidemic for a time among bebop musicians such as Charlie Parker, Billie Holiday, and Miles Davis. Look up cool in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... A Cannabis sativa plant The drug cannabis, also called marijuana, is produced from parts of the cannabis plant, primarily the cured flowers and gathered trichomes of the female plant. ... Amphetamine (alpha-methyl-phenethylamine), also known as speed whiffles, is a stimulant, and club drug, used to diminish the appetite, control weight, and treat disorders including narcolepsy and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. ... Heroin, also known as diamorphine (BAN) or diacetylmorphine (INN), is a semi-synthetic opioid. ... Bebop or bop is a form of jazz characterized by fast tempos and improvisation based on harmonic structure rather than melody. ... Charlie Parker Charles Bird Parker, Jr. ... Billie Holiday (April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959), born Eleanora Fagan and later called Lady Day, was an American singer known equally for her difficult life and her emotive, poignant singing voice. ... Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926 – September 28, 1991) was one of the most distinguished jazz musicians of the latter half of the 20th century. ...

Hipster lingo

Many terms in the hipster argot, such as moe, kicks, square and dig continue to be used in their hipster meanings, though often with a certain level of self-conscious irony attached. Cool has entered the everyday speech of many English speakers, and become so common, it is rarely thought of as a word associated with a particular hipster aesthetic. Argot is primarily slang used by various groups, including but not limited to thieves and other criminals, to prevent outsiders from understanding their conversations. ... Irony, from the Greek ειρων (self-deprecator), is a literary or rhetorical device in which there is a gap or incongruity between what a speaker or a writer says, and what is generally understood (either at the time, or in the later context of history). ... Look up cool in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

An even earlier term for hipster was gate, used because gates swing. Gate, Jim, and Jackson were used in place of regular names in expressions like "Hold on, Jim" and "Solid, Jackson." Hipsters were also known as hepcats, hep being an earlier form of the word hip. Cat/Kat was used to mean "person"; so a hip kat, or hepcat, is a person who is current and up-to-date. However, Hippie was a "Beatnik term"; meaning "Not Hip Enough to be Hip" or "Not hip enough to be a real Beatnik"; basically a wannabe or poseur. ^{[citation needed]}

When Beatnik language was the fad, the stereotypical New York hipster, or bohemian, wore a beret, dressed frequently in black, smoked mentholated Kool cigarettes, wore sunglasses even after sundown, and frequented jazz clubs and beat poetry coffeehouses and cafés in the Village. Many hipster terms generally fell out of use in mainstream, white society with the changing of styles and the coming of hippies in the 1960s, but have remained in use in the African-American community, where they were neither in nor out of fashion, but simply part of the traditional lexicon. The term Bohemian was used in the nineteenth century to describe the non-traditional lifestyles of marginalized and impoverished artists, writers, musicians, and actors in major European cities. ... Basque style Beret Black beret with military emblem A beret (pronounced in English, except in American English in which it is pronounced ) is a soft round cap, usually of wool felt, with a flat crown, which is worn by both men and women. ... The term beat generation was introduced by Jack Kerouac in approximately 1948 to describe his social circle to the novelist John Clellon Holmes (who published an early novel about the beat generation, titled Go, in 1952, along with a manifesto of sorts in the New York Times Magazine: This is... The Washington Square Arch Greenwich Village (pronounced Grennich Village; also called simply the Village) is a largely residential area on the west side of downtown (southern) Manhattan in New York City. ... Singer at contemporary Russian Rainbow gathering Hippie, usually spelled hippy in the United Kingdom, refers to a subgroup of the 1960s and early 1970s counterculture that began in the United States, becoming an established social group by 1965 before declining during the mid-1970s. ... The 1960s decade refers to the years from January 1, 1960 to December 31, 1969, inclusive. ...

While attempts have been made to link the etymologies of hip, tina and dig with Wolof, a West African language,[1] this remains a subject of debate among linguists, and is not widely accepted [2] [3]. Wolof is a language spoken in Senegal, the Gambia, and Mauritania, and it is the native language of the ethnic group of the Wolof people. ...

Origin of the term

The term was originally used around 1940. Jazz musicians had long used the words hep and hepcat to describe themselves and others who were "in the know," but with the popularity of jazz among squares (those not in the know) and the fact that many of these squares were using the terms, musicians started using the word hip, to distinguish themselves from the squares. After the vowel switch, Harry Gibson, popular pianist on Swing Street in NYC, started addressing his audience as hipsters, which other musicians picked up on and kidded him about, and affectionately gave him the nickname, "The Hipster," around 1940. In 1944 he recorded "Handsome Harry, The Hipster," as well as, "Hipster's Blues." HEP can be: head end power a method for providing electricity to train carriages high-energy physics high explosive, plastic anti-tank ammunition, also called high explosive squash head (HESH) higher education provider a classification from the Australian Government Department of Education, Science and Training [1] a housing equity partnership... Hepcat is a third-wave ska band formed in southern California in 1989. ... During the swing era, the late 1920s to 1947, jazz musicians and their followers were called hepcats, and hep was used to describe people who were in the know, about music, night life, drugs, sex, etc. ... Harry The Hipster Gibson (June 27, 1915 – May 3, 1991) was a jazz pianist, singer, and songwriter. ... 52nd Street, properly West 52nd Street, is a cross street in Manhattan in the Broadway district known as Swing Street, the street of jazz, the street that never sleeps or, simply, the street. The blocks of 52nd Street between 5th and 7th avenues were renowned in the mid 20th century...

Probably the first printed dictionary to list the word is the short glossary "For Characters Who Don't Dig Jive Talk," published in 1944 with Gibson's first album, "Boogie Woogie In Blue." The entry for "hipsters" defines it as, "characters who like hot jazz." This short glossary of jive expressions was also printed on playbills handed out at Gibson's concerts for a few years. It was not a complete glossary of jive, as it only included jive expressions that were found in the lyrics to his songs.

Famous hipsters

For a comprehensive look at the Beat Generation of hipsters, see Beat Generation The Beat Generation was a group of American writers who came to prominence in the late 1950s and early 1960s. ...

Actors, comedians, musicians

• Steve Allen, comedian, jazz musician and songwriter, friend and sometime employer of Lenny Bruce as well as collaborator of Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac.
• Mose Allison, singer, pianist, songwriter
• Lenny Bruce, comedian
• Lord Buckley, monologist, "The Bad Rapping of the Marquis de Sade"
• Al "Jazzbo" Collins, disc jockey, broadcasting from the Purple Grotto, hip lexicographer
• Miles Davis, jazz musician and pioneer of Bop and fusion, recorded "Kind of Blue" and "Birth of the Cool"
• Sammy Davis, Jr., singer, actor, and civil rights activist
• Billy Eckstine, singer and bandleader
• Ella Fitzgerald, singer
• Slim Gaillard, musician, "The Groove Juice Special" and "Cement Mixer Puti Puti"
• Harry 'the Hipster' Gibson, pianist, singer of "Who put the benzedrine in Mrs. Murphy's Ovaltine?"
• Henry Jacobs, whose persona was Shorty Petterstein
• Danny Kaye, comedian, singer, and actor who protested the Communist witch hunts of the McCarthy Era.
• Gene Kelly, dancer, comedian, film director, who moved to Paris to enjoy the Bohemian artistic freedom and refused to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee during the McCarthy Era.
• Mezz Mezzrow, jazz musician
• Eric "Big Daddy" Nord, king of the Beats
• Ken Nordine, actor and creator of "word jazz"
• Frank Sinatra, singer and actor.
• Mel Torme, singer, actor and jazz musician
• Ethel Waters, singer, religious worker, actress and civil rights activist

Painters Stephen Valentine Patrick William Allen (December 26, 1921 – October 30, 2000) was an American musician, comedian and writer instrumental in innovating the concept of the television talk show. ... Irwin Allen Ginsberg (IPA: ) (June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American Beat poet. ... Jack Kerouac (pronounced ) (March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969) was an American novelist, writer, poet, artist, and part of the Beat Generation. ... Mose John Allison, Jr. ... Lenny Bruce (October 13, 1925 – August 3, 1966), born Leonard Alfred Schneider, was a controversial American stand-up comedian, writer, social critic and satirist of the 1950s and 1960s. ... Lord Buckley, or Richard Myrle Buckley, (April 5, 1906 - November 12, 1960) was an eccentric, joyous American monologist. ... Lexicography is either of two things Practical lexicography is the art or craft of writing dictionaries. ... Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926 – September 28, 1991) was one of the most distinguished jazz musicians of the latter half of the 20th century. ... BOP or bop may refer to: bleeding on probing (used by Captain Jack) balance of payments an organised party or club night at the universities of Cambridge and Oxford Bebop, an early modern jazz developed in the 1940s Blowout preventer used in oil and gas drilling acronym for bird of... Kind of Blue is a jazz album by musician Miles Davis, released on August 17, 1959. ... Birth of the Cool is an LP released in 1957 by Capitol Records in the USA, collecting eleven of the twelve sides recorded by the nonet featuring Miles Davis, Gerry Mulligan, and others in 1949 and 1950. ... This article is about the entertainer. ... Billy Eckstine (8 July 1914 – 8 March 1993), born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania as William Clarence Eckstein. ... Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917 – June 15, 1996), also known as Lady Ella (the First Lady of Song), was considered one of the most influential jazz vocalists of the 20th Century [1]. With a vocal range spanning three octaves, she was noted for her purity of tone, near faultless... Bulee Slim Gaillard (January 4, 1911 or 1916 - February 26, 1991) was an Cuban jazz singer, songwriter, pianist, and guitarist, noted for his scat singing and wordplay. ... Harry The Hipster Gibson (June 27, 1915 – May 3, 1991) was a jazz pianist, singer, and songwriter. ... Henry Sandy Jacobs, American sound artist and humorist. ... Kaye entertaining U.S. troops at Sasebo, Japan, 25 Oct 1945 David Daniel Kaminsky, known as Danny Kaye (January 18, 1913 – March 3, 1987) was an American actor, singer and comedian. ... Eugene Curran Kelly (August 23, 1912 – February 2, 1996), better known as Gene Kelly, was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. ... City flag City coat of arms Motto: Fluctuat nec mergitur (Latin: Tossed by the waves, she does not sink) Paris Eiffel tower as seen from the esplanade du Trocadéro. ... Milton Mesirow, much better known as Mezz Mezzrow (9 November 1899 - 5 August 1972) was an American Jewish jazz clarinetist and saxophonist from Chicago, Illinois. ... Eric Nord (1920 - 1989), also known as Eric “Big Daddy” Nord, was born Helmuth Pastor in Krafeld, Germany. ... Ken Nordine (born January 19, 1920) is an American voiceover and recording artist. ... Francis Albert Sinatra (December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and Academy Award-winning actor, often cited as the finest male American popular song vocalist of the 20th century. ... Mel Tormé (September 13, 1925 - June 5, 1999) was a jazz singer with a light, velvety, high-tenor voice. ... Ethel Waters, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1938 Ethel Waters (October 31, 1896 – September 1, 1977) was an African American blues vocalist who frequently performed jazz, big band, gospel, and popular music, on Broadway and off. ...

• Andy Warhol, popularizer of the pop art movement

Writers Warhol in 1977 Andy Warhol (August 6, 1928 — February 22, 1987) was an American artist associated with the definition of Pop Art. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ...

• Neal Cassady, friend to Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, beat poet and also the driver of Ken Kesey's bus Furthur on what was known as "The electric kool-aid acid test"
• Allen Ginsberg, Beat poet, friend and contemporary of Kerouac, who served as the face of both the Beats and later the early Hippies
• Jack Kerouac, Beat poet and author of On the Road and The Dharma Bums, which launched the "rucksack revolution" and brought the Bohemian atmosphere of San Francisco to the rest of America.
• Terry Southern, author of "Blood of the Wig", a hipster classic about getting high using a serum derived from the blood of a schizophrenic.

Neal Cassady, left, with Jack Kerouac, photograph by Carolyn Cassady. ... Jack Kerouac (pronounced ) (March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969) was an American novelist, writer, poet, artist, and part of the Beat Generation. ... Irwin Allen Ginsberg (IPA: ) (June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American Beat poet. ... The term beat generation was introduced by Jack Kerouac in approximately 1948 to describe his social circle to the novelist John Clellon Holmes (who published an early novel about the beat generation, titled Go, in 1952, along with a manifesto of sorts in the New York Times Magazine: This is... Kenneth Elton Kesey (September 17, 1935 – November 10, 2001) was an American author, best known for his novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, and as a (counter) cultural figure who, some consider, was a link between the beat generation of the 1950s and the hippies of the 1960s. ... Inside the bus, psychedelic and trippy paintings Furthur was a 1939 International Harvester school bus purchased by author Ken Kesey in 1964, for $1,250 from Andre Hobson in Atherton, California. ... The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test is a literary journalism novel written by Tom Wolfe early in his career. ... Irwin Allen Ginsberg (IPA: ) (June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American Beat poet. ... The term beat generation was introduced by Jack Kerouac in approximately 1948 to describe his social circle to the novelist John Clellon Holmes (who published an early novel about the beat generation, titled Go, in 1952, along with a manifesto of sorts in the New York Times Magazine: This is... Hippies (singular hippie or sometimes hippy) were members of the 1960s counterculture movement who adopted a communal or nomadic lifestyle, renounced corporate nationalism and the Vietnam War, embraced aspects of Buddhism, Hinduism, and/or Native American religious culture, and were otherwise at odds with traditional middle class Western values. ... Jack Kerouac (pronounced ) (March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969) was an American novelist, writer, poet, artist, and part of the Beat Generation. ... The term beat generation was introduced by Jack Kerouac in approximately 1948 to describe his social circle to the novelist John Clellon Holmes (who published an early novel about the beat generation, titled Go, in 1952, along with a manifesto of sorts in the New York Times Magazine: This is... On the Road book cover On the Road is a novel by Jack Kerouac, published by Viking Press in 1957. ... The Dharma Bums cover This is an article about the novel by Jack Kerouac. ... This page is a candidate for speedy deletion. ... Terry Southern (May 1, 1924 - October 29, 1995) was a highly influential American short story writer, novelist, essayist, screenwriter and university lecturer. ... Blood of the Wig is a short story in Red-Dirt Marijuana and Other Tastes (1967) by Terry Southern. ... Schizophrenia is a psychiatric diagnosis denoting a persistent, often chronic, mental illness variously affecting behavior, thinking, and emotion. ...

Quotations

• "Carrying his language and his new philosophy like concealed weapons, the hipster set out to conquer the world." -- Partisan Review, 1948
• "The hipster is a man who's in the know, grasps everything, is alert." -- Mezz Mezzrow, Really The Blues

Partisan Review was an American political and literary quarterly published from 1934 to 2003. ... Year 1948 (MCMXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1948 calendar). ... Milton Mesirow, much better known as Mezz Mezzrow (9 November 1899 - 5 August 1972) was an American Jewish jazz clarinetist and saxophonist from Chicago, Illinois. ... Really The Blues is the 1946 autobiography of Mezz Mezzrow. ...

External links

• The Hipster's Story Autobiography of Harry Gibson, the original hipster
• Hipsters, flipsters, and finger-poppin daddies, the original scene