Mutations of Hip

In chapter 3 of Leland's Hip: the History, he discusses hip has it's origins in the 1910s and 20s as the Great Migration from the Southern U.S. to the Northern U.S. which allowed for the cultural mixing often associated with hip. Personally, I feel that this could not have happened within the confines of a rural setting. While the styles of the time that contributed to jazz originated in the rural South among Black Americans, hazz would not have achieved such a widespread popularity if they did not have access to the record companies and recording technology of the time that was located in New York.
Since most Americans are now born and live in the cities, most hip people, bands, music, and movements originate in the city.

An obvious example is in hip-hop culture, with the origin of rap in the inner city slums. It came from impoverished Black Americans as jazz had, but came from the culture directly within the city. In Bryon Hurt's documentary, which I recently watch in my Women's Studies course, Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes, he discusses the problematic aspects of hip-hop culture. He goes on to say that while hip-hop has it's origins in the Black community, that 70% of it's consumers are of White descent. As Leland also discussed, the mixing of the two cultures often results in White consumers trying to find out more about Black Americans during their exchange; thus, the artists which discuss songs with stereotypes often surrounding Black Americans is what is what is only allowed to be marketed to consumers on a large scale. As White Americans stole the blues, Eminem and Iggy Azalea stole rap. As there were rap songs that did not glorify gang violence before it became a large part of main culture, it is obvious this has occurred. For the most part, this was driven by money as once an audience reaches a certain point, it has to start catering to White folks if they want to increase their monetary gain. In this case at least, hip was driven by the economy and the interests of the larger money pool.

In our reading from week 2, hipsters were discussed. One article in particular, "What Was the Hipster" discussed the hipsters of the 2000s. In the beginning, they seemed to draw largely from sytles associated with '70s suburbia. While they were drawing inspiration from a culture that was not within the city, they still spread had the ability to spread those influences within the structure of the city. Theoretically, those ideas would not have spread with the same ferocity if the group happened to be located in Pueblo, CO. They most likely would have been labeled the weirdos in that particular community. Particularly since the internet did not have the same reach or influence in hip as it does now. Their ideology mostly likely would have not made it past the confines of Pueblo to become the next big thing. To a certain extent, it was probably easier to market this for a larger profit as many of it's styles involved simple styles like plaid flannel shirts and neon-yellow framed, plastic sunglasses.

In one of my previous posts, I discussed difference between the hip and the nerdy. For the most part, nerd culture seems to be becoming part of hip and the mainstream as super hero movies are smashing the box office. This opposes the traditional idea of the lonely nerd that feels misunderstood and alienated by society. If I was taking this class ten years ago, I most likely would not be doing most of my assignments on a blog. Part of why I believe this is changing is caused by the rise in importance of computers in our culture. It has become a key way in our communications and the way we do business. It is hard to deny a subcultures power when their skill set becomes necessary to power the economy. In this case, nerds were able to become integrated into hip culture as the typical idea of the nerd is one who's known for computer programming. As such, it may be possible that other things typically associated with nerd culture are becoming increasingly popular as each is lumped in with the culture. While it was not true in the past, it may be the nerds are part of the current hip group. This is where hip seems to have taken a turn as the nerd community is not limited by location. It mostly takes place on the internet away from the rest of the world. It has grown and has become ever more common for people to admit to having an interest in things stereo typically unacceptable by society (i.e. Bronies). While I'm not entirely sure if it is completely true, nerd culture for the most part seems to have become part of hip with the rise of technology, despite a long period of the two being complete opposites of each other.
As Leland quoted Tower of power (and perhaps stolen from Tim's paper):

" Hipness is -- What it is!

And sometimes hipness is

what it ain't!" 

Since culture is constantly  changing. Something that wasn't hip 20 years ago could easily gain steam in current our current culture.