Hip and the City

Could hip have happened without the urbanization of America? Leland indicates that the “protective anonymity” of the city allowed people to act in ways and put forth ideas that would not be accepted in rural areas or that could get one into trouble with their parents, spouses or clergy.  He maintains that the density of city population ensured that ideas put forth in a book or play that “shocked mainstream sensibilities could find a constituency in a city, spark debate, and beget even more radical works; in a small town it would just be weird.” (p. 63) Hip finds its genesis and acceptance with a crowd.

Leland argues strongly for the necessity of the city in the creation of hip when he says, “In practice hip needs this constant exposure to the larger group; if no one is looking it isn’t really hip.” (p. 70) Hip demands an audience to flourish; with no audience it withers and dies. It’s kind of like the question, “If a man unloads the dishwasher but nobody sees him do it, does it really count?”  Hip ideas, hip fashion, hip art: without an audience, it’s like talking to yourself, which is as weird as the radical ideas that spring up  in a small town.

I think that during the industrialization of America, hip could not possibly have been created in rural or suburban areas.  The city was absolutely necessary as a breeding ground for hip. However, with the advances of technology, specifically the World Wide Web, the dependence of hip on urbanization is minimized. The internet is the new city, providing cover for marginal or radical ideas, as well as anonymity and protection for the person putting forth the ideas while simultaneously providing the largest stage imaginable.  This means that a person in Kuna, ID and a person in New York City have equal opportunity via the internet to broadcast ideas and meet with like-minded people.

Our world is no longer neatly divided into “urban” and “rural” from the perspective of how ideas, and art, and trends are communicated. Therefore, though hip may have required the city in order to be created, the city no longer plays such a critical role in the ongoing evolution of hip.