 Beatniks Generation in San Francisco
|
Parisian Beatniks Hanging Out on Bank of the Seine
|
 |
|
In the United States the Beats, or Beatniks, were originaIly a West Coast phenomenon. The word 'beat' was primarily in use after World War II by jazz musicians and hustlers as a slang term meaning down and out, or poor and exhausted. Jazz musician Mezz Mezzrow combined it with other words like 'dead beat'or 'beat-up' in his book Really The Blues.
Like the Parisian Existentialists of the Iate 1940s they were an esthetic / radical movement of dissent whose rebellion took a cultural rather than a directly political form.
When the term 'Beat Generation' began to be used as a label for the young people sometimes referred to as 'hipsters' or 'beatsters' in the late 1950s, the word 'beat' lost its specific references to a particular subculture and became a synonym for anyone living as a bohemian or acting rebelliously or appearing to advocate a revolution in manners.
In fact, the Beats practised a form of bohemianism accompanied by jazz.
Whereas Teddy Boys, Mods, bikers and blousons noirs were mainly working-class rebels, these were inteIlectuals who hung out at the poetry readings at the Hungry I Cafe and other venues of the North Beach area of San Francisco, where there were links both with the homosexual subculture and with the radical tradition from the 1930s.
Beatniks frequently rejected middle-class American values, customs, and tastes in favor of radical politics and exotic jazz, art, and literature. “Daddy-O” (a term of address); “Cool, man, cool”; and “strictly dullsville” are examples of slang expressions used by beatniks.
 More Content
|
Main Page 
1945 - 1960
Periods
Next Page: 