Part 5: The Four Qualities of Cool
A summary of the Roots of Cool series and how it became an essential part of American culture.
The Roots of Cool series was based on the hypothesis that personal “coolness” can be defined by qualities that transcend time and culture. Over four posts, we’ve discussed composure, awareness, rebellion, and authentic expression. While the list may not be complete, it serves as a solid starting point for further research.
Below, I’ll review the four qualities and discuss the arrival of radio and how it brought the qualities of coolness into nearly every home.
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The Arrival of Radio and Mass Media
Imagine being a young person in middle America in 1925. You’ve read about jazz, flappers, and speakeasies, but they were out of reach in some far-off city. The music you experienced was folk or country, classical, or gospels at church.
Then something amazing happened: your family purchased a radio. For the first time, you could be transported into the dance halls of New York, Chicago, and New Orleans and hear the music that made people dance. This experience opened your mind to a new and exciting world.
You fell in love, but to those around you, jazz was the “devil’s music” and an affront to American values. This, of course, made it feel even more attractive. Deep down, you want to push back against mainstream values, and jazz is your soundtrack.
Jazz on the Radio
The emergence of radio was the first time Americans could experience mass media. A single performer could now appear in millions of living rooms nationwide. Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Dule Ellington, and Louis Armstrong became household names, some with racially integrated bands.
This was a time of extreme cultural change. The Victorian-era ideals of morality and propriety were being challenged, and now, these subversive ideas were riding radio waves into almost every home.
Again, we see a dynamic that will define popular culture in the 20th century: a clash between people who want to uphold traditional ideals and those who want to challenge them and push for change.
This clash is the beginning of a movement that will grow in power and influence for generations: the counter-culture.
The Attractive Qualities of American Cool
What drew young Americans to jazz and jazz musicians in the early 20th century? What did they see that was so attractive?
They saw people who embodied a sense of coolness they did not experience in their normal lives. These artists were talented and popular, but they also had undefinable and subjective qualities that added to their allure.
Throughout this series, I’ve outlined four qualities that I believe are essential to the American concept of cool:
Cool Composure: Calm effortlessness and grace under pressure
Hip Awareness: Social grace and cultural awareness
Spirit of Rebellion: A willingness to challenge norms and the mainstream
Authentic Expression: Being true to one’s self in all things.
These factors, which likely emerged from West African cultures, the melting pot of slavery, and the 19th and 20th centuries, can help explain what audiences saw in jazz musicians and other artists of the time. They can also help us understand the unspoken and mysterious undercurrents of coolness today.
Coolness cannot be deconstructed or analyzed rationally. It exists in our minds and emotions more than specific behaviors or fashions. It changes constantly and must be sensed. There is no rule book; if there were, it would instantly become uncool.
This reality was the challenge of the Roots of Cool series: to attempt to define the origins and qualities of coolness so we can understand and analyze them from a new perspective.
A Deeper Dive into the Four Qualities
In the future, I’ll use these qualities as a yardstick for understanding who became cool, what became cool, and why. Let’s review what we’ve learned so far.
Cool Composure
Think of someone you consider cool, today or in the past. Are they awkward, nervous, or hurried? Are they prone to emotional outbursts or reactions? In most cases, the answer is “no”. Cool composure, which is appreciated by multiple cultures in West Africa and became a defense mechanism during slavery, is essential to coolness. It’s like a default internal setting that leads to a calm sense of confidence and effortlessness.
Hip Awareness
It isn’t easy to be considered cool without an awareness of popular culture. This ability to “read” the movements of culture informs how some people dress, behave, and communicate. When someone knows what’s “in” or “out,” it indicates hip awareness that’s expressed externally. The quality is known in Wolof culture as “hipi,” which means to be aware or have one’s eyes open. It’s also the likely source of the word “hip” and later versions like hipster, hippy, and hip-hop.
Spirit of Rebellion
Coolness is often expressed as a personal reaction to mainstream morals, tastes, or expectations. It reflects an awareness of and challenge to what others feel is normal or expected. This spirit is part of all cultures, but the oppression of slavery instilled this attitude in many African cultures that arrived in the New World and was eventually expressed by African Americans. Coolness and conformity rarely mix.
Authentic Expression
When someone is composed, hip, and rebellious, it only works if these qualities come from a deep and real part of the person. The quality of authentic expression manifests in art, emotions, attitudes, fashion, communication, beliefs, and tastes. The emotional core of the blues and Black gospels is a powerful example based on generations of oppression. True authenticity cannot be performed; it must be felt.
The Next Phase of Cool
The story of cool doesn't stop in the 1930s. In the next phase, mostly after WWII, coolness became a bigger part of mainstream culture and was recognized as a term. Jazz and other movements appeared on television and inspired Americans to adopt coolness as a way of life. Young White people aspired to be cool. In doing so, they saw Black culture as an inspiration, which often led to appropriation and the idea of “The White boy who stole the blues.”
This is a defining story of American culture, warts and all. We’ll discuss that later.
The Next Series of the Vibes Project: Nerdiness
In the next series, we’ll discuss a related but different idea: the nuances of nerdiness. This series will explore nerdiness that goes beyond reductive stereotypes and focuses on normal qualities that, like coolness, transcend time and culture.
Bring COOL forward a little….THE FONZ! …..WAS. Great series, thanks
This is an excellent series, Lee. Thank you for putting in the work to present it!