Cool Rules introduces the reader to a new cultural category. While the authors do not claim to have discovered Cool, they believe they are the first to take a broad view of the phenomenon. Cool Rules systematically analyzes Cool's history and psychology, and its importance within modern society and politics.

The contemporary Cool attitude-also known as Hip-is barely fifty years old, but its roots are older than that and its social significance has changed dramatically during its history. Robins and Pountain trace Cool's ancient origins in African, European, and Asian cultures, its prominence in the African-American jazz scene of the 1940s and its pivotal position within the radical subcultures of the 1950s and '60s. The book examines art movements, music, cinema and literature, moving from the beaux, fops, dandies, flC neurs, mashers and swells who combined attitudes of narcissism, nonchalance, wit and hedonism in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries through to the expropriation of a whole cultural and psychological tradition by the media in the 1980s and '90s.

What began as a rebellious posture adopted by minorities has mutated to become mainstream itself. Cool is now primarily about consumption, as advertisers cynically exploit it to create a constantly updated bricolage of personal styles, postures and entertainments designed to sell products.

Dick Pountain is a non-executive director of Dennis Publishing and a former reviews editor for Ink and Oz magazines. David Robins is the author of Knuckle Sandwich (1978), We Hate Humans (1984), and Tarnished Vision: Crime and Conflict in the Inner City (1992). Both authors are based in London.

An excerpt:

HOLLYWOOD: A great disillusionment set in the 70s among former counter-culture adherents, reflected in a profound cynicism that amounted to nihilism...People began to dream of strong, armed heroes (not heroines until later) who would act out fantasies of blowing away all the badness and injustice which the counter-culture had so signally failed to dislodge. The movie business, ever eager to please, reflected and reinforced this mood.

THE WORKPLACE: The overall t

This text introduces the reader to a new cultural category. While the authors do not claim to have discovered Cool, they believe they are the first to attempt a penetrating analysis of Cool's history, psychology and significance.

Cool Rules introduces the reader to a new cultural category. While the authors do not claim to have discovered Cool, they believe they are the first to attempt a serious, systematic analysis of Cool's history, psychology, and importance.

The contemporary Cool attitude is barely 50 years old, but its roots are older than that. Cool Rules traces Cool's ancient origins in European, Asian, and African cultures, its prominence in the African-American jazz scene of the 1940s, and its pivotal position within the radical subcultures of the 1950s and '60s. Pountain and Robins examine various art movements, music, cinema, and literature, moving from the dandies and flâneurs of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries through to the expropriation of a whole cultural and psychological tradition by the media in the 1980s and '90s. What began as a rebellious posture adopted by minorities mutated to become mainstream itself. Cool is now primarily about consumption, as cynical advertisers have seized on it to create a constantly updated bricolage of styles and entertainments designed to affect the way people think about themselves and their society.

Dick Pountain is a non-executive director of Dennis Publishing and a former reviews editor on Ink and Oz magazines.

David Robins is the author of Tarnished Vision: Crime and Conflic in the Inner City (1992).

Introduction

1. What is Cool?

2. Out of Africa

3. A Whiter Shade of Cool

4. That's Cool Too...

5. Cool Cracks Up

6. The Look of Cool

7. Cool Relations

8. Cool Psyche

9. Cool Rules

References

 Acknowledgements

Photographic Acknowledgements