By Dame Toni
What is hip? Tell me, tell me if you think you know.
What is hip? If you’re really hip, the passing years will show.
You’re into a hip trip, maybe hipper than hip.
But, what is hip?
From Tower of Power’s What is Hip, 1973 Warner Brothers Records
A few months ago I had to bow to the inevitable truth that I wasn’t able to keep up with the bills just by writing, and went job hunting. I ended up working for a company that sells, among other things, concert tickets. Over the past few weeks, a lot of the summer blockbuster tours have gone on sale, usually selling out through their primary sellers in under ten minutes. So I’ve found myself on the phone with people desperate to get seats to see their favorite performers.
Some of these instant-sell-out shows are what I would have expected. After Beyoncé’s Super Bowl halftime performance, I knew that the phone lines would light up like the Las Vegas strip the day her tickets went on sale. I knew that Jimmy Buffett does a limited number of performances each year, so it made sense his on-sale dates would be busy. Ditto with Bob Seger, who is notorious for announcing, then cancelling, concerts. And even though I can’t say I would willingly listen to hours of Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z, I wasn’t surprised when their Legends of Summer tour caused a lot of buzz.
But Bruno Mars?
As with many newer performing artists, it’s not surprising that a middle-aged rural woman who mostly listens to NPR would be unfamiliar with his music. In my mind, he fell into the same category as a number of other musicians whose names I first heard when someone called to ask about concert tickets. I’ve looked up videos recently for bands including Mumford and Sons (love them), Swedish House Mafia (I just don’t get it), and Paramore (is it just me, or is their music highly reminiscent of 80’s punk/pop acts?).
The name seemed familiar, but I was totally unprepared when this guy I’d barely heard of sold out huge arenas in twenty minutes, after which brokers were easily getting over $1000 per ticket for floor seats at his concerts.
I guess I’m just not hip.
This got me thinking – this same phenomenon must happen with popular fiction. I spend a lot of time browsing bookstore shelves, although not as much since I picked up the day job. I tend to look for the names of authors with whom I am already familiar, and I wasn’t even aware that I am probably missing important, fabulous work by the newer, hipper (if anyone under 40 even knows that term) writers.
Am I hopelessly out of date, literarily? And does my lack of hipness (gulp) affect my writing?
Help me out, readers. Who, as an author, is currently hip? Who is the Bruno Mars of 2013 urban fantasy? Whose work do I NEED to read to no longer be hopelessly out of date?
Help me be hip.
Dame Toni
P.S. I refuse to believe that Tower of Power, who are still recording forty years after recording What is Hip, are not ETERNALLY hip. If you don’t believe me, check out this video:
Tower of Power — Still Eternally Hip!
About Toni Andrews
D.D. Barant. Yes!
Will add to my list! Thanks.
Gee Toni, even I knew about Bruno Mars and I’m 15 years older than you. He puts on a great show.
Course I’m still listening and dancing to music from the 1960′s and 1970′s. Yesterday I did some cleaning while listening to a rap station just for a change.
I knew who he was, I just didn’t think he would sell out 25,000 seat stadiums in under half an hour. I am trying to imagine you cleaning to rap and it is making me grin! Although I occasionally do “Motown Aerobic Floor Mopping” myself…
I dunno. I think Bruno Mars has a bit of a foofy factor to his music. I prefer Fun. or Imagine Dragons (athough the Foo Fighter are my favorite band). And shhh… I’m 50! My son and his friends don’t know whether to be horrified or amused by the fact that I love the same music they do & often point them to awesome new bands.
As for newer writers, I like Benedict Jacka, Sara Reese Brennan or for a good eread, Jes Young. And I love LOVE Chuck Wendig!
Fun. is one of the bands I looked up and said, “Oh, yeah, I like these guys,” but so far, both Fun. and Imagine Dragons are still playing smaller venues, like House of Blues. I think they’re both on the rise, though.
Definitely Benedict Jacka, Jenn Bennett. Suzanne Johnson too and she has a new release blog at Tor.com called Fiction Affliction. I am sure with the new day job you’ll be learning about and liking a lot of the new singers popular now. Good Luck!
Thanks, Susan. A lot of my favorite “old” authors publish with Tor — tor.com might be a great place to get some new names.
Hip? Who needs to be hip? I am happily discovering new authors, that few people have read
I’ll third or fourth Benedict Jacka. I have gobbled up two of his books so far. Now if the Swedish publisher would just hurry up with translating the rest of the books. *taps foot*
For a fun Sword and Sorcery romp I recommend Rojuun by John H Carroll. It is slightly old fashioned, but I like his books.
I also recommend James Hetley / James Burton. His Urban Fantasy novels are way too underappreciated.
For more well known authors, I recommend Robin D Owens, Laura Anne Gilman and J.C Daniels. All of them are really good and I tend to re-read their books regularly.
I’ll have to recommend Brent Weeks. Loved his Night Angel Trilogy and am currently enjoying his new series as well, nice dark stuff.