Hipness and squareness

[calgrad]

(There's nothing HLNish here, but this is what I saw that brought this question to mind.)

Did people ever so regularly associate the words "hip" and "square" before the song?  It seems to happen all the time now, but did it used to? 

[Bill]

 Sure. It goes back to the beat generation, I believe. I remember my dad, being a jazz buff, using, and associating, "hip" and "square" in the fifties.

[calgrad]

Interesting.  But in common parlance?  It just seems like a lot of people today who wouldn't know a beat poet if one came up and hit them in the face instinctively use the pairing anyway, and it wouldn't surprise me at all if for them it was attributed to the song. 

[Rockin Robin]

"Hip" and "square" have been around as long as I can remember.... Check out the Elvis Presley song, "You're So Square".
I remember my brother singing that one as a little kid, which had to be in the 50's or early 60's. And the term "hippy" came from "hip" as I recall.

(Jerry Leiber - Mike Stoller)

You don't like crazy music.
You don't like rockin' bands.
You just wanna go to a movie show,
And sit there holdin' hands.
You're so square.
Baby, I don't care.

You don't like hotrod racin'
Or drivin' late at night.
You just wanna park where it's nice and dark.
You just wanna hold me tight.
You're so square.
Baby, I don't care.

You don't know any dance steps that are new,
But no one else could love me like you do, do, do, do.

I don't know why my heart flips.
I only know it does.
I wonder why I love you, baby.
I guess it's just because
You're so square.
Baby, I don't care.

[greyhound]

Doesn't hippie stand for Helper In Promoting Peaceful Individual Existence?  Sorry, now we're getting off the subject.