Cross-Medium Influence of the Beats

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svPfu9rwwo8&feature=related

One over arching theme of this documentary clip (I recommend watching all parts) that I find particularly interesting and pertinent in my life is how closely connected the changes in music were with the experimentation going on in the world of literature. The beats, sitting up in their San Francisco apartments listening to LPs by the likes of Monk, Mingus, Davis, Coltrane, Rollins, and so many others, were shown a side of expression that freed up that central focus of audience expectation. This new expression could diverge to wherever the creator felt necessary. As these freedom yells unfolded in a particular piece of music, a truth was reflected that mirrored the harshness of city life. While reading Howl or Dharma Bums this free expression can be felt and heard in the rhythms of the language. Parts of On the Road seem to move so fast that they almost echo Coltrane's walls of sound, his chromatic arpeggio madness. This madness is so cool and calculated though, both in the music and the literature, that it moves beyond madness and becomes a whole new art. It captures a real human confusion/nostalgia/paranoia that earlier art forms seem to overlook.