It’s not as easy to connect nurture and nature as it once was, especially when it comes to things as complex as contemporary culture. While there are connections between environment and behavior, they start to take on a very different characteristic when they enter into the realm of popular imaginations. More often than not, if there is a slight possibility of turning it into a lifestyle, Southern California will somehow find a way to lay claims on it.
In many cases, of course, the claims are legitimate. SoCal is one of those unique places that not only has an intense and vibrant local cultural history, but has an equal draw on cultures from all over the world, so there is a constant sense that this is an experiment in process. Rockabilly and Hot Rod culture have been an interesting part of that experiment for over a decade now, and the origins are likely to be elsewhere, but they do come to take root in Southern California for the same reasons that icons still find their seedbeds here.
It’s likely that someone looking for wheels for hot rods is simply trying to make something look nicer and more attractive, combining style and function. But a little history of the hot rod and Rockabilly demonstrates that it’s also participating in a larger framework.
Both the music and the car culture have their origins in the post-War U.S. In the case of Rockabilly, the center of the storm is much further to the east, in the heart of the South. This is where Jazz first started to link with country music, when the slap bass evolved to make a music that was not only catchy to the audiences, but also interesting for the musicians who were eager to innovate emerging cultural forms and forces. With hot rods, there is a similar bend toward combining, but here the combination was a unique blend of the old and the new. Vintage cars fueled with new technologies and innovations in auto mechanics gave the youthful car culture an opportunity to test their chops to build something stylish and remarkably fast.
Both of these trends have their inspirations in a culture that was coming of age after a long and horrible war. Increased resources after a long period of want, and an energy to do something new, to make something happen, all combined in this particular cultural moment to make unusual combinations that made perfect sense. And Southern California was the perfect testing grounds for these things to come together. Today, it may not matter so much if nature or nurture contributes more to their continuing, and often increasing popularity, because style seems to have a way of replicating itself and insuring its own survival. It’s as beautiful as any movie.