Beat Generation
Kerouac introduced the phrase "Beat Generation" in 1948 to characterize a perceived underground, anti-conformist youth movement in New York. The name arose in a conversation with writer John Clellon Holmes. Kerouac allows that it was Huncke, a street hustler, who originally used the phrase "beat", in an earlier discussion with him. The adjective "beat" could colloquially mean "tired" or "beaten down" within the African-American community of the period and had developed out of the image "beat to his socks", but Kerouac appropriated the image and altered the meaning to include the connotations "upbeat", "beatific", and the musical association of being "on the beat", and "the Beat to keep" from the "Beat Generation" poem.
What Is Beat?
What Is Beat? – The Best of The Beat is a greatest hits album by the ska band The Beat released in 1983. The original vinyl release included an additional "free album" of extended remixes entitled Frebe. Several songs had previously only been released as singles and B-sides. These include "Too Nice to Talk To", "March of the Swivelheads" and "Psychedelic Rockers". In the UK these also include the A-side "Tears of a Clown" and "Ranking Full Stop". "March of the Swivelheads" later appeared in the film "Ferris Bueller's Day Off". The song accompanies the film's climax. The question of the album's title was answered on the back of the original sleeve, "This is Beat!!"