1.a. how much of what you're talking about revolves around image?
How much of that image is
-fashion
-looks
-"attitude" (for lack of a better term)


b. How much around music?


Urban black music - and even later rural blues - has always been well-dressed, stylish, full of attitude. Look at pictures of Duke from the '20s - he got his nickame from his fashion sense. Look at pictures of Robert Johnson... Muddy's band from the '50s... Ike Turner... Coltrane at teh Vanguard. Duke, still fine in the 60s.
Come to think of it, soul was never a fully urban style until the mid-70s, and look at the classic soul guys... they certainly dressed sharp.

Those musics have also always been about cool - swing was cooler than jungle music... bop > swing... cool > bop... free jazz/harmelodic shit > cool... fusion > alladat.
Blues guitar > banjo n fiddle. Blues combos > solo. electric > combo. (that's about where the music deadended, too... hasn't developed much further than it did by about 1968, and, well...)




2. If some anti-coolists eventually triumph and their anti-cool becomes the new cool - what is the process by which this occurs?

Thinking particularly of P-Funk, especially since they play so large a role in your discussion. they buck the trend you seem to talk about, but does what they did continue to be cool?