“Hipster” did not die today, it has been dead for a while (and in a way it has always been dead), and for some reason, I still find it interesting: an ironic cultural cannibalism (hipster has re-emerged every decade since the 1940s), contemporarily identified by a predatory capitalist media machine.
I get more hits from people searching Keffiyeh and hipsters in Google and finding my “Fashion Meets Politics : The Keffiyeh” post and I still “care” or look up stuff on scarves and “hipsters,” “hipster” fashion, “hipster” etymology, etc. so I thought I would post some more about it.
The idea of the hipster is interesting to me because I have never met anyone who self identifies as a hipster. Maybe I’m too young, maybe “today’s hipster” already happened. My theory is that the term hipster, in its contemporary sense, is used (overused?) primarily by media as a way to make money. An identity does not matter to someone who can make money off of it, especially in a world that rewards those that do not cooperate and punishes those who try to build a more decent society. As long as the cash keeps coming, hipster will maintain its position as a cultural specter that defines a generation(s).
Hipster is meaningless to people who actually live. I dare us all to create something original, no matter how impossible that may be. I dare us to create some culture free of cash, free from oppression and free to its potential.
And now for a great satire (at least I believe it is a satire) on the Keffiyeh from KABOBfest:
UPDATE 5:30 pm
From LAist’s “Anti-Hipster Guide” February 11, 2008
Is the word Hipster even allowed to be used anymore without disdain dripping from the user’s tongue? Is it outdated? What about the connotation – good, bad, both? The Anti-Hipster’s Guide to LA is a listing of people, bars/clubs, musicians/DJs, artists, installation, etc etc that may be deemed hipster-centric but don’t really carry the negative connotation of the word (meaning pretentious, inaccessible, you get my drift).
UPDATE 5:57 pm
From the Daily Slope jared says,
hipster don’t gentrify, a booming real estate market does. don’t blame kids who like to dance and dress silly for raising rents, blame free market speculation. the punks/hipsters of the mid 70s didn’t turn the east village/les into a frat boy heaven, frat boys, landlords, and investors did. its also important to look at why these areas were depressed in the first place – robert moses and slum clearance, white flight, abortion being illegal, the cia and the crack industry, banks that refused to lend to certain areas, etc
Tags: Daily Slope, hatta, hipster, KABOBfest, keffiyeh, kuffiyeh, LAist, shemagh
April 9, 2008 at 7:52 am |
I think the most interesting thing about hipster culture is exactly what you point out–this reemergence. Adorno and the Frankfurt School have a concept called Culture Industry, wherein we (in a “general public” sense as well as a “media” sense) sample artistic endeavors and lifestyles. They give us a theoretical grounding for the idea that ‘the media’ takes up vibrant, living icons and makes them into pop culture schlock.
Now, the Frankfurt School is pretty negative about culture industry. They think it destroys the ‘aura’ of art and leaves a shell of a reproduction. It seems like the hipster mentality could be defined as an “anti-culture industry” industry. The production of elite ‘cool’ that skirts mainstream interests without being a literal counter-culture seems to be a defining facet of hipsterism.
So, the whole hipster backlash idea (that things that were hipster mainstays become cliche) makes a lot of sense. Hipsters can only exist in a single, recognizable form until that form has become -too widely recognizable-. Once popular culture has absorbed an image, it can no longer be hip; so hipsterism doesn’t die, as you point out. Once one form is assimilated, it takes a while for new trends to be discovered.
The reason I think this is interesting is because there’s a very subtle difference between ‘niche’ and ‘hipster’. Niche cultures are fringe groups with interests and activities that define a very small coterie of people. Hipster culture is a mainstream bricolaging of niche ideas and artifacts. That is, hipsters take a little from a few unknown or little-known subcultures/groups/scenes and, effectively, prepare them for the culture industry that they define themselves in juxtaposition with.
It’s subcultural planned obsolescence.
May 7, 2008 at 9:07 pm |
It’s hard to answer the question of why hipsters will never identify themselves as hipsters. It could be connected to some sense of wanting to exist in a counter culture, which doesn’t truly exist as most wannabe hipsters understand it as all of that music has been marketed directly at them. DIRECTLY AT THEM. I worked in college radio; they know exactly what they are doing, so you’re not as edgy as you think for listening to that new it band like Vampire Weekend or something.
While some want to exist in the counter culture, I think a lot of others just do it to fit it with the supposed cool kids. They see the people who they think are cool and just emulate their style. This is a generational trend that will never end. I’m just sad that this one is so roundly dumb.
The motivations for becoming hip are questionable, but the real motivation against hipsters is very simple: they trivialize everything around them and disadvantage many. Example: a lot of hipsters live in Williamsburg, a traditionally working class neighborhood in Brooklyn. They move in and price out all of the traditional residents. They move in and replace the donut shop with an espresso bar (still example). Goodbye 2.50 2 donut& med. coffee special. Hello, 2.50 cup of coffee. No bonus donuts.
On top of this, they show no respect for the traditional members of the community, scowling at them for not dressing and conforming to their standards. Lest us not forget, those traditional members were here first and doing fine without their input. As if this weren’t enough, they also love to trivialize the reality of their neighborhood. Example: in a recent piece for the Guardian, hipster author Jonathan Safran Foer lauded how real his neighborhood in Brooklyn is by talking about his library in Fort Greene or something like that. As someone who lived in a underprivileged neighborhood as a prerequisite for life (read: I didn’t have a fucking choice like a hipster), there is nothing more patronizing than rich people moving in, loving our “local color” then trying to change us. It’s offensive and disregards the fact that we, most likely, have our own traditions and don’t want them whitewashed (no racial pun intended).
To look at things that they’ve touched, indie music used to actually stand for something. It was bands with (most of the time) primitive skills making strange sounds. These bands used to climb up from playing in sweat-covered basements and rickety college housing to playing festivals. More than that, there was a culture to it. You’d meet bands all around, invite them over to your spot, and have them camp out at your house. This doesn’t happen anymore unfortunately. Indie music is as corporate as mainstream music, and that’s attributable to hipsters and hipsters alone. Their urge to be on the cutting edge has helped to wear down the indie culture that I joined, still live in, and love.
While the examples that I’ve pointed out are specific to me, they are universal nonetheless. Many people who believe strongly in the things that hipsters bastardize think like I think about them.
This screed has most likely not answered your question, but it is something to consider in your definition. They might have the style, but that’s all they have.
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