Essay on hipster culture

[roasty]

Hipster culture is a reaction against perceived cultural trends of inauthenticity and superficiality. In a hyper commoditized world where commercial motives permeate every layer of the cultural fabric and advertising and lobbying dollars make everything in mainstream society suspect or of questionable motives, hipster culture has arisen to offer an alternative set of values and attitudes.

 

Hipster culture is primarily built on two behaviors: the fetishization of authenticity, coupled with a derisive, dismissive and ironic rejection of everything that doesn't fit within that narrow category.

 

The hipster concept of "authenticity" is complex but largely based on i) age, where objects or ideas older than a few decades are perceived to be more authentic as they sprang from a culture less corrupted by commercialization, and ii) a spartan kind of utility, where bare-bones items are seen as less commercially exploitative and thus more reliable.

 

Thus, hipster culture embraces fixed-gear bikes, mechanical typewriters, folk music, drinking from mason jars and vinyl records as they are all perceived to be both old and spartan. It also embraces things like mustaches and vintage clothes (just old), and apple products (just perceived to be of extreme simplicity).

 

The primary desire for authenticity also manifests more directly. Thus, hipster culture idolizes the true or real incarnation of things which have been commoditized and corrupted by consumer society. This category includes gourmet coffee, gourmet wine, organic food, micro-brewed beer etc. When it comes to objects or ideas outside of the categories hipster culture embraces, it rejects them fiercely, either with hostility (Windows PCs, watching TV, working in an office and wearing a suit etc.), or by co-opting them under the banner of irony and adopting them as self-consciously "lame" (tri-wolf tee shirts, wearing gaudy fake jewelry etc.)

 

But as hipster culture has grown in popularity and has itself become more mainstream, the central definitions of these various concepts have shifted from being chiefly substantive (or at least, substantive based on dubious perception) to being chiefly aesthetic. Being seen to be authentic has become more important even within hipster culture than authenticity itself.

 

The real irony is that hipster culture is now aided and abetted by mainstream culture itself, as products and services are offered that appeal to the aesthetic sense of authenticity while being wholly of the commercial and inauthentic nature that hipster culture sprang up in reaction against. The waters are further muddied by some factions of hipster culture co-opting and subverting aspects of "faux" hipster culture to mock it in by the same method original hipster culture mocked mainstream culture.

 

To bring this back to the original example of a mason jar with a handle being given away by a microbrewery: originally, drinking from a mason jar was adopted by hipsters because it rejected commercialism by repurposing something that might otherwise be thrown away and because it harked back to some kind of Southern rural idyll that was perceived to be less corrupted by the commercialization of society. But as the substantive reasons for using a mason jar have given way to aesthetic reasons for drinking from a mason jar, those original arguments have become irrelevant. Thus, it's possible to i) use a mason jar with a handle, which completely perverts the original appeal of spartan utility, and ii) buy a mason jar drinking vessel, which completely perverts the original appeal of repurposing waste and rejecting commercialism.

[SR4]

source?

[syd syside]

More like this generation is poor as fuck and wears thrift stores clothes because its reasonably priced.

[roasty]

I read it on /r/depthhub

[Guest JW Modestburns]

sounds over intellectualized

[Salvatorin]

You just got to stick to the core, don't let all them fakers fuck around with your vibe. eat your organic, ride your cheap bike, wear your old clothes, drink out of mason jars.

[luke viia]

if frugality and DIY home projects are hipster, I'm in

[sergeantk]

whoever wrote this is probably a hipster

 

 

thats how it works

[goDel]

[Guest Franklin]

here's another essay on hipsterism by my lawyer/writer friend:

 

Link: http://loveandfictionpublishing.blogspot.ca/2012/10/essay-you-are-hiptser.html#more

 

 

Essay: "You are a hipster"

 

When I first became aware of the term "hipster" I was not aware that it was an insult. I had a friend who lived downtown, listened to Indie music, and only drank microbrewed beers. I told him casually that he was a hipster and he strenuously denied it. That's how I learned that the word "hipster" is a term of contempt - because no one will admit to being one.

 

 

But why not? I mean, there's nothing wrong with being hip, right? When we call someone else (never ourselves, of course) a hipster, what are we really saying? I would define a "hipster" as someone who is "self-conscious" and "superior" and "contrarian." So, for example, they listen to obscure music because it is obscure, and then act superior to people who only listen to regular music.

 

Basically, a hipster is a smug asshole. No one likes smug assholes, or to be called a smug asshole, so we're clearly most of the way there to understanding why it's a insult. But not all of the way, I don't think. It seems to go deeper than that. I'm thinking of the raw denial , how we all call other people hipsters but will NEVER admit to being one ourselves, no matter how skinny our jeans or how v-necked and vintage our t-shirts. You get to the point where you just want someone to own it. "Yeah, I'm a hipster. Fuck you." But nobody does (they will eventually though; mark my words).

 

I think what bothers us so much about hipsters is not that they are smug assholes. It's that they're lame. A hipster is trying to look cool and different (with the records and the trucker cap and the digital watch) but as soon as you put them in a category you are basically signalling that their efforts to look cool and different failed. And they failed because they were recognized as efforts, as inauthentic. Someone who listens to obscure music because it is obscure is trying to look like they don't care what people think about them. But in fact they do care, they care desperately. Hence the whole hipster act.

 

And here is where things get interesting. What this all means, in my opinion, is that since being a "hipster" is uncool, the more vehemently you deny being a hipster (because YOU aren't preoccupied with being cool! YOU don't care what people think about you!), the more likely that you are, in fact, a hipster.

 

Say for example you were a big fan of the director of Drive beforeDrive came out. You will feel an urge to tell people this, because this will make you look cultured and intelligent. But then, not wanting to sound like a hipster ("I was into Nicolas Winding Refn before he was cool!") you stifle that urge.

 

It is like the iPhone paradox. Everyone bought an iPhone to look cool. That's lame! Trying to look cool is lame! So you (or me, really, in this example, but let's stick with you) go out and buy a different phone to distinguish yourself from them. In order to, well, look cool.

 

You cannot escape the hipster trap. It's like trying to recapture how you thought before you learned a language. If you start affirming your love of mainstream music to show how you're not a hipster, you aren't getting off the coolness treadmill, you're just running faster and faster. Eventually you end up writing blog posts on the subject, in the vain attempt to implicitly distance yourself from the whole issue. Even admitting that you're "no different" is an act if it's done consciously; another way of trying to pretend like you don't care. Acting like you don't care is the biggest pose of all, which is the annoying thing about hipsters. But how is consciously avoiding hipsterisms any different?

 

In the end what bothers us about hipsters, really, is not that they are different from us but that they less sophisticated about it. "Cool" is a big act, after all (I sometimes I think it could be best defined as 'making the difficult look easy, but making sure everyone knows that you are MAKING it look easy, and that it is not actually easy, but not letting on that you are making sure everyone knows that on purpose) and a hipster is like a magician letting the audience in on the trick.

 

The only people you can be sure are not hipsters are people like your (or my) mom; the people who if you called them a hipster would say: "Why thank you dear!" Unironically.

 

You, my friend, are a hipster (and so am I, but again, let's not dwell on that). You will never stop being self-conscious by thinking about it. You will only set up more and more elaborate mental superstructures of self-consciousness. I come back to the advice at the end of "Candide" - Let us go work in your garden. People with interesting jobs and small children aren't hipsters (certain Brooklynites excepted). They are too busy and tired. When they watch "Two and A Half Men" and fall asleep at 8:45, they aren't being ironic, they're just exhausted. How bizarre to think that our parents, despite our worries and the opinions of our friends, were always cooler than us; because despite all of our posturing, they were the ones who truly did not give a fuck. When you were a small child your parents cared much, much less than what people thought of them than Mick Jagger and Miles Davis put together. If that isn't cool, I don't know what the fuck is.

[vamos scorcho]

it's really quite simple.

 

the hipster situation is a question of FASHION and CULTURAL CAPITAL

 

these 2 concepts are at the heart of all hipster activity.

 

all subtle games of the underclass striving to give off the impression of being upper class

 

it's like birds flashing their feathers at one another

 

 

 

 

 

true "hipsters" are actually just higher up in class or cultural capital, and feel no need to flash their feathers. they're already "there" so to speak and feel no need to put on airs. what nauseates is when a person takes "art" or high ideals and turns them into a fashion statement. this is what hipsters do, and this is why we are nauseated by them. because they take important things and turn it into a competition with eachother for resources. fucking pathetic little bitches.

 

well, they don't have much choice do they.

[LimpyLoo]

I like the surface elements of hipsterism (I've worn black frames and Chucks since I was like 16).

 

I don't like the pretension, though.

 

I don't like when people project that they part of some inside thing that you don't have access to.

If hipsers could just be emotionally open, welcoming, non-judgemental, friendly people then everything would be cool.

 

 

(note: I am occassionally judgemental and non-friendly, but it is not due to an ideology but rather my awesome bi-polar disorder )

[vamos scorcho]

edit: forget it

[Guest EleminoP]

if frugality and DIY home projects and hipster babes are hipster, I'm in

[granty]

The way I see it, anyone who tries hard to be cool can never be cool. I don't try at all. I look like a tramp.

[VIII]

brb projecting my persona onto what i buy

[QBLA]

I've mentioned this here to Jules before and to some friends "Glasses doesn't make you a hipster... non prescription glasses do!"

[Salvatorin]

Come on watmm, we went over this years ago. Everyone on this board is either a hipster, going to be a hipster, or already was a hipster. Love it.

[DerWaschbar]

Yeah, we are a hipster generation (I've been saying this for years btw).

[Glunk]

basically you're either a hipster or a yuppie

[sneaksta303]

im a crusty so whatever

[gmanyo]

You get to the point where you just want someone to own it. "Yeah, I'm a hipster. Fuck you." But nobody does (they will eventually though; mark my words).

What? There are plenty of people that do this.

Edit:

Hipster doesn't mean shit anymore really. "Hipster" could be the authenticity, but people also call the whole "irony" thing being hipster, which is about complete inauthenticity. That's why people have crosses upside down and copy paste religious symbols a bunch of times, it's why they slow down pop music, it's why my avatar is a cheesy rest in peace sign and my sig is an anime girl with sparkles. It's why there's music like this. I'm pretty sure it's why Andy Warhol painted soup cans. It's about ironically being as inauthentic as possible to expose the vapidity of our commercialized existence.

Edit 2:

Although I must say that I agree with his main point about the whole being cool thing. That's so me.

[SR4]

if i am a hipster, then a hipster can easily be defined as a superior and sexier form of humanity.

[Hoodie]

hipsters are well dressed. i have nothing against good fashion sense. i can't get behind the mason jar thing though, that's just too contrived.

[dr lopez]

i like chipotle too much to be a hipster