Oh boy. Hipsters.
Living in Williamsburg, Brooklyn – aka – “Hipster Central”, I quite honestly can’t escape the topic.
There have been a lot of articles written about hipsters, and even more websites made about hipster culture. The New York Times (link) recently covered the topic, for AdBusters last year is was their hottest feature story ever! And, sites like Hipster Puppies, Hipster Kittens, and Stuff Hipsters Hate often shed a more humorous light on the ever-growing hipster culture.
Here’s the thing – for all the plaid, for all the tight pants, for all the thrift store outfits, and for all the hand-rolled cigarettes, hipsters are the reason that my neighborhood is such a cool place to live.
At their best, hipsters strive for authenticity, rejecting pop culture in search of something unique. They like hard-to-find books, unheard of bands, weird food, irony and everything that isn’t main-stream.
At their worst, hipsters become conformist, non-conformists disparaging normality from their fleet of vintage bicycles. They were into whatever you were into before you, and they had it on a 45. But, now it’s boring because whatever it is, they’ve sold out and you’re lame for still liking it.
But, either way, it’s undeniable that Hipsters play a role in shaping our culture, (e.g. Hushpuppies). As a result, my neighborhood is full of smaller music venues that support local acts, restaurants that serve everything from locally sourced southern-style food to southern French cuisine.
Hipsters are the reason we have one of the best cheese shops in Brooklyn just a few blocks away from a German beer hall. Our thrift shops are some of the best in the nation and full of cool finds, and individuality is embraced instead of hated.
I rarely have to leave my neighborhood in search of something, as I have the great variety within walking distance. If all the hipsters moved out tomorrow, I have no doubt that my neighborhood would still be a great place to live. But, they helped make it what it is today, and I’m glad to have them around.
Snarky, elitist attitudes aside, the values that hipsters espouse are relevant for all of us. They’re a force that helps gentrify neighborhoods, support of local projects, places and initiatives, and often times spur innovation, the first people typically willing to take a risk and try something new.
So for all the plaid, for all the thrift shop finds that weren’t even cool when they were first around, for the unwashed hair, the scruffy beards, and the asymmetrical haircuts, I say “viva la hipster”, as I’d really like for my neighborhood to remain as diverse and accepting as it’s grown to be over the past few years.
Rock on, hipsters. But, I mean whatever, I was into hipsters before it was cool.
I loathe hipsters. As in when I see one? I want to punch the PBR they are holding out of their hands.
Shopping at a thrift store and pretending you are poor isn't cool. It's elitist and douchey.
I also hate sack dresses. Seriously. Stop wearing them.
Riddle me this: What's more elitist and douchey, dressing a certain way, or judging people who do?
Definitely judging. Sack dress comment was out of place in this dialogue. Things annoy me though.
Okay – let's start with PBR – It's cheap, and it tastes better than other cheap beer.
Clothes? It's about finding something interesting. When you wear something with a big-ass logo on it, it's one thing. Hipsters shop at thrift stores (as well as vintage stores – which are very different things) because they like the one-of-a-kind stuff that has personality. Are there hipster trends? Sure. But whatever, the concept of the “true individual” is a myth.
Music? It's not about the fact that no one has heard of it. That's what a lot of people say when they're making fun of hipsters (myself included). It's not about liking it “before it was cool.” The fact is, they like bands that take artistic risks, and appreciate it on an avant garde vs. kitsch level. When they don't like a band's later work, it's because it often takes fewer chances than the earlier albums because of an increase in popularity and a desire to move toward a more accessible style.
Hipsters do get a bad rap. Mostly because they're so arrogant about it. Fact is, that's more of a generational issue than an issue with hipsters.
Embrace consumerism. It's pretty awesome.
Yep, and it's completely unavoidable. Even by hipsters. Do you have any idea the sheer quantity of hipsters that wear 200 dollar jeans? Spend hundreds of dollars on Campers, Pumas, Blundstones, Fluevogs? Sweaters at Urban Outfitters? T-shirts at American Apparel? You don't have to walk around with a giant ABERCROMBIE & FITCH emblazoned on your chest to be a consumer.
Hipsters aren't acting like they're poor. Why do you think so many hipsters work in coffee shops or in retail or at bars, to complete the illusion? Often they spend more on clothes than they can afford. They use thrift stores to supplement their wardrobes. It's called Shabby Chic.
Also, where would the Western-style shirt be right now if it weren't for hipsters? They brought it back.
Have you read “Avant-Garde and Kitch” by Clement Greenberg? He makes a lot of interesting points about social and popular culture. He's mostly talking about art in the piece, but a lot of what he says transfers well.
I adore hipsters. Not for any specific reason… I just like how bold they are and that they like ridiculous obscure things. They're keeping the world on their toes.
Besides… as far as awesome subcultures go, just be glad we aren't living in Japan. (Google Image search: “Manba”)
P.S.
Additional hipster linkage:
LATFH – http://www.latfh.com/
Unhappy Hipsters – http://unhappyhipsters.com/
Your neighborhood sounds like a fun place. It's not that I don't enjoy hipsters, their quirky ways, and the obscure, interesting stuff they're into — it's just that (and you and a couple others hit the nail on the head with this one), really, there's no need to be so arrogant about it. For a group that's so annoyed with people judging them, they pretty much do the same thing to everyone else…
Just wondering if hipsters have accepted and/or embraced the irony of their situation?
According to the editorial piece above, “There have been a lot of articles written about hipsters, and even more websites made about hipster culture. The New York Times (link) recently covered the topic, …was their hottest feature story ever! And, sites like Hipster Puppies, Hipster Kittens, and Stuff Hipsters Hate often shed a more humorous light on the ever-growing hipster culture.”
Sounds to me like hipster culture is definitely part of pop culture and even, perhaps, a bit more mainstream than in years past.
So, here's the rub: If hipsters “strive for authenticity, rejecting pop culture in search of something unique.” and “They like…everything that isn’t main-stream.” do they dislike themselves? And if so, doesn't that just make them Emo?
But “hip on” dear hipster (or whatever you do). I'm not one to judge and I won't deny the positive affects you have had on neighborhoods…I'll just be the guy laughing when you realize that your non-conformity has become the ultimate conformity. (talk about loving irony)
I'm def. not a hipster, which is partially why this article was so fun to write. My usual disclaimer when the subject of where I live comes up is “Obviously I'm not a hipster, but I still love the neighborhood”.
You make a great point though… when being a hipster becomes mainstream – what's next? I think for many living in my neighborhood they know that they get the label, but (at least with the people in my neighborhood I personally know), they like the music they like and the clothes they wear just because it suits their tastes. Same reason I listen to the music I like and wear the clothes I wear. For them, it seems that fitting into the hipster label is just a side effect.
-Katie
@misskatiemo
Totally not arguing that point. I do feel like I stick out like a sore thumb at points, seeing as I'm not a hipster by any stretch of the imagination. Nevertheless, within each clique there are people that judge others for not fitting into whatever clique they happen to be a part of, so that phenomenon certainly isn't limited to my nabe
-Katie
@misskatiemo
I'll have to read that book, Sam. Thanks for the tip
. Also, spot on with the expensive designer clothes comment. Have you SEEN how much some thrift stores are charging for items?! I can shop at H&M, Express, or any number of other stores for MUCH less than some of those places. Yeesh!
Katie
@misskatiemo
at $3 a pop (cheap for NYC) or cheaper, PBR is a great deal if I want to have a few beers with friends but don't want to be out $25.
I have to agree. There's no such thing as a cultural movement of non-conformists (One who does not conform to, or refuses to be bound by, accepted beliefs, customs, or practices). Spending 5 days a week in Central Square Cambridge, MA; I can assure all you hipsters out there that you are not beautiful unique snowflakes. Nonconformists tend to have a strong sense of individuality, while hipsters are reliant upon social and communal support. Essentially, most of them are trend follower types, and are conforming to the counter culture that has been marketed to them. The Hipster “movement” would best be compared to Beatniks of 50 years ago; a fabrication and conglomeration of “hip” stereotypes in order to better sell products to a demograph with large amounts of disposable income (*cough* Apple & Starbucks *cough*). When's the last time you saw something about being hipster that didn't involve what types of products get purchased, clothes bought, or some other expression of defining one's self through $?
All fine points here, but essentially giving hipsters credit for what is now becoming a generally a more open-minded food culture in America? A bit of a stretch.
im a huge a fag
You know, it's funny, in the adbusters article you mention, there's a line that “We’ve reached a point in our civilization where counterculture has mutated into a self-obsessed aesthetic vacuum.”
But the reality is there is no more counterculture. Because there's no more “mainstream” to be “counter” to anymore. Being into “hard-to-find books, unheard of bands, weird food, irony” etc, isn't so different from being into carharts and sarah palin. It's all just lifestyle choices on the long tail of culture. It's all alternatives to other alternatives. Not alternatives to “mainstream” anything:
http://social-creature.com/the-end-of-countercu…
That's actually part of Greenberg's points. When it's overdone/overused, the avant-garde becomes kitsch. In current culture, avant-garde becomes kitsch – then the kitsch goes away for a little while. Then it becomes avant-garde again, and the trendsetters bring it back (see: Aviator glasses, the aforementioned Western shirts, synthesizers). We're in a continuing cycle of using trends up and leaving them in the dust, only to have them sprout back up magically 15-20 years later.
I would argue, though, that the hipsters aren't striving for non-conformity. They're striving for “cool” or “edgy.” They're trying to find the avant-garde in a culture full of kitsch – the problem is, avant-garde is a finite resource, and someday, the hipsters will be blasting Miley Cyrus in their Jettas instead of TV on the Radio in their headphones. I don't look forward to that day.
Here's a link to Greenberg's essay, Katie: http://bit.ly/6dzG6
Not to mention nothing is all that obscure anymore with the internet.
As much as I hate to admit it, you have a point. I too live in Brooklyn (though not quite hip enough to be in Williamsburg, I live in Bushwick) and while I loathe hipsters because of the negative traits you listed, I have to admit that Williamsburg would not be as cool of a place as it is without that subculture. My problem with them is mainly that most of them think they are on this other level than everyone else when it comes to, let’s say music. They act like they hate trends, but then they all listen to the same music so they are in essence following trends themselves (find me one person in Williamsburg that doesn’t own Arcade Fire’s Neon Bible and/or Animal Collective’s Merriweather Post Pavilion, I dare you)
But again, you make a very good point in this post and I commend you for it.
Hah – do I count as the person that lives in Wburg that doesn’t own either of their albums? I do get what you’re saying about the “non-trend” becoming the trend… it’s kind of ironic how the very thing hipsters try to get away from is the one thing that they end up becoming.
Still – I like the variety and I like the constant questioning – I’d rather a healthy amount of skepticism about pop culture and support of the unique than blind acceptance of what you’re “supposed to like” and support of things that are only pre-approved by the masses.
-Katie
If you want to be part of the ultimate counter-culture, all you really need to do is befriend a man named Jesus.
I wear plaid, I wear fedoras, ripped jeans.. I like folk music, I like lot’s of weird stuff…
But the only label I want to be known by is “Christian”
I wish it weren’t, but true Christianity is truly a part of the real counter-culture.
Chris I love what you’ve said though I’m not sure if I agree with you too much about Christianity being a counterculture. I know exactly what you mean but I think you can be a Christian and not be a part of a counterculture. I completely understand what you mean though. And your words really mean a lot.
I Googled hipsters and Wikipedia was a little vague as to the definition but everything I read talks about how hipsters purposely avoid pop culture and try and do things differently. I’m a self-confessed pop culture fanatic and I wear many of the clothes that hipsters are said to wear. I frequently wear things like the man in the picture in the article and in all other pictures I’ve seen of hipsters they’re wearing clothes that I and loads of other people frequently wear. That look is what loads of young people wear. It seems that the people running from pop sulture have become it themselves. Ironic…
Yes, it’s true that hipsters are conformists. But who isn’t?
Individuality isn’t real.
Saying that I am would just be an outright lie.
Even the thought of false individuality isn’t unique.
There’s not a person in this world unlike any other.
So, whether you’re preppy, emo, goth, scene, punk, or hipster you aren’t going to be entirely original. Once we all accept that then we can all move on with out lives.
I don’t see why the people in some cliques have to act a certain way, fitting to the cliche.
Some preps have to say like, emos have to act sad, scene kids have to act random, hipsters have to act arrogant. That’s how stereotypes are made.
But, it’s wrong to classify everyone in one category.
Not all hipsters have a “mightier than thou” attitude. Not all of them shop at American Apparel and smoke ten dollar cigarettes. But, some of them do. It’s a matter of the person.
http://implicatum.wordpress.com/2011/07/13/some-earnest-discourse-on-the-current-denigration-of-hipsters-or-whatever/
[...] Hipster Clones. It’s the timeless disease of our nation’s youth — the attempts to reject conformity, while actually conforming. These individuals that hold on to the idea that they are so obscure and [...]
¿Who’s in place to tab something or somebody that just be for the fact to be if it just be? ¿Whats the point of debating something that supposedly is self individualized, sustented, and far from the normal standard? it’s absurd… the hipster concept is well applied just in mater of form but not in the fact, because this is not implicit, it is just a concept a name for something, and the name itself is now empty. Let’s say that we are not in the jazz golden era anymore, everything new is matter of controversy and even more in this divided world full of images and psychological frontiers based on social groups. I think that the name of this concept and name is nothing more than a way to stereotipe an other social group like Gothics, Punks etc. etc.Those who really match “the certain way of thinking” don’t need a tab or an image, they just need to be what they think….