Moooosik!

There is undoubtedly hatred towards hipsters. Every satirical review written by a hipster jeers and points the finger at his hipster counterpart. Music plays a significant role in their day to day life, you will never see a hipster walking down the street without the latest overpriced audio accessories and ironic as it may seem, it is indeed true that the massive, in your face, luminous headphones are usually a multiple figure in comparison to that spent on their retro cassette players. (Okay, maybe I exaggerate a little, a First Gen iPod Nano would do the job) Either way Karen O would shit her pants if she knew what was going on! To mention Karen O, Yeah Yeah Yeahs....dropped from the face of the hipster earth and all because the average Joe gave them a chance. Curiosity got the better of me and as a result I stumbled upon last.fm's Hipster 100. The music tagged ‘hipster’ was built by 906 users of the site whereby each add their own variations. Through skimming the list, 13 artists appeared to be popular among the general music enthusiast, while the remainder held an alternative hipster listenership. Artists whom many would willingly pay to go and see perform appeared on the list but this is the problem, as soon as a hipster gets word that their musical tastes have reached the mainstream they automatically drop their once favourite act like it never meant anything to them (Bunch of heartless B****s). Arcade Fire, Interpol, Beck, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Lana Del Rey all feature on the list yet they are also regular tracks to play through the earphones of our mainstream generation’s iPods. The majority of these bands are straight out of New York City, with some of its neighbourhoods playing host to the largest hipster communities on the planet.

This leads me to believe that there is a spectrum consisting of hipsters, inbetweeners and conformists. They are a little bit contradictory (at least that goes without saying for the inbetweeners) and in fact there are elements of being a hipster that can be found in nearly every individual. What makes for a genuine hipster is that a true hipster will take the stereotypes to the extreme. They are the so called intellectuals, spending their hours conversing over music, art and literature. They also dress strictly vintage and thrift with their main goal being to accidently look cool. The inbetweeners on the other hand will listen to certain music groups within the hipster genre. As far as art goes they may have Banksy displayed as their Facebook cover photo and a John Steinbeck novel in their bag so they can discuss their ‘favourite author.’ For clothing they tend to shop in stores such as Urban Outfitters and American Apparel with the aim of their shopping trip, to come out with the cheapest looking hoodies and leggings they could find that in reality cost a pretty penny. Mainstream individuals are exactly that, they conform to the masses and make up the biggest bulk within society.

 

Religious Taboo

Hipster Christians are a whole different sub-culture in their own right. I recently read an article in 'Vice' claiming that Christian hipsters were the latest craze. Now, you and me both know that this isn't going to last too long and it's simply a matter of time before the ALMIGHTY becomes too mainstream for these cool kids! "Hipster Christians are saving London"....apparently, bit of a LOLfest if you ask me. The impression you get from the author is that these Christian hipsters are by no means orthodox, they get “really drunk” at conventions and consider themselves a counter-culture in their own right. The aim of these young Christians is to improve on housing in their area, minimise violence and create a greater sense of community. I say give it a week and they won't be long about switching to Buddhism, seems right up their street. The group of individuals characterised in the article could not have hipster values more clearly marked all over them if they tried and it is only a matter of time before Christianity becomes too mainstream and they move on to something new. What do guys think? Give me some feedback....I was discussing with a friend the other day about the fact that when we were young it was the buff, 'jock' type that everyone wanted to be but now it's definitely geek chic. Everywhere you turn there's a so called hipster positioned in a shit cool pose, are they taking over or is it a dying trend? Share your views....peace out!

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So, is it cool to be a dickhead....

So I've been working on my dissertation on hipster culture and so far I've come up with thick rimmed glasses, fixed gear bikes, vintage trainers and indie music. What defines a hipster is my question?  Is it a frame of mind or are they all just a bunch of 'douchebags' trying to be non-conformists, conforming. What characteristics build up this hipster mentality? Apriorism seems to be a key trait: Often noticed among hipster groups when discussing their musical preferences, such phrases as "I listen to bands that don’t even exist yet" or "I used to like that band before it got popular" tend to crop up time and time again. Ironic in a sense as they pride themselves on not being mainstream despite the fact that the hipster concept has become quite trendy in recent years. Are there any hipsters out there that would be proud to coin themselves a hipster, let me know if you find any? Is this the best our generation has to offer? Stealing elements from former sub-cultures like the hippies, mods, punks etc. and mashing certain aspects of knowledge, style and music preference to create the modern day hipster. I'm baffled to say the least, hopefully at the end of this whole thing I'll have become a little wiser....