My friend “Bagel†sent me a link today to an article that breaks it down about hipsters or as “Bagel†calls them hamsters. ADBUSTERS’ main article and cover title are “HIPSTER: THE DEAD END OF CIVILIZATIONâ€
You can read the entire article HERE.
Side Note: My man aka “Mi Osito” mentions, “When hipsters move in, property values go up but so does rent unfortunately. Hipsters are much better protected by police which could make it safer for everyone in the hood. Culture, however, is under constant threat.”
I prefer to call them “Hip’tards”, and no, it isn’t PC.
pinches hipsters pendejos, i fkn hate them. There’s also the wanna be hipster, those that dont have shit but pretend to. They hang out on 1st and Alameda.
I personally could care less with who is or isn’t a hipster. The hipster will fade away too. It’s fashion without the culture. It’s derivative without synthesis…and then?
And then, you rochambeau them.
I wouldn’t mind having a hipster girl friend. By the time I get through with her, she’ll be drawing her eye brows on with a sharpie and calling me “papi chulo.”
some irony here…ain’t adbusters “hipster?”
as i told my friend, some hipsters read adbusters and they are questioning themselves right about now or are in complete denial.
But I like hamsters. 🙁 The fuzzy ones, not you know.. These kind.
That was a pretty decent read, it seems to have been written by someone that also identifies as part of that hipster culture, which makes it interesting. I especially like the observation that hipsters refuse to take pride or even identify with being part of this cultural group that obviously has some cohesion.
yes he was able to infiltrate without being detected. he must be on the hipster cusp. i also like his observation of the “non-prescription glasses”.
“We are a lost generation, desperately clinging to anything that feels real, but too afraid to become it ourselves. We are a defeated generation, resigned to the hypocrisy of those before us, who once sang songs of rebellion and now sell them back to us. We are the last generation, a culmination of all previous things, destroyed by the vapidity that surrounds us. The hipster represents the end of Western civilization – a culture so detached and disconnected that it has stopped giving birth to anything new.”
Wow, that’s my critique of hipsters in a nutshell. It’s funny cause I’m old enough to see how the hipster look initially evolved and it started with a scene of really passionate people, anarcho-punks.
My favorite Youtube hipster video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__r4bKCjj-8
WHAT EVER GETS YOU PRESS…..stay sticky~
chimatli, funny vid. with the whole beijing games and all…check this one ( a bit cheesy)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAO4EVMlpwM
Chimatli, I can see the whole start from anarcho-punks and it’s subsequent watering down. What I see interesting is people who get into the whole “hipster” scene with no ‘social awareness’ and take certain things at face value and with no deeper analysis. (Some even think being ‘racist’ is cool since it’s being ‘provocative’) Kind of how I see people get into music that had it’s start in punk rock but have no knowledge of DIY culture or ideas. Me & Clyde have talked a LOT about this.
Some of my friends and I may ‘look’ like hipsters but we certainly don’t fit the mold of the purely vapid-minded hipster-consumer (or at least I hope we don’t). What I wonder is whether the critique of the hipster is much like the attack on EMOs in Mexico where the other subculture(s) is/are mad that their culture is being co-opted(copied?) by others.
A class I am taking now has really got me into looking beyond the superficial (i.e. hipster) and into the structure of things (i.e. white privilege/supremacy) and it seems that Adbusters focus on this is just lost energy. It’s interesting that in their last pressing, Adbusters focus on the ‘retaking of the cool.’ I mean, who is leading this rag?
hahaha yeah man I am blind as a bat and have to wear contacts and glasses which i refuse to wear cus they are too thick! it’s too funny when people wear non prescription glasses with no need i mean it’s not fun waking up in the morning and not being able to see the time on the cable box or waving at the wrong person lol!
but I guess it’s a trend I would trade glasses for good vision anytime
and hipsters burn the spots that is just my opinion
I haven’t heard of any violence towards hipsters or hipsters forming rallies in the streets for hipster rights. If there has been let me know.
if i don’t have my glasses or contacts on i miss things like when my car got smashed when it was parked in front of my place in hipsterlake, i couldnt’ see the drink driver’s license plate before they drove off with their f*cked up car and I was assed out paying a full deductible.
Heh, it would be funny if hipsterdom did rise out of the anarcho-punk ‘scene’ and it was the cause for the demise of Western civilization.
Is that ironic, or not? Isn’t that what anarcho-punks want? [Albeit maybe by different means]
“and these children that you spit on as they try to change their world, are immune to your consultations, they are quite aware what they are going through…”
-“Changes”
David Bowie
I hate their chain smoking and rude infantilism. That’s all.
Other than that… whatever.
Hipsters aint nothing new, people… hippies, beatniks, punks, hipsters…. WHATEVER! It’s all the same shit! Pop culture movements that turned into marketing campaigns.
Whats scary is that seemingly intelligent people actually try to write serious articles about “hipsters,” and then people try to have serious discussions about them by posting about them on internet “blogs”. Dont you people have anything better to think about?
Seriously, if you are looking for signs of the decline of Western Civilization: there it is! The fact that intelligent people are focusing their attention on debating about “hipsters”.
On the other hand, perhaps that’s a sign of the SUCCESS of Western Civilization. I dont think they have too much time to concern themselves with these types of empty pop culture inanities in places like, say, Afghanistan or Zimbabwe. I can see it now: “my wife was killed by a machete wielding mob, inflation is at 4000%, I just got ass-raped by a corrupt soldier with a sub-machine gun…. but what Im really concerned about is Ali Baba wearing those tight pants and that white belt….. what is UP with that!?!”
Rock on.
holy hyperbole,
Uh, at the very least, hippies, beatniks, and punks had either a social critique/agenda or at least some sort of vision of the world as it could be. What’s the vision/critique of the hipster? None of them will even go on record to identify themselves.
Recuperation is a given, underground cultures will eventually get absorbed by mainstream culture. But shit, the hipster scene doesn’t even seem to offer any sense of rebellion to recuperate, or am I wrong?
BTW, you negate your “Dont you people have anything better to think about?” by posting your comment here; you obviously have the time to concern yourself with critiquing these empty pop culture inanities, thus you are one of us.
Gooble, Goofy
Gobble, Goofy
We admit you
Sorta like Us, Sorta like Us
holy hyperbole,
do you know rosie?
Holy Hyperbole,
I understand your opinions. A long time ago I was a notorious internet troll. I would go on blogs and social groups and I would say, “PEOPLE ARE DYING SOMEWHERE AND YOU”RE MAD BECAUSE THERE ARE NO WOMAN ON TV ARE YOU SHITTING ME…”
My thought was, if people weren’t concerned with what I was concerned with that they were less of people than me. That they were less enlightened than me. I felt the little stuff didn’t matter. It was about the bigger picture. Even the subject of race was too minor I would say, “You’re being distracted man, the real issue is capitalism and imperialism and if you want to do some real good you need to be focused on the big picture.”
But you know the thing is what I’ve learned the little stuff affects the big stuff. Media, fashion, tv, race, gender that’s all part of the bigger picture.
You can’t pretend as if those things aren’t happening. You can’t pretend as if those things don’t have an impact.
These little things add up to apathy, not thinking, not caring. Not questioning the little stuff leads to not questioning the big stuff. There is nothing too little to talk about, because nothing is little it’s all big. It all helps.
Alot of people can’t wrap their mind around war far away or the economy, but they can wrap their mind around music or fashion and if you give people things that they can digest maybe one day they will be able to wrap their mind around other issues.
Also to read about things like imperialism, capitalism that’s a luxury. To be able to debate those topics is a luxury that most people don’t have. Most people don’t have the energy to have discourse on theory. That conversation is a very long and intensive one. A conversation that really can’t be had on a blog.
You need to have a variety of voices and perspectives, the dehumanization of people happens all of the time in the US, but it’s just wrapped in things like redevelopment and fashion movements.
And debating a fashion that’s really a dehumanization movement is a very smart thing. It’s not some little bullshit, it’s a heavy topic with a nice fried coating, so we can all discuss an issue without being up to date on economic and social theory.
And actually if you read this article and truly look at the comments on this thread it’s beyond just the marketing it’s a big issue disguised as a little issue.
People being moved from their homes and priced from their neighborhood is a big thing. It’s people feeling that certain people are worth more or are more important than others. Not being concerned with this and thinking this is minor makes things like the US going to a country and killing people seem like a minor thing, it’s about conditioning you know. So this topic is not nearly as trivial as it seems, because at the end of the day it’s all big stuff.
Browne
El Chavo: I think you’re right, but the thing is that our entire society is more vapid now. Its harder and harder to tell if something is real or just another stealth marketing campaign by your local neighborhood multi-national media conglomerate. Marketers are targeting young children as early possible and mentally branding them before they can even put two words together. IT’S ALL THESE KIDS KNOW! Which would explain the fact that theyre all so hung up on finding “authenticity”… it’s sad really.
But, the people getting all upset about hipsters are sorta complicit in it too. Why do you care if someone has a “cooler than thou” attitude unless you yourself are also sorta caught up in the “cool” rat race?
My main problem with hipster-bashing, though, is the people who try to pin the blame for everything thats ill in world on them, when if anything they’re just a toxic byproduct of our larger society. Most of them are brainless turds, peons, and not worthy of discussion.
I think HH has some points, but i also intialy thought homie was a hipster themself, but not so much now.
I personally hav met some really nice people who dress inthat style, they tend to be young. That being said I too get annoyed by the presence of rich people from places of privelege trying to be all “real” by slumming it and living like us mud people. They embrace the things that caused us pain, they savor the authenticity of not having enough money or social capital to live comfortably, and then they wrap themselves around it as some kind of warm blanket or badge of honor that makes them just as good or “real” as us (which is within a ridiculous jedgement dichotomy to begin with). I dont appreciate the judgemental behavior, ability to dismiss minorities/women/poor because they “have lived in the barrio too”, or overall arrogance that comes from the scene. Although I have no problem with rich white kids I get annoyed that they all jock the kind of rap music I personally appreciate in a manner that just wreaks of trying to hard in a unconcerned kind of way.
I usually play some cypress hill or better yet rass kass’ “nature of the threat” and see their reaction, that kind of good rap was born out of poverty, not wealth (although ti fine for them to listen to it, but dont weer your musical prefernce like a badge of authenticity is my point). To put it simply i dont dig rich kids slumming it to be cool. I do dig rich kids genuinely trying to reinvest or work for the betterment of the ghetto, ergo why i have met some cool hipsters.
I have a hipster question though: I have a cousin who grew up in a poor shitty background, got a college scholarship and is now the personafication of a hippyish hipster. All she hangs out with is rich kids who fit this description. The only difference is she comes from a ghetto family (and how annoying it is to see her firends all ecstatic to stay with my aunt and eat beans and tamales is a subdued “I dont care” manner) and actually works/is concerned about the betterment of distressed communities like the one we both grew up in. Where does she fit in this genre? She has a lot of friends who are genuinely good people working for worthy causes but adopted this style and all, where do they fit into this genre/
Is hipsterdom merely defined as a style or a apathetic mindset towards serious issues? And where do people who look the look but are not apathetic stand in it?
Actually, anyone who will buy me a beer because I am an authentic homeboy is cool with me. Just dont patronize me or use my authenticity as a badge of honor, I went through that with graffiti whiteboys in the late 90s.
I just have one observation.
I wonder if the author of this article was around for all the so-called youth movements of the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s (assuming that it all ended with punk and hip-hop, there is no 90s?). I sense a trend of people always saying that things were better in the past – isn’t that exactly what the author is doing right now? Were any of us there for these great youth movements to really say if it had any real meaning or if it was just another vapid and self-absorbed culture? We all learn about these things second or third hand, and of course anything we hear is an embellishment. I wonder if in twenty years people our age will look back on now and say something not unlike what the author says about the “subcultures” of the post WWII era.