August 13, 2008
Adbusters, you said it!
Thanks to Silliman for linking up this Adbusters story on hipsters.I think I've been trying to say what they said ever since Napoleon Dynamite made me angry. I tried, meekly, in this post.
I read the Adbusters story just a few hours after attending an American Apparel t-shirt fashion show event that was serving free PBR. No joke. Cool t-shirts + music sounded good to me, but I ended up confused by the mix of gritty styles and flashy/colorful hip hop sneakers. Lately it has been dicey every time Katie and I find an event listing that seems up our alley.
We just keep running into annoying art and sunglasses.
Labels: Adbusters, hipster, Silliman
by Tony at 1:18 AM |
6 Comments:
I understand what they're trying to say about hipsters and irony and all that, and the fashion aspect is definitley touched upon a whole lot, but I think the article still leaves the whole concept a bit vague - it seems like there could be more to it, because a lot of the things that "hipsters" like are also liked by people that aren't "hipsters."
But in 2008, such things have become shameless clichés of a class of individuals that seek to escape their own wealth and privilege by immersing themselves in the aesthetic of the working class.
Well said.
Jack - I don't think they were asserting hipsterness as a black and white issue. There are obviously going to be shades of gray.
Shit. I hear tell that there's a whole hipster district in Cincinnati, as adamant and apathetic as you'd like. Maybe I'll meet some real-life specimens.
I see what you're saying, Jack (and not just because I happen to like PBR): Even after reading the article, I'm not entirely sure I understand what a hipster is. Maybe hipsters don't know. I'm thinking it's maybe everything distasteful and meaningless in the Indie movement...? Dunno. Maybe, as our hippie forefathers would have put it, "it's a state of mind, man..."
Incidentally, I think parts of (if not all) of the Wikipedia article, "Hipster (contemporary subculture)," was written by a hipster. See:
Actually defining what a hipster is can be a difficult task considering the idea that hipsters are thought to exist as a "mutating, trans-Atlantic melting pot of styles, tastes and behavior[s]." ...Hipster identity is generally always in flux. In a way hipsters could be viewed as "chameleons in the age of 'focus groups' and 'demographics.'"
I figure "hipster" can be equated with living with "ironic lack of authenticity"
sweet article. along the vein of comments already: i think part of the hipster ideal is to not be too defined, therefore the concept is still sort of vague. it's part of the "draw" of hipsterdom: stylish, sunglassed, anonymity.
I'll agree that it came close to getting the hipster "aesthetic" down pretty well - although it seems as if they'd want a bigger sample size instead of just going to like one place one or two times. But I guess it is one of those things that's just undefinable by nature, kind of the beauty of being a part of said culture. It's kind of like, to paraphrase that famous definition of pornography: I know them when I see them. (And I do...Houston is teeming with them, and I know to avoid them.)
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