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.

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6 Comments:

Blogger JHitts said...

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."

August 13, 2008 at 2:33 PM 
Blogger Chase said...

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.

August 13, 2008 at 3:39 PM 
Blogger SC said...

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.'"

August 13, 2008 at 4:28 PM 
Blogger Daniel Silliman said...

I figure "hipster" can be equated with living with "ironic lack of authenticity"

August 13, 2008 at 4:30 PM 
Blogger Maria Servold said...

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.

August 13, 2008 at 10:36 PM 
Blogger JHitts said...

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.)

August 13, 2008 at 11:45 PM 

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