Think I'll do a little rap on 'hipsterism' this morning, kinda feeling I gotta few things to get off my chest. Always good to clear the air you know.
Firstly I would like to state that I am by now means an expert on 21st century youth culture. At best I'm an engaged observer of what I see, the extent of my participation in what it deemed 'hipster culture' extends only as far attending a few 'relevant' events and sniffing cocaine, a drug which I could never afford, with these so-called 'hipsters', some of which I still consider to be friends but most I now acknowledge as total douche-bags.
From what I gather this idea of the hipster came about in the early part of the this century, an Mp3-based culture that included fashion,art, upper-class drugs and an aloof/elitist attitude to everything. Bands like the Strokes and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs from New York and whole whack similarly pretentious so-called indie bands sprung up everywhere and redefined an otherwise core branch of alternative music; indie-rock. Up until the year 2000, indie meant bands like Sonic Youth, Pavement, My Bloody Valentine and Chapterhouse. Cool bands that were slightly more grungy/druggy/weird/whatever than the rest of the mainstream/alternative scene.
But something interesting happened towards the turn of the century; the Mp3. A format in which the recordings on a CD-R could be digiatlised and sent across a line from my hard-drive to yours in an instant. This coupled with the antics of the Silicone Valley Cowboys at Napster gave rise the download-era, now entire 50GB+ Music libaries could be easily downloaded and neatly stored in folders on hard-drives all over the world. This inevitably gave rise to the bedroom musicologist, what would previously only been available to the most ardent of music collectors and proffesional reviewers was now availible to everyone.
The new ready availablity of music has presented a few cultural challenges. How do we cope with these vast megabytes of music flooding our hard-drives and turning our iTunes players into un-navigable jungles? We could take it open ourselves to challenge all previously imposed restrictions and embrace the information overlaoad and dance in our confusion, expand our minds and bravely edge into the new millenium as fully eclecticised beings. But sadly this is not the reality and it seemes that the more we're exposed to the more we retreat and create walled gardens to feel safe, secure and accepted.
This is where 'hipsterism' come into play. Whole legions of shitty over-stylised indie bands are now suddenly finding it possible to have their work listened to, downloaded and collected. Young people eager to be "different" yet too scared to go and formulate their own identity are drawn to these bands and the culture of indie-rock. A scene develops, people feel safe and secure knowing that there are others out there that don't wanna do the mainstream thing thing yet are very uncertain about getting involved with the punks/ravers/goths or other alts. Indie is safe. It promotes dandyish sensibilities while still pretending to have a hard punk edge. Indie is elite, as many of the bands have so-called 'critical-acclaim' and it is 'sophisticated' deceivingly appearing literary and intellectual.
The way I see it is that the indie scene is the fragile and sensitive seed from which the fully fledged Hipster is sprouted, Granted there are many modern day hipsters who come from a mainstream background, but essentially the soul of the hipster movement is rooted in the pseudo-alt-ness that comes from indie. Where the indie-boy/girl is unconfident shy and looking for acceptance in an alt environment, the hipster is detached, aloof, seemingly confident in his/her beliefs and worldly. I really wish not to go into all the stereotypes that surround the fashion sensibilites and characteristic behahaiours of this sub-culture, rather I see this article as being a critique on the false notions that this culture has cultivated in the name of a perverted ideal.
Hipster-bashing has been around for some time now; The Hipster Olympics, Being a Dickhead is Cool and the new We-Are-Awful SA site come to mind. But that hasn't given rise a mass realisation or an awakening of sorts on the part of these Hipsters. If anything it has strengthened the movement and created a wider distance between them and the rest of society. My truck is not with people seeking alternative lifestyles or breaking away with societal norms - what disturbs me is the insanity that these people must be suffering from, believing that they are "different" when actuality they are in fact the biggest conformists out there.
In the 60s there too were hipsters, counter-culture vanguards who sipped espresso at coffee shops and read Camus. A bunch of people who probably had fantastic trust-funds and could afford the luxury of leisure and intellectualism. I would hardly find such a group of people admirable or "cool" but for god sakes at least they read! The current breed of hipsters are born from a completely Mp3-based culture, and stylized and genre-fyed Mp3s at that as well. Yet these fuckers parade around, acting all snooty, looking like nerds yet possessing a extremely limited creative, inflective or intellectual ability. If someone comes to you and says 'I'm a creative' and they are dressed head to toe in American-Apparel, you can be sure that this person is a dumb as fuck. I mean why else would be too lazy to create their identity in the world, formulate their own musical tastes or read books and blogs besides Dazed and Confused and Pitchfork?
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