I do this thing a lot where I sometimes speak in hyperbole when I take a side in something in order to get my point across. If the author here had taken the position of "hipsters are bad because _______ but they also are responsible for _______ (including Adbusters itself)" the article wouldn't really merit any discussion, which, either ironically or appropriately, is only being done by hipsters or pseudo-hipsters themselves.
Against my better judgment, I read this recently, wondering if it couldn't find a way to be more self-righteous and condescending.
First, this article is coming from Adbusters, a group of aging former-hipsters who suddenly can't call whatever they are "hip" and are having a collective tantrum. Seems like this guy in particular became disillusioned after years of getting dressed up in his hipster costume and going to the hipster parties and discovering that the hipster girls did not want to tenderly stroke his chubby bewhiskered cheeks and make sweet hipster love to him. And he decided to fight back.This sentiment comes out when the author tries to suggest that the transparent image of products marketed toward the blue-collar population were venerable before hipsters got a hold of them. No, they weren't. Neither were whatever things you co-opted in the 90s, dude
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There is a strong sense of the pot calling the kettle black here and the fact that this is coming from Adbusters of all places is as equally dubious as the author's ambushed interview subjects denying their hipsterdom. What do you think about the idea of Hipsters--or what the author calls hipsters--being incapable of creating anything new?
anything that becomes hip or trendy is bound to be just a variation of some recycled trend from the generation(s) before. yeah, i agree that it's ironic and hypocritical of adbusters to be knocking their own fan base and what they once were, but besides that the article is great and dead-on...the interviews could have taken place at the orpheum or czar on any given saturday night (when I read the part about the impromptu photoshoot in the girls' bathroom at the club, i automatically envisioned it in the bathroom at the czar)
Completely agree. I don't think anyone could have possibly said it better. Living in a trendy suburb of Detroit, I've been immersed in the hipster culture to the point where I was actually starting to think I was the only one who could see the absurdity in it, the extreme contradiction, the sadness. I felt like he was describing Royal Oak (where I live) - a place where the hipster culture is so dominant that it can't possibly be considered a rebellious movement. It is definitely an accurate depiction. I'm just not quite sure if (and when) it will "die" and what will replace it. (Something has to.)
I don't think it's entirely fair to look at hipsterdom as a new trend born from late 90s publications like VICE magazine such as the article suggests, but there is something entirely different and new about what's described, I'm just not sure what to call it. Do you think the article goes too far?
Maybe what's different is that it is OUR generation and we are looking at it from a different perspective than, say, our parents. I think there were parts that were a bit extreme. In particular, the description of the hipster dancing and the generalizations about clothing choice are plain silly. It's all just passing trends and post-modernism, really. That aside, I think the last two paragraphs are pretty dead-on. He's admitting that he too is part of this "lost generation" and I think he's afraid (I can empathize) about what will happen when this trend dies out because there just isn't a whole lot left. But is that how every generation before us felt at this age...or are we actually experiencing something completely new? I suppose the answer is subjective and I suppose we'll only really know if the world is going to end when it actually does.
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First, this article is coming from Adbusters, a group of aging former-hipsters who suddenly can't call whatever they are "hip" and are having a collective tantrum. Seems like this guy in particular became disillusioned after years of getting dressed up in his hipster costume and going to the hipster parties and discovering that the hipster girls did not want to tenderly stroke his chubby bewhiskered cheeks and make sweet hipster love to him. And he decided to fight back.This sentiment comes out when the author tries to suggest that the transparent image of products marketed toward the blue-collar population were venerable before hipsters got a hold of them. No, they weren't. Neither were whatever things you co-opted in the 90s, dude ( ... )
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