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Question: Is the word "hipster" so over...or is talking about the word so over? Below, a group of self-declared non-hipsters talk circles around what the word actually means.
Nuggets of wisdom are offered up from promoter Todd P, author Ben Nugent, and Vice head honcho Gavin McGinnes (who notes the word has been his "bread and butter for 15 years"). Todd P describes the hipster experience as such: "When there's a good idea...it gets picked up fast...not to be an elitist, but really boring people start following these trends." Burn. Assuming the hipsters are the followers, no wonder everyone is running from the term.
Perhaps one Ray Ban-wearing youth sums it up best when asked if he's a hipster: "No, I'm from Manhattan. I think hipsters are usually just from the Lower East Side..." He's burrowed so deeply into his hipster identity he doesn't even care about geography, which is so...whatever!
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Hipster, Douchebag, Asshole, Jerkoff, Retard, blah blah..all the same thing.
Also, that guy Ben Nugent, can his voice be any more annoying?
It's easy really.
Real NYer = not a pretentious or affected asshole. Can still be an asshole, just not pretentious. Unless a famous NYC dragqueen.
Non-NYer = everyone else.
The ones who are only invested in the city for BS will go away when the BS fades away during the recession.
People who complain about hipsters are turning out to be far, far more annoying than the hipsters themselves, who are oftentimes actually fun to hang with.
If you need proof of my observation, look at any Gothamist post that featured photos of young people smiling, making music or art and having a general good time. You'll always see comments from disgruntled, grumpy assholes raining on everyone's fun.
everyone she interviewed was a damn hipster! hysterical. even the dude on the roof was a hipster.
Hey wasn't Jen Chung on this panel?
so many white v-necks. I like how the host gives her signoff. very sexy
Architects are already at work designing special nursing homes for these idiots.
"Hipster: The Dead End of Western Civilization"
"Take a stroll down the street in any major North American or European city and you’ll be sure to see a speckle of fashion-conscious twentysomethings hanging about and sporting a number of predictable stylistic trademarks: skinny jeans, cotton spandex leggings, fixed-gear bikes, vintage flannel, fake eyeglasses and a keffiyeh – initially sported by Jewish students and Western protesters to express solidarity with Palestinians, the keffiyeh has become a completely meaningless hipster cliché fashion accessory." Read the whole thing.
http://www.adbusters.org/magazine/79/hipster.html
Gavin McGinnes doesn't make any sense in that video, and also commenter Reality Check comment is wack.
Dear Williamsburg,
lastly, once some hipster pissed down my back and told me it was raining and i said, "hey! dont piss down my back and tell me it's raining!" And then I broke a pencil right in front of him.
ben nugent's voice is the worst thing to happen to sound.
The word hipster is so freaking over used, it causes a lot of eyerolls in me.
I agree with reality_check, it's even more annoying the overly hipster hating that goes on. I believe I tried to make that point back in a biker event... a biker event, someone called a hipster activity.
To me a hipster look is overly fashionable, too rooted in the 80s lately, like wayfarers and neon colors... basically anyone that looks like they came out of a John Hughes movie!
Now, I associate it with a lot of more annoying personality traits: being shallow, dismissive of people "below them", too worried about looks, being too much into trends (veganism, eco-friendly, heck even being an Obama supporter started to feel like a trend at some point!) just because everyone else is doing that, without a real personal motivation... So, I'd say that being called a hipster is an insult more than a praise.
Like Todd P said, every trend starts at one point and grows into something beyond it, loses focus and people who were originally part of that trend start hating it and are probably the founders of a lot of "die hipsters" websites nowadays. It's the natural cycle of life.
I personally hate prejudices of any kind and/or stereotypes. Meaning, just because you like a certain fashion trend does not mean you automatically posses any of the aforementioned annoyances.
I think hipsters should start reinventing themselves now. If everyone is doing it, what's the point? You are not "original" anymore.
Now I'd like never to discuss this issue again, thanks.
hipsters are a non-issue at this point. it was a culture built on excess, apathy, and the collective selfishness/bratty-ness of bored teenagers/young adults who were already well-off to begin with.
well, it's getting harder and harder to live in excess these days, and (i hope to god) harder for people to just not give a shit about anything. whatever was left of this youth movement will be out the door soon, and we can make way for something actually worth all of this attention.
About 6 years ago I was working in a bar in DC and I called one of the guys I worked with a scenester he got all pissy and said "no, were called hipsters"
What a fuckn tool bag.
I subscribe to this very portable definition:
Hipster(n.): anyone around my own age who is not yet in the know about how awesome my friends and I are.
Can we stop arguing about what a hipster is so we can ride our fixies to the park for some kickball?
What a waste of time this was! and yeah that nerd's voice pisses me off!
I lived in this area in the 80s. It was cheap and close to Manhattan. The L train ran sporadically. At least you could hit the Lower East Side, have some cheap drinks and go back to the tranquility of the neighborhood. Now they have a "scene" in this area. Good for them. While I think what they do is very retro, they are trying to have some fun. The only problem I have is that with the age of the internet, it seems so forced, trite and repetitive. Everyone poses a lot more, a uniform approach to being quasi radical while having your parents pay some of your rent. This approach to a lifestyle is oxymoronic, you will shop in thrift stores, not shave, drink cheap beer, but live in an incredibly overpriced area. I don't think they are hip at all, rather they are attempting to recreate a scene or time that doesn't exist anymore. I am grateful I grew up when I did. It seemed much simpler.
Trust fund babies is what they are!
ben nugent's voice is the worst thing to happen to sound.
Hah!
Someone please let Ben know that one can breathe mid-sentence. I fear he may pass out if he ever attempts more than ten words in a row.
whitecastlerock: while I agree you lived in a simpler time which had its advantages and disadvantages there was still the same mindset. Reading random interviews with people like Thurston Moore he talks about buy abunch of "old man" clothes and wearing small suits because it was cool trying to emulate your grandfather.
Ive also read some interesting articles from the 50's where abunch of artists from the 20's and 30's bitch about the "new people" moving in and making rents expensive in the village. It really never ends.
however now the internet complicates everything.
I think the term "Hipster" describes a fashion style more than anything else. Anyone can ride bikes and play kickball, but if they aren't wearing the clothes and the sunglasses then they are just kids riding bikes and playing kickball.
No words need come out of a hipster mouth for me to classify them as such. It is all about appearances.
The Children of The Doomed Generation
We are fucked.
http://thehipstermustdie.com
If you are doing something because you want to look a certain way or you want people to think about you a certain way, then you are LAME.
If you do what you want and wear what you want and honestly don't care, you cool.
addendum:
"No words need come out of a hipster mouth for me to classify them as such. It is all about appearances."
Oh no, I disagree! People can surprise you.
The D-bag on the roof is right. It's exactly the same thing as flappers. Or hippies. Or Beatniks. Or Goths. The era, the costumes, the music, and the activities aren't the point. It's trying desperately to conform to someone else's idea of nonconformity, and trying to latch onto some popular scene instead of creating a scene of your own.
There's nothing wrong with riding a fixie or playing kickball, or wearing chunky glasses and a v-neck t-shirt. But when you and a thousand other folks are all doing it, you've stopped thinking for yourself, and that's a hipster. Couple that with the attitude that you're somehow original in your trendiness, and you've got your classic hipster douchebag.
Ahh, at least Gavin McInnes notes it's his "bread and butter." Finally, he admits it's all commercial just like all this shit. Hipsters DON'T shop at thrift stores anymore, they shop at "vintage clothing" stores where they pay $40 for a 15 year old "Just Say No" t-shirt. Hipster is what happens when punk gets successfully watered down and mass marketed.
I really want to punch Gavin McInnes. Vice Magazine is worse than Hitler.
Hipsters do not exist!
New york is now full of people copying this ideal of what a hipster was in the late 90's early 2000's.
williamsburg is now inhabited by rich people who pretend to be poor, button ups, and normal people who like the neighborhood.
come on people,
I AM SO BORED OF THIS CONVERSATION!
All aboard the douche-nozzle express!
Calling himself a Maverick didn't help McCain. Calling themselves hipsters won't get these ass-vacuums any tail.
just had to point out that flappers were in the '20s, not the '40s...