“Hipsters”…Go!
The folks at adbusters, “a not-for-profit, reader-supported, 120,000-circulation magazine concerned about the erosion of our physical and cultural environments by commercial forces”, featured a lead article in their latest issue entitled “Hipster: The Dead End of Western Civilization“. Anyhow, it turns out that Richmond has been accused of being a “hipster” town so I thought […]
The folks at adbusters, “a not-for-profit, reader-supported, 120,000-circulation magazine concerned about the erosion of our physical and cultural environments by commercial forces”, featured a lead article in their latest issue entitled “Hipster: The Dead End of Western Civilization“. Anyhow, it turns out that Richmond has been accused of being a “hipster” town so I thought maybe we could get some sort of dialogue going on over here on ye ol’ Internet.
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Notice: Comments that are not conducive to an interesting and thoughtful conversation may be removed at the editor’s discretion.
If we’re hip, I’d hate to see what they think a nerd city is…
Hipsters aren’t really hip. They just think they are.
Buncha pabst smears in this town.
sounds like someone has a case of hipster, whatever the fuck that means, envy…
Right now, there are 776 comments in the ongoing dialog that accompanies the article. Check it out.
Last night, I started reading the piece and thinking about Richmond and a possible blog entry. The list of hipster identifiers are bound to make readers defensive and result in some incorrect blanket labels. The author doesn’t seem to mind coming off as confrontational and less than constructive. Nonetheless, there are larger issues in the article that can be debated without taking the topic as an insult. Anybody want to delve into one of those aspects of hipster criticism?
This book does a good job of dealing with an aspect of the problem:
http://www.amazon.com/Nation-Rebels-Counterculture-Consumer-Culture/dp/006074586X
The fact that cloths that appear to be worn out or hand-screen-printed are made and sold at major outlets is also a big part of the problem.
Also the amount of generalizations in that article are a part of the problem.
Q: The Problem?
A: Lameness
The Hipster Handbook is the only source you’ll ever need.
It breaks it down into all the major catagories.
Hyperbole is definitely an issue with that article. However, the overarching theme seems to be about apathy. The author calls hipsters a “dead end” because they’re “unable to create any new meaning. Not only is it unsustainable, it is suicidal. While previous youth movements have challenged the dysfunction and decadence of their elders, today we have the “hipster” – a youth subculture that mirrors the doomed shallowness of mainstream society.”
Of course, it wouldn’t be adbusters if they didn’t go off about consumerism, and that’s another theme in the article: The subculture is less about ideas and more about things.
Here’s a witty book that tackles the timelessness of this issue:
http://www.amazon.com/Conquest-Cool-Business-Counterculture-Consumerism/dp/0226260127/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1218025787&sr=1-3
werent things hip like in 1950? i seen these mad max beyond thunderdome kids since 2000, they are travellers, theyre usually real dirty and have lots of facial piercings and a scrawny dog, theyre young and yet begging, thats what i see
Those folks aren’t local. And I’m not sure if mangy, squatting, transient, unintentional-dreadlock-having, worthless heroin addicted crust punks would even count as “hipsters”. I’d have to check the handbook to be sure.
Well, I LOVE hipsters. They have a tremendous amount of expendable income. They helped pay for my timeshare in Boca.
It really begins and ends with the Mad Max haircuts that keep popping up around our great city.
@jocelyn-amy winehouse is very popular, shes crack chic(sp)
If “hipsters” means bike kids, then that’s a weird definition. But I guess that means this town is correctly accused of being full of hipsters.
If “hipsters” means young people who musically tend toward the underground and fashion-wise don’t look like bleached-out, plasticky Southern Californians, then I’m all for it! Let’s proudly call ourselves by this label. There are large groups of young people everywhere who think they’re cool, and I’d be disturbed if they suddenly no longer existed. Such is youth, and chances are it’s the insecure onlookers that perceive those people as somehow being “snobby” or “exclusive,” without having ever talked to them.
This town has the advantage of always having a lot of talented, interesting people to make conversation and go on adventures with, and for that we are lucky. The fact that they are beautiful is just an added bonus; they can’t help it.
I’m agreeing with “truly,” above. If that’s a hipster, then every generation has and also requires hipsters.
i’m less concerned with inappropriately labeling people “hipsters” and more baffled by the idea that “hipsters” are somehow detrimental to our society. it really didn’t prove any point, except that people for years and years have always been trying to be cool and SURPRISE! people still are! shocking, adbusters, thank you for your insight. i mean, i think there are probably a few other larger contributing factors to the death of western civilization and i wouldn’t say young people’s consumerism is one of them.
maybe i’m way off base here, but isn’t buying from american companies (like american apparel) kind of like…good for the economy? so what’s the problem? expendable income is right, and it just so happens to be in the hands of people who often are obsessed with eco-friendly purchases and local shops, craftmakers, bars, restaurants, locally grown produce. these are good things!
i’ve read it three times and i’m still not sure how posing for photos, going to parties, and riding bikes is any different from anything any other youth generation has done. i’m not sure i got the point because it read like it was written by adults in 1958 scorning our loud music, funny clothes, and long hair. do you think burning all my oversized plastic sunglasses and jewel-tone flats will save western civilization? it’s not “hipsters'” faults that they can buy a whole lot of pbr for a little bit of money–american apparel clothes ain’t cheap after all.
ooooh better yet, do you think richmond could be remembered as the haight or greenwich village of our generation? maybe “hipsters” will migrate here to live our “hipster” lifestyle and put us on the map so non-richmonders will know us for something other than the confederacy…
Every generation mocks and ridicules the generation that comes after them. Can’t we all just get along?