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Hipsterdom--Past & Future.

post #1 of 26
6/28/10 at 1:41am
Thread Starter 
I was reading a 1959 issue of Horizon magazine--which for those who don't know was an influential American cultural magazine from the midcentury--and one of the articles concerned "nonconformism" or rather, as ironically titled, "The Dangers of Nonconformism".

In it, the author discusses how "the nonconformist" loathes and reviles at instant coffee, but has no qualms about drinking an espresso and other similar things.

In fact, the article may be half a century old, but the list of verboten articles seems hardly dated: conservative politics, processed foodstuffs, pop music, mainstream clothing and culture, etc.

Therein, the contemporary vitriol reserved for young hipster-things seems particularly insipid and ignorant.
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post #2 of 26
6/28/10 at 1:55am
Is the article online or can you scan it? I plan to get it tattooed on my chest.
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post #3 of 26
6/28/10 at 1:55am
...the more things change....
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post #4 of 26
6/28/10 at 1:57am
Thread Starter 
I hazard a guess that the notion of young "hipsters" began in the 1920s with the Flapper generation and the Bright Young Things of England, etc. and etc.
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post #5 of 26
6/28/10 at 2:35am
Quote:
Originally Posted by LabelKing View Post
Therein, the contemporary vitriol reserved for young hipster-things seems particularly insipid and ignorant.

What's so insipid about it? The same kind of people have been and always will be annoying, forever and always.
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post #6 of 26
6/28/10 at 2:41am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by tagutcow View Post
What's so insipid about it? The same kind of people have been and always will be annoying, forever and always.

This coming from someone who makes music at home.
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post #7 of 26
6/28/10 at 2:45am
Quote:
Originally Posted by LabelKing View Post
This coming from someone who makes music at home.
I'm sorry. What did you say? I can't hear you over the HOT FIYAH coming from my BX5s.
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post #8 of 26
6/28/10 at 2:50am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by tagutcow View Post
I'm sorry. What did you say? I can't hear you over the HOT FIYAH coming from my BX5s.

I have no idea what any of that meant.
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post #9 of 26
6/28/10 at 7:52am
Quote:
Originally Posted by LabelKing View Post
I was reading a 1959 issue of Horizon magazine--which for those who don't know was an influential American cultural magazine from the midcentury--and one of the articles concerned "nonconformism" or rather, as ironically titled, "The Dangers of Nonconformism".

In it, the author discusses how "the nonconformist" loathes and reviles at instant coffee, but has no qualms about drinking an espresso and other similar things.

In fact, the article may be half a century old, but the list of verboten articles seems hardly dated: conservative politics, processed foodstuffs, pop music, mainstream clothing and culture, etc.

Therein, the contemporary vitriol reserved for young hipster-things seems particularly insipid and ignorant.
Sounds like you're confusing counterculture for hipsterdom.

What defines the modern hipster in particular is an appreciation for irony expressed in the appropriation of cultural objects that are now gauche, e.g. ironic beard, ironic fixed-gear bike, ironic PBR, ironic trucker hat.

I suppose there are other things but that's what distinguishes the modern-day variant from his flapper/beatnik/hippie/etc. contemporaries.
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post #10 of 26
6/28/10 at 8:35am
The word "hipster" dates to the jazz scene of the 1940s. It meant someone who knows what is going on, someone who is "hip." Hip-cat / hep-cat / hipster --> all the same thing, basically. http://books.google.com/books?id=t7KmC7-AHmEC&pg=PA337 And of course there was irony in the 1920s. http://books.google.com/books?id=kJ5aAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA238 I remember the whole hipster thing starting in the mid- and late 1990s. I do not know why the word "hipster" returned to deride those young people, and I don't know why it has stuck.
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post #11 of 26
6/28/10 at 8:41am
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Originally Posted by unjung View Post
Is the article online or can you scan it? I plan to get it tattooed on my chest.

I LOL'd.
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post #12 of 26
6/28/10 at 9:48am
Quote:
Originally Posted by holymadness View Post
Sounds like you're confusing counterculture for hipsterdom.

What defines the modern hipster in particular is an appreciation for irony expressed in the appropriation of cultural objects that are now gauche, e.g. ironic beard, ironic fixed-gear bike, ironic PBR, ironic trucker hat.

I suppose there are other things but that's what distinguishes the modern-day variant from his flapper/beatnik/hippie/etc. contemporaries.

In other words, they are idiots.
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post #13 of 26
6/28/10 at 5:58pm
It's funny when the old people (or clueless youngsters) still talk about hipsters from like 2001. Some seriously out of touch people here on SF. Also, think that the PBR thing is largely because how cheap it is. Depending on what city you're in you'll see people that most you guys would call hipsters drinking natty light, narragansett, PBR, old milwaukee and some others depending on region. Largely depends on what's cheapest at bars. Most of the time "Bros" and "hipsters" in young areas are drinking the same beer because of the cost. Fixed gear bicycles are a pretty different breed. There are a lot of people who are just really into those simple bikes and it's pretty much its own culture these days. Also, i thought the trucker hat phenomenon was an Aston Kutcher thing? Personally growing up in the 00s, i saw it on way more Bros, frat guys and american eagle/abercrombie people than what many here would consider hipsters.
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post #14 of 26
6/28/10 at 6:48pm
Past: who gives a shit Future: can we kill them?
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post #15 of 26
6/28/10 at 6:56pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by chronoaug View Post
Also, i thought the trucker hat phenomenon was an Aston Kutcher thing?
Ironic trucker hat pre-dates That 70's Show. They were midwestern thrift-store staple. Farmers received them by the dozens from seed and equipment companies, and you could always find new ones for a dollar or two. I never wore one but knew plenty of smartasses who did. PBR got a leg up in the young educated would-be hipster crowd from Dennis Hopper and Blue Velvet, which everyone watched again & again on VHS years after its release. If you were browsing the $5 twelve-packs in the early 90s, that is what you remembered when PBR was an option. Stroh's and Old Milwaukee had nothing on it.
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