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Hipsters

George PatchesGeorge Patches
edited August 2010 in Everything Else
Can someone actually define a Hipster for me, I don't really understand and wikipedia is not that great either. I don't want to read the SP thread cause I haven't read the books at all.
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Comments

  • AprecheApreche
    image
  • CremlianCremlian
    Like any group that is generally made fun of a hipster is anyone you feel like calling a name :-p
  • Li_AkahiLi_Akahi
    Look at this fucking hipster.
  • VigaViga
    A parody of themselves is how I see them. Also, their parties aren't very good.
  • gomidoggomidog
    When I think of Hipster, I think of:
    Urban 20 somethings, obsessed with obscure indie music and 80's fashion. A defining quality of the demographic is liking and adopting stupid or ugly fashions/tastes as an ironic statement; hipsters are big into irony/blase attitudes about everything. I also associate hipsters with a sort of pseudo-intellectual snobbery, mostly about music, but also about literature and philosophical ideas. Often, hipsters are unemployed, freelancers, or working at so-called "dead end jobs" to make the rent, despite being middle class background. Similar to the Japanese "freeter" movement.
  • RymRym
    Urban 20 somethings, obsessed with obscure indie music and 80's fashion. A defining quality of the demographic is liking and adopting stupid or ugly fashions/tastes as an ironic statement; hipsters are big into irony/blase attitudes about everything. I also associate hipsters with a sort of pseudo-intellectual snobbery, mostly about music, but also about literature and philosophical ideas. Often, hipsters are unemployed, freelancers, or working at so-called "dead end jobs" to make the rent, despite being middle class background. Similar to the Japanese "freeter" movement.
    A solid definition.
  • OmnutiaOmnutia
    Being anti-social sometimes has it's advantages.
  • JasonJason
    Urban 20 somethings, obsessed with obscure indie music and 80's fashion. A defining quality of the demographic is liking and adopting stupid or ugly fashions/tastes as an ironic statement; hipsters are big into irony/blase attitudes about everything. I also associate hipsters with a sort of pseudo-intellectual snobbery, mostly about music, but also about literature and philosophical ideas. Often, hipsters are unemployed, freelancers, or working at so-called "dead end jobs" to make the rent, despite being middle class background. Similar to the Japanese "freeter" movement.
    A solid definition.
    To summarize: People who think they're non-comformists, and try to prove it by conforming to a uniform ideal of non-conformity.
  • RymRym
    To summarize: People who think they're non-comformists, and try to prove it by conforming to a uniform ideal of non-conformity.
    Nah, hipster is a specific brand of that. Your more broad definition covers teenagers, goths, and most other popular social groups. ;^)
  • George PatchesGeorge Patches
    To summarize: People who think they're non-comformists, and try to prove it by conforming to a uniform ideal of non-conformity.
    The ultimate oxymoron then.
  • OmnutiaOmnutia
    Isn't that just most teenage social movements since the war?
  • chaosof99chaosof99
  • NukerjsrNukerjsr
    Urban 20 somethings, obsessed with obscure indie music and 80's fashion. A defining quality of the demographic is liking and adopting stupid or ugly fashions/tastes as an ironic statement; hipsters are big into irony/blase attitudes about everything. I also associate hipsters with a sort of pseudo-intellectual snobbery, mostly about music, but also about literature and philosophical ideas. Often, hipsters are unemployed, freelancers, or working at so-called "dead end jobs" to make the rent, despite being middle class background. Similar to the Japanese "freeter" movement.
    A solid definition.
    Very, very solid.
  • Li_AkahiLi_Akahi
    When I think of Hipster, I think of:
    Urban 20 somethings, obsessed with obscure indie music and 80's fashion. A defining quality of the demographic is liking and adopting stupid or ugly fashions/tastes as an ironic statement; hipsters are big into irony/blase attitudes about everything. I also associate hipsters with a sort of pseudo-intellectual snobbery, mostly about music, but also about literature and philosophical ideas. Often, hipsters are unemployed, freelancers, or working at so-called "dead end jobs" to make the rent, despite being middle class background. Similar to the Japanese "freeter" movement.
    I just don't understand the concept of liking something "ironically." If you like something, you like it. End of story. You don't need to add some sort of bullshit qualifier to the end of it.
  • AprecheApreche
    I just don't understand the concept of liking something "ironically." If you like something, you like it. End of story. You don't need to add some sort of bullshit qualifier to the end of it.
    Liking something ironically is sort of like the old game show Double Dare. Nobody actually likes going down a slide into a pile of goop. It's not actually pleasant. You end up an uncomfortable mess, and you need a shower. Yet, everyone likes watching you do it, so you get lots of positive attention. Even though you don't like doing it, there is this thrill you get when it's about to happen. In the aftermath it's a bad idea, but the top of the slide is like the top of a very small roller coaster. It's all in the meta. The thing you are doing is in and of itself not fun. However, the meta provides a thrill. Because you know that what you are about to do is stupid or bad, there's a thrill of danger when you know it's going to happen. The positive attention is just an extra plus.

    Hipsters are the same way. They definitely like other beverages more than PBR. But it's not the taste of the beverage that is giving them pleasure, but the meta of knowing they are drinking piss.
  • George PatchesGeorge Patches
    I just don't understand the concept of liking something "ironically." If you like something, you like it. End of story. You don't need to add some sort of bullshit qualifier to the end of it.
    More fuel for my "I don't get these hipsters" fire.
  • HungryJoeHungryJoe
    "Hipster" used to mean something very different. Until a couple of years ago, I still thought of "Hipster" as pretty interchangeable with "Beatnik".

    Beats were much better than the Hipsters of today.
  • AprecheApreche
    "Hipster" used to mean something very different. Until a couple of years ago, I still thought of "Hipster" as pretty interchangeable with "Beatnik".

    Beats were much better than the Hipsters of today.
    That's what happens. Lots of words go away and them come back with different meanings, or just have their meanings gradually change over time. No point in comparing the old and the new simply because of a semantic connection.

    Even so, my first instinct would be to agree that beatniks were much better than hipsters, I know better. It's just the psychologically tendency to look at the past, especially a past before I was born, with rose tinted glasses. If I were around the same time as beatniks, I would probably have looked at them the same way I look at hipsters now.
  • HungryJoeHungryJoe
    Hipster Counterculture through the Decades
  • RochelleRochelle
    image
  • VigaViga
    Hipster Counterculture through the Decades
    Shows that it all starts with the same counterculture ideals, then gets commercialized. People on the inside don't want to sell out, but in the end EVERYONE buys in. It's all unavoidable and the pursuit of being genuine becomes a pipe dream. It's makes me think, what's the point, but then I remember that the ride is still fun.
  • George PatchesGeorge Patches
    What's funny is I was thinking about fixies earlier today, and I think based on it my camaro is the hipster equivalent of a sports car. :P
  • VigaViga
    edited August 2010
    What's funny is I was thinking about fixies earlier today, and I think based on it my camaro is the hipster equivalent of a sports car. :P
    Is it a bitchin' camaro?
    Post edited by Viga on
  • George PatchesGeorge Patches
    Is it abitchin' camaro?
    Not really...hence why it's a hipster camaro.
  • ......
    Liking something ironically is sort of like the old game show Double Dare. Nobody actually likes going down a slide into a pile of goop. It's not actually pleasant. You end up an uncomfortable mess, and you need a shower. Yet, everyone likes watching you do it, so you get lots of positive attention. Even though you don't like doing it, there is this thrill you get when it's about to happen. In the aftermath it's a bad idea, but the top of the slide is like the top of a very small roller coaster. It's all in the meta. The thing you are doing is in and of itself not fun. However, the meta provides a thrill. Because you know that what you are about to do is stupid or bad, there's a thrill of danger when you know it's going to happen. The positive attention is just an extra plus.
    The problem with this is that hipsters 'ironically' like things that others just like. Example: Darkwing Duck is awesome. You'll see insecure 'hipsters' who 'ironically' wear a Darkwing Duck shirt.

    I find the whole idea of 'hipsters' to be dumb. Of course, they'll say I don't understand, to which I reply: "That doesn't make me stop thinking its dumb."
  • WyattWyatt
    edited August 2010
    The easiest way to determine if a person is a Hipster is to ask you self one question:

    Does this person have way too many accessories?

    Gloves, hat, hoodie, scarf, vest, anything from Urban Outfitters, lunchbox purse, adult beverage in paper bag (PBR, I don't blaim you for this. I
    What's funny is I was thinking about fixies earlier today, and I think based on it my camaro is the hipster equivalent of a sports car. :P
    That would be walking your fixed gear bike onto the Metro to take a nap.
    Post edited by Wyatt on
  • ChurbaChurba
    The problem with this is that hipsters 'ironically' like things that others just like. Example: Darkwing Duck is awesome. You'll see insecure 'hipsters' who 'ironically' wear a Darkwing Duck shirt.
    It's all a status game. Say you like something that other people might frown upon in the subculture? No problem, you like it ironically. You like Miley Cyrus? Not cool. You Ironically like it? You're cool again.
  • TheWhaleSharkTheWhaleShark
    edited August 2010
    Well, I think the real problem is that their enjoyment of things is disingenuous. That makes it hard to really form a bond of any sort, unless you're "in the know." Even then, the whole social structure is only based around "being in the know" and not actually about what anyone really likes.

    It's sort of the opposite direction of, say, shonen fighting or cheesy metal. You like a shonen fighting show or Amon Amarth despite the fact that they're both stupid; you still actually like them, and you're honest about it. A hipster only likes things - or pretends to like things - that they think are stupid. The former is more honest and makes for better social interaction.
    Post edited by TheWhaleShark on
  • SailSail
    [post]
    This is pretty much exactly what I wanted to type out earlier but didn't want to bother because I was on my phone. Well done, very succinct.
  • WyattWyatt
    You'll see insecure 'hipsters' who 'ironically' wear a Darkwing Duck shirt.
    These are pretty cool shirts: Japanese Cyclops Fahrenheit 451
    It's aggravating to think someone is wearing those shirts without ever reading the comic/book, and that's somehow cool.
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