Lovers of apathy and irony, hipsters are connected through a global network of blogs and shops that push forth a global vision of fashion-informed aesthetics. Loosely associated with some form of creative output, they attend art parties, take lo-fi pictures with analog cameras, ride their bikes to night clubs and sweat it up at nouveau disco-coke parties. The hipster tends to religiously blog about their daily exploits, usually while leafing through generation-defining magazines like Vice, Another Magazine and Wallpaper. This cursory and stylized lifestyle has made the hipster almost universally loathed.(via Hipster: The Dead End of Western Civilization | Adbusters Culturejammer Headquarters)
spent some time reading this. it’s funny to see a continuous debate on the hipster year after year. Its a subset that receives a lot of hate, but as a ‘counter culture’ in the digital age, has more exposure then any group like it before. I found this passage from the article particularly interesting:
Hipsterdom is the first “counterculture” to be born under the advertising industry’s microscope, leaving it open to constant manipulation but also forcing its participants to continually shift their interests and affiliations. Less a subculture, the hipster is a consumer group – using their capital to purchase empty authenticity and rebellion. But the moment a trend, band, sound, style or feeling gains too much exposure, it is suddenly looked upon with disdain. Hipsters cannot afford to maintain any cultural loyalties or affiliations for fear they will lose relevance.
An amalgamation of its own history, the youth of the West are left with consuming cool rather that creating it. The cultural zeitgeists of the past have always been sparked by furious indignation and are reactionary movements. But the hipster’s self-involved and isolated maintenance does nothing to feed cultural evolution. Western civilization’s well has run dry. The only way to avoid hitting the colossus of societal failure that looms over the horizon is for the kids to abandon this vain existence and start over.
I guess its time to start over and get back to creative roots. A good read, but not one I completely agree with. In the end of the article the author states “The hipster represents the end of Western civilization – a culture so detached and disconnected that it has stopped giving birth to anything new.”
Sure their are plenty of these hipsters out doing nothing but consuming, but its those who stand just on the outside of that group - segments like hipster rap, or, as I like to call it “nerd rap” which has embraced this new media generation to spread its work and talents more easily. Maybe it is that these off shoots of hipsters have already begun to disconnect and have stopped worrying so much about what others are thinking about them.
