WTF is a "hipster"?

dirtydirty 93 Posts
edited March 2009 in Strut Central
Is it the new term for "posers"? I know I sound old. I'm 33 and I like art and sneaks (not the skittle kind) and always have. does that make me a hipster?
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  • SnagglepusSnagglepus 1,756 Posts
    This article does a pretty good job of summing it up.

  • FrankFrank 2,373 Posts
    I think that "hipster" is one of the most often and wrongly used terms in a cultural landscape that's just totally boring, predictable, eventless und unworthy of any attention. There is no real "mainstream" culture anymore, just the same as there is no real "underground" or "counter culture". There also are no real fashion trends anymore since everything has had so many revivals, some revivals have even been recycled repeatedly. I think now we are at a point where you seriously can't tell anymore if someone dresses in shitty clothes for aesthetic reasons or if it's some poor F*ck who shops at the salvation army for economic reasons. Nothing really means anything anymore. Some shit occasionally makes me chuckle but in general nothing's worth a second glance, let alone a thought.

    As far as I know, hipsters originally were guys in the late 50s to early 60s who wore goatess and sunglasses and frequented jazz clubs. So it's just the same as everything else, a recycled word that once meant something and nowadays doesn't.

  • This article does a pretty good job of summing it up.

    This is one of the most depressing things i've read in a long time.

  • SnagglepusSnagglepus 1,756 Posts
    This article does a pretty good job of summing it up.

    This is one of the most depressing things i've read in a long time.

    Yeah ... I suppose Adbusters is rarely the place to turn when you want read something cheerful. And I do think the article paints a very black and white picture of a phenomenon that clearly is chock full of grey areas. But the author makes some good points.

  • This article does a pretty good job of summing it up.

    This is one of the most depressing things i've read in a long time.

    Yeah ... I suppose Adbusters is rarely the place to turn when you want read something cheerful. And I do think the article paints a very black and white picture of a phenomenon that clearly is chock full of grey areas. But the author makes some good points.

    Yea, I mean it's well written and all, but at the end of the day it is just a bunch of people following a trend, is it all that bleak? very insightful though.

  • Lucious_FoxLucious_Fox 2,479 Posts
    This is so 2006

  • mannybolonemannybolone Los Angeles, CA 15,025 Posts
    Pssssss...to many people, anyone posting to this board = hipster.

  • GaryGary 3,982 Posts
    How can you not know what a hipster is though, really? I mean, they are everywhere. If you have shaggy hair, big goofy glasses and skin tight clothes on then you are a hipster. thats the same for chicks and dudes. Oh, and you ahve to be super skinny and look like a girl scout could whoop your ass.

    Most of them are decent enough people I'm sure, but in the end who cares. How are people asking what a hipster is STILL?? See that guy walking down the street that looks like he's in a indie rock band? That guy is a hipster, and yeah, he probably is in a band.

  • GrandfatherGrandfather 2,303 Posts
    A hipster is defined as soulstrut catnip

  • SnagglepusSnagglepus 1,756 Posts
    And soulstrut is defined as hipster catnip.

  • GaryGary 3,982 Posts
    [/thread]

  • finelikewinefinelikewine "ONCE UPON A TIME, I HAD A VINYL." http://www.discogs.com/user/permabulker 1,416 Posts

  • GaryGary 3,982 Posts
    That vice dude is a douche.

    Flappers liked being flappers. They called themselves flappers. Flapper set trends a broke rules. Flappers are the exact opposite of Hipsters.

    Hipsters hate being called hipsters and will deny that they are hipsters.


    Personally I don't hate hipsters. I don't really care is all.

  • hemolhemol 2,578 Posts
    Dada spun the same line of criticism in the opposite direction in the 20s and actually used it to create something, instead of just pointing a finger and then moving on to the next point of criticism.

    What's funny about the adbusters article, is that adbusters itself is nothing more than vapid posturing. It's a fusking magazine dedicated to deriding capitalism, no? They had that whole debacle where they put out sneakers that were manufactured in sweatshops. Adbusters is bleak because their whole shit is lame. Adbusters is a hipster.


    As of now, hipster seems to be the word that people use to dismiss other people. "He's got all those bomb records, but he's just a hipster." I think when Gaslamp Killer first came up in discussion on here he was labeled a hipster by a lot of people who later changed their tune after some key posters chimed in. Sometimes it says a lot more about the person using it than the person being labeled.

  • dirtydirty 93 Posts
    How can you not know what a hipster is though, really? I mean, they are everywhere. If you have shaggy hair, big goofy glasses and skin tight clothes on then you are a hipster. thats the same for chicks and dudes. Oh, and you ahve to be super skinny and look like a girl scout could whoop your ass.

    Most of them are decent enough people I'm sure, but in the end who cares. How are people asking what a hipster is STILL?? See that guy walking down the street that looks like he's in a indie rock band? That guy is a hipster, and yeah, he probably is in a band.

    In all honesty I sorta do know, but I see some of the so called "streetwear" brands out there kicking the so called "hipster" in the head meanwhile the representation of the hipster in question is also the same person who is paying $70-$100 to buy their crappy 1-color t-shirts.

  • dirtydirty 93 Posts
    As far as I know, hipsters originally were guys who wore goatess and sunglasses and frequented jazz clubs.

    Guilty.

  • SnagglepusSnagglepus 1,756 Posts
    Adbusters is a hipster.

    It is ironic, or perhaps very appropriate, to see that article in Adbusters. That magazine is so wound up inside of itself it's ridiculous. They use the tools of those whom they criticize so effectively that the boundaries quickly blurred. That was interesting for the first couple of issues but soon became just boring. And when the price kept climbing up (what is it ... $12 now?) it was difficult to see the point of the whole thing besides just making $ to intellectually and visually masturbate. Sounds pretty "hipster" to me, according to their definition anyway.

    I do think the article was rather insightful but they took it way too far. It serves as a decent introduction for people who have no idea what is meant by the term, but it paints with too broad of a stroke. Every member of a rock band rock band, every musician who uses a sample, everyone who wears a fun t-shirt, everyone who goes to a gallery ... they're all completely shallow automatons? And is this so unique? So every hippie in the 60s was a "real" hippie? Noone was just going along with the fashion? Eh.

  • phongonephongone 1,652 Posts
    Pssssss...to many people, anyone posting to this board = hipster.

    Really, you think? I always thought the record-collecting, cargo-short (and Polo) wearing, New Balance-rocking demographic was the antithesis of hipster.

  • JoeMojoJoeMojo 720 Posts
    Isn't this about the sixth time we've done this thread? And it's equally embarrassing every time.

  • ostost Montreal 1,375 Posts

    75% of people interviewed in that video are straight up definitions of hipsters.

  • GaryGary 3,982 Posts
    I don't know about that, but the dude with the "rock" brick wall t-shirt, black skinny suspenders, and oversize sunglasses is DEFINITELY a hipster.

  • Another teenager (or want-to-stay teenager) fashion like you have every five years. Same people who used to listen trip hop and wore camo and backpack 10 years ago at the same age..what's wrong with this?
    Mock it show more jealousy than real analysis..

  • these days a hipster is a dude or dudette who wears tight jeans, is vegan, smells bad, and listens to indie rock!


  • mannybolonemannybolone Los Angeles, CA 15,025 Posts
    Isn't this about the sixth time we've done this thread? And it's equally embarrassing every time.

    Cosign.

    Calling out hipsters is the new hipster thing to do.

  • SnagglepusSnagglepus 1,756 Posts
    The prototype came from Revenge of the Nerds:


  • dwyhajlodwyhajlo 420 Posts
    Apparently people take Adbusters seriously. Interesting.

  • SnagglepusSnagglepus 1,756 Posts
    Apparently people take Adbusters seriously. Interesting.

    Not nearly as seriously as they take themselves.

  • ThermosThermos 307 Posts
    The prototype came from Revenge of the Nerds:



  • mannybolonemannybolone Los Angeles, CA 15,025 Posts
    The prototype came from Revenge of the Nerds:



    Saying - full circle. What was once square is now hip and what was once hip is probably now square. Cycle o' life, baby.
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