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I think hipster, at least in the modern sense, is an umbrella term for people who don't subscribe to the standard mainstream culture. There are outdoorsy hipst
by drzaiusapelord 12y ago
I think hipster, at least in the modern sense, is an umbrella term for people who don't subscribe to the standard mainstream culture. There are outdoorsy hipsters, with expensive bikes and their own lingo, that are just as pretentious as the typical urban hipster with his fixie.
I tend not to equate the two, myself. In my mind a proper subculture differs from a lifestyle in that, typically, a lifestyle comes from above. A lifestyle tends to be given to us by Madison avenue. The outdoorsy guy gets his opinions from magazines and buys super expensive toys from mainstream sporting goods with large advertising budgets.
The urban hipster we usually decry, picks up fashion at the thrift store, whose second hand sale does nothing for Madison avenue's masters. Music choices, reading, etc comes from the trenches of like minded fans. Politics comes from, typically, marginalized outlets via books easily had at the library or second-hand book store. There's a real crowdsourcing element to traditional hipsterism. Sure, they're all wearing black and listening to the same 50 or so indie bands, but the crowd made that happen, not marketers. I think there's a real value there and this type of person is really the only socially acceptable avenue to curb, what I consider, mindless consumerism.
If anything, the internet and its ability to tie us all together has made us all urban hipsters to some extent. Now we're getting opinions from 1,000 people on goodreads, not the NYTimes reviewer.
- trhway 12y ago>hipster, at least in the modern sense, is an umbrella term for people who don't subscribe to the standard mainstream culture. hipster is the standard mainstream culture today. Just look around. >the typical urban hipster with his fixie. "i was biking fixie way before it was cool". 30 years ago in USSR the geared bikes were much less available even if you had money for it - it costs 130 rubles - 2/3 of an engineer's monthly salary vs. fixie costing "only" 64 rubles. Going uphill on a fixie i dreamed about unreachable gears :) With wide availability of geared bikes here biking a fixie in SF is a cool way to beat those self-whipping monks. Another bunch of urban hipsters on fixies feeling cool :) http://english.people.com.cn/mediafile/200906/08/F200906081501106528371523.jpg http://english.people.com.cn/mediafile/200906/08/F2009060815...
- arbutus 12y ago> hipster is the standard mainstream culture today. Just look around. This is what bothers me so much about the term. Nobody calls themselves a hipster, and in my area at least, nobody who could be accused of being a hipster goes around thinking of themselves as some counterculture special snowflake. I ride a fixie because they're cheap and our city is flat, and I live downtown because I like to be able to walk to work, and so on. These are just normal things that young people do, generally without any pretention. Hearing people making ridiculous sweeping generalizations about how pedantic they think young hipsters are is just the same shit as complaining about Elvis and his dancing.
- ScottBurson 12y agoAre you really talking about a fixie, or just a single-speed bike? A fixie has no freewheel. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixed-gear_bicycle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixed-gear_bicycle
- trhway 12y agoo! what i was talking did have freewheel. I guess it is my detachment from the hipster/fixie culture shows here as what i accidentally recently read on it was actually touting ability to have freewheel as among the advantages of fixies over geared ones.
- jrs99 12y agodo hipsters wear all black?
- thecoffman 12y agoI think you're overestimating the organic nature of "urban hipster" culture quite a bit. Its determined largely in a top-down manner like the other examples you've cited, just via different avenues. I would cite the rise of PBR[1] as an example. [1] http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2010/10/how-pbr-cornered-the-indie-hipster-bike-messenger-beer-market/64816/ http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2010/10/how-pbr-co...