My take on the hipsters
You can see them at street corners or sitting down around a monument build in the memory of a dead french author rolling up their tobacco very carefully. It doesn’t matter if the sun is up or the cold wind is flouting down the city streets they will always wear a keffiyeh, a hat, skinny jeans and heavy colored fake glasses. They don’t really need the glasses but they’ll say that they wear them not as a fashion statement but as a shield for the lack of culture in modern day society. Their means of transport are a fixed gear bicycle and their air that they breath is the sound of unknown bands coming from there iPod which is updated religiously with names that nobody has heard before. This is the very core of their DNA, the lack of interest for the mainstream to what they say is pure art, refined in the ignorance of todays society.
They are a subculture of the Western culture defined by the lack of identity, they are so flexible in adapting to new trends and habits that they don’t have a clear pattern as other subcultures like punk or rap have. The hipsters, as they are called, take pried in rejecting this label that they hate. This subculture movement that they, the hipster, describe as authentic is defined by iconic brands that are use to define themselves. In every hipsters wardrobe there must be the presents of a Converse branded tennis shoe, the shoe on which we are safe to declare that this entire wave of so called rebellions was build.
The Western culture was always defined by creativity and innovation from fashion to poetry. But this subculture is a prisoner of it’s own ways. The advertising agencies feed on their lack of identity and present brands in such a manner that appeal to their superficial soul that transforms them in one of the most powerful growing groups of consumers of authenticity and rebellion. But this is a on going circle, the minute a sound, a picture, a piece of material hits the mainstream they will reject it, and the brand can bring something new for them to lust over.
In their search for authenticity they’ll try every gender of art out there. From fashion to literature, painting, photography, music, labeling there actions as experimental. In this quest they are connected globally in a network of blogs and social networking sites. They’ll start their day browsing hundreds of blogs with photos posted by girls with a fetich for analog and polaroid cameras. This soft core porn is often backed up by new bands that they stumble upon on sited like Muxtape or Last Fm. Using all the information to make not something new, as they are not capable of it, all thou, they are big fans of the concept. No, they’ll make a mix, a fade copy of what they found and this sites. This subculture ends up consuming cool instead of creating cool.
The punk culture has died with the death of Joe Strummer, front man of The Clash, the rap culture has no more significants as the hard life of the rappers is now lived in over 3 million pounds houses and rock and roll is long gone. The true Western culture in all it’s glory was formed on raw indignation and movements that reacted and not consumed. This culture is killing it’s self as not one of the subcultures that we know has that spark needed to create a revolution. All that we know, we know now from the bottom of a wine glass and reading what ever we can find with a RSS button. There is no more true critical point of view as all that we know now is tagged as relative.
This growing subculture, the hipsters, are the perfect example of this self sufficient superficial wave that let’s the vibe of a true movement numb. We don’t feel the need to create something, we are perfectly fine with imitating old or existing things and actions. Are true focus now is on consuming, and after that consuming some more. And in this attempt we developed a circle, a system that works perfectly. The lust after false authenticity and rebellion. Consuming every drop of energy that we have not on a revolution, no, but on a dance floor in some underground club that has walls painted with white sheep fucked by pink pigs.
November 16, 2010 6:35 pm
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