While I kinda’ love the idea of Adbusters (generally speaking, a non-profit group dedicated to upending the pervasive consumer culture of our times), their execution continues to miss the mark and leave me completely baffled. I think of them of the Hamlets of activists. They have decided “to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing, end them”; everything is in order, the knife in hand, they lunge, and whoops, have killed the wrong person.
Remember the Jewish list (Adbusters: Why wont anyone say they are Jewish?)? What a STUPID idea. Instead of having a discussion about the influence of Israeli foreign policy on the US’s decision to go to war with Iraq, they publish a list of neo-cons and put marks next to those who are Jewish… Ill let that sink in for a moment… … … ok.
Their most recent foray into stupidity, while not nearly as serious is just as pandering. In their recent article Hipster: The Dead End of Western Civilization they make the same mistake of casting their journalistic net far too wide when trying to define the ‘bad guys’ of modern day youth culture and as a result just look silly and misinformed. Honestly, the whole thing is difficult to take seriously and it reads like one big anti-’hipster’ cliche, layered upon stupider anti-’hipster’ cliches. Take for instance a typical sentence:
Loosely associated with some form of creative output, [hipsters] 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.
“Nouveau disco-coke parties”? This is too good. Did this come from The Onion?
And being a magazine-head I think the sentence following this one really gets to the article’s main issue:
The hipster tends to religiously blog about their daily exploits, usually while leafing through generation-defining magazines like Vice, Another Magazine and Wallpaper.
The flippant nature of such a statement tries to mask the fact that this author really has no idea what he is talking about. I guess Vice is stereotypically understood to be a kind of hipster staple (whatever that really means), but Another Magazine is a high-end lux/culture mag, and Wallpaper is more traditionally thought of as design porn for yuppie city dwellers (and that’s not being derogatory, I like Wallpaper).
And this is the issue; the term Hipster, while it has its derogatory stereotypes (which this article very successfully articulates), is way too loose for someone to speak about with such definitive authority. I am a few years out of college now and fall pretty directly in the middle of the ‘hipster demographic’, but first hearing the term I few years ago I was so confused that it existed at all. I had bike courier friends were considered ‘hipsters’. My artist friends were hipsters. My craft/DIY friends were hipsters. My fellow English-major friends were hipsters. I had pre-Med and bio-major friends who were hipsters. You’ve got street-wear kids, scenesters, nerdy book types, vegans. People who get out dancing every night, and those that don’t. Some are into hip-hop, some jazz, some blues, some indie rock, some pop, some obscure, some electronica, some 90s acoustic and grunge, and some all/none of the above. I guess there are very loose threads of meaning that run through all of these groups, perhaps an appreciation for art, but perhaps not, maybe a desire to live in the city, but maybe not. Tight pants? ha. I don’t know… Really these are just quasi-bohemian 20-somethings in American cities and the author doesn’t understand that this is a much more textured group than he would like to believe.
For a magazine that prides itself on understanding/criticizing cultural trends, one has to wonder how useful they are when they get an entire generation of city-dwellers so wrong.
Fortunately for Adbusters they have gotten 750+ comments on the article since it was published, and that might have been the point all along.
UPDATE: After sitting on this thing for a few days (and realizing that Haddow is the same guy that authors The Publics (a blog I’ve always liked, btw)), I am more and more inclined to think that we are simply talking about different groups of people here. I mean I would totally peg this guy as a hipster in Philly. It sounds like the adbusters article is more going after the self-obsessed, coke off the iPhone, scenester type (which is still a bit unfair as I am sure even these people aren’t as one dimensional at this article paints them). Though, it does go to show that throwing around such a general and region-specific term like ‘hipster’, and using it to so definitively describe a group of people might not be the best idea - especially in a widely-circulated magazine that ‘hipsters’ read.
Poor resolution, and what does the 80’s have to do with this?
Adbusters was created in the late 80s and seems to have difficulty relating to a new generation of readers. And you didn’t like the ending?? That’s cool. Was trying to wrap it up quickly. The thing was getting a bit long.
great post!
thanks Geosh.
Your point digresses. Please re-write this with fludity. Perhaps you may sound intelligent and well-informed.
Thanks for the tip Jeha.
Great post. For someone that is criticizing a world that he claims is only concerned with aesthetics, Haddow seems to spend alarge portion of his article describing various “hipster” cliches including American Apparel v-necks and fixed-gear bikes.
I’ll be honest, I’m not sure what your point was either. This seems like a long-winded, “I disagree!” One completely devoid of any real consideration to the ultimate argument that the Adbusters post was attempting to make.
I find it interesting that you chose to enumerate the various kinds of friends you’ve heard addressed as hipsters - breaking them down into an almost John Hughesian hierarchy. Sure, their college majors or interests may differ… but still there is this nebulous hipsterness about them. Now I don’t know any of your friends, but I’d assume that those who referred to them as hipsters were probably referring to the beige, contrived consumerism that the Adbusters article was talking about in the first place.
Hipsterism has, in effect, diluted these social strata… and united the former high school nemesis under the unified banner of irony and consumption.
What I love is that people like this seem to think that their endless preening and struggle for the appearance of being unique makes them individuals… rather than just another yawning drop in an ocean of polyester and bad hair.
Nearly every hipster I’ve spoken to has had nothing to say… but boy did they look good while not saying anything.
And they knew it.
ha. thanks for the thoughtful reply. To reiterate my point, the author paints in these broad strokes when referring ‘hipsters’. In reality he spent a night at a club, asked a bunch of stupid questions, and came to the conclusion that ‘hipsters’ were vapid, meaningless idiots.
I am trying to say that the people the author, and perhaps most of society, would consider ‘hipsters’ (a term almost always used to describe other people) exist outside of these clubs. Yes, some do coke and have sex in the bathrooms of nightclubs, but some volunteer at amnesty international and take care of their sick grandmothers… and some do both. Its an unwieldy phrase that isn’t confined to the people that this author ran into this particular night.
And I question your “nebulous hipsterness” charge. I think you just mean they dress a certain way (fitted, vintage/non-branded clothing, with retro sensibilities), are of a certain age (late teens, 20s/early 30s) and are found in urban areas.
“I am trying to say that the people the author, and perhaps most of society, would consider ‘hipsters’ (a term almost always used to describe other people) exist outside of these clubs. Yes, some do coke and have sex in the bathrooms of nightclubs, but some volunteer at amnesty international and take care of their sick grandmothers… and some do both. Its an unwieldy phrase that isn’t confined to the people that this author ran into this particular night.”
Alright. I’m willing to go with you on this.
I wasn’t in love with the Adbusters article… but I still agree with some of it in spirit.
Is it fair, or even intelligent, to lump all hipsters into one, plaid block? Of course it isn’t. But certainly you can appreciate that the style itself is characterized by an insatiable need for consumption. Hipster style is like the natural selection of obscurity - who can have the most vintage jacket. Who’s got the most “Roman Holiday”esque Vespa. Are all hipsters like this? No… but the movement itself plays towards these things… these allusions to film or theater… important if for no other reason that for their obscurity.
My problem with hipsters is the fact that those whom I have met have spent so much time on appearing to appreciate film, or scouring goodwill stores for the costumes of the impoverished that they’ve never really taken the time to ask themselves why they feel the need to appear that way. It’s shallow pantomime… it’s 14 year old boys who dress to look like Bob Dylan… but who have no conception of the current political spectrum.
Maybe your friends aren’t like that… but (and no hyperbole here) every hipster I’ve met - or, to be more exact, every dude with a haircut he spent 45 minutes to style into a shape that suggests he spent five… with a superfluous tie knotted around his neck… and a black and white frenchman’s shirt… sipping from a bottle of Red Stripe and telling me all about how I’ve GOT to see “8 1/2″ - has proven himself (after about five minutes of conversation) to be a shallow, arrogant bimbo.
No. I totally agree. I’m not going to defend people who spend strange amounts of time on their hair and looking ‘authentic’. And I’ll also agree with “some of [the article] in spirit”. But only some. Again, painting will strokes too broad.
But I do think if you, or the author, hung out on the streets of Philly (where I am) and met some people who the author of the article would easily write off as ‘hipsters’ (skinny jeans, fixed gear bikes, aa shirts, vintage clothing, or some combination of the aforementioned), one would realize that ‘hipster’, at its base, describes a first impression that someone has of another person who dresses a certain way. If one were to spend 5 minutes with some of these people, they would realized how different each is and that they don’t make up the vapid lost culture that the adbusters article accuses them of.
Hipster as opposed to what?
I’ll tell you one thing though, if I see another pair of wayfair sunglasses I may vomit all over myself.
Here’s the thing… I live in Collingswood, NJ. Went to Saint Joes for my Ba and MA. I’ve met a whole lot of wieners.
Still… I think your counterpoints are fair. Maybe we’re just mixing with different hipster circles.
I personally think this is all worthless discussion. Both the adbusters article, and this response. Adbusters is an excellent medium for the sharing of progressive ideas. Arguing over hipsters isn’t going to move us in the direction of getting rid of poverty, or stopping global warming. We need to wake up here, and focus on what’s important. And that means doing more than reading blogs and magazines.
I’ll just leave you to marinate in your own oozing puddle of irony.
Hey… are you a hipster?
ha. There are no self-professed hipsters.
Really it just depends on the jeans I am wearing at the time. That’s pretty much the deal breaker.
No not you dude… I was talking to the guy who decided to post a comment about how useless he found comments like this to be.
Irony thus ensued.
Yo Mike H.
I dig your article; it’s a good addition to the adbusters article; it definitely needed a critique and yours seemed to do a good job. I love your quote: ‘hipster’, at its base, describes a first impression that someone has of another person who dresses a certain way. If one were to spend 5 minutes with some of these people, they would realized how different each is and that they don’t make up the vapid lost culture that the adbusters article accuses them of.”
haha.
Yo, so I wrote this essay a few years ago that sort of pertains to hipsterism, but a little more dealing with main stream culture. If you got a sec, check it out and let me know your thoughts.
http://www.ivancash.com/writing/editorials/modern_american_youth.html
word.
Hey, I just re-read that essay myself, and realized its relation really isn’t as relevant as I remembered it being. Sorry if I wasted anyone’s time.
Ivan, Thanks for the good words. Ill give it a read anyway and let you know. Read your BIO, btw and that 15 minutes of fame was hilarious.
I can’t pretend to understand this whole discussion because its beyond me but, at first I thought the adbusters article was irrelevant, but then it spawned 1200+ responses and hundreds of blog posts so I’m left wondering WTF, maybe it is relevant after all? why are people so outraged/concerned about this word?
hey mike, glad you liked the story of my ridiculous arrest, haha.
Haha people are mad because they see a little of themselves in the article and suddenly realise they are not as unique as they though! Haha hell it scared the crap out of me! Am I a Hipster Bboy for having a feint love of mash up music and cowboy shirts? Haha I love to dance and hit bboy events but ever since I lived in Northern California as an exchange student it seems a lil “hipster” snuck in.
Screw it. Viva La Hipster Mash Up!
Its possible to like hipster trapping and yet remain intelligent with actual world views. And anyway I can’t afford to buy all sorts of clothes so I have to read. Haha what a great discussion this has spawned.
And its true. No one calls themselves a hipster. Its always them “no” “us”.
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