There seems to be a lot of stigma with the word “hipster.”
Honestly, it is probably one of the most mutually-detested subcultures of today.
Jocks? Sure. Sports are nice.
Theatre kid? Why not?
Goth? You do you, man, but don’t ever, ever, ever try to be a hipster.
I never quite understood the aversion. I can’t personally identify myself with hipster culture, but that doesn’t mean I choose to scrutinize those who do either. Life’s too short for such a pointless cultural turf war.
I’m not ignorant. I understand the reason behind all of the hostility toward hipsters is their alleged sense of entitlement over other cultures, beliefs and interests, simply because the hipster versions of these are more “unique” and “vintage-y.”
While it is more than understandable why one would avoid people like this, saying jerks like these represent the whole hipster scene is like saying church-burners and sweaty obese men represent goths and Star Wars fans respectively.
Regardless, hipsters are still one of the most alienated and resented groups of people of the past 50 years. Never have so many individuals expressed so much disgust and hatred toward a single culture since the dawn of hippies in the mid-1960s.
The two aren’t unlike each other either. Just look at hipster music.
There is much debate on when, where and who set the bar for hipster music. Some would say it has always been around, simply transforming over time with folk music. They would not be wrong.
The first musical group to perhaps reintroduce this style after a period of punk rock and disco would be Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Considering Nick Cave has pretty much just combined every genre ever at the time, something entirely new doesn’t seem too lunatic.
When I think of who revolutionized movement, however, I simply cannot think of any two more qualified bands than Oasis and Blur. I’m pretty sure their Kinks-esque infusion of British pride and raw emotion pretty much revived “coffeehouse music.”
Despite this accomplishment, you can only credit Blur and Oasis with creating the sound of the hipster movement. It’s hard to say they were entirely consistent with that tone, but very few inventors are.
It seems more likely the first true embodiment of this movement came through the 1998 Neutral Milk Hotel album “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea.”
This album sounds like a Wes Anderson movie looks. It doesn’t sing lyrics. It tells a story.
Not since the end of the American folk music revival from the late 1940s to the early 1970s had there been any music quite like it in the mainstream. Billboard charts, MTV and pop radio stations seem to have stripped music of its core purpose: artistry.
What Bob Dylan and Joan Baez brought to us half a century ago is being revitalized again through the work of Frank Turner and Fiona Apple, whose deviations from musical standards are reflected in their general mainstream anonymity.
Both hipster and hippies seem to share the same ideals, musical or otherwise. They generally share progressive views, alternative fashions, adoration for anything organic and a tongue that cries for revolution.
You can also typically find both hidden within the back of coffee shops, a copy of Sylvia Plath’s “The Bell Jar” covering their faces and a cup of chai tea next to them.
With that said, there seems to be more of an apparent air of melancholy hanging over the music of hipsters than the music of hippies.
While I cannot call songs like “The Times They Are A-Changin’” and “Diamonds and Rust” optimistic songs, the majority of songs from the folk music revival was supposed to bring a sense of hope to the listener.
As for now, it seems to be nihilism is the norm. It was as if someone blended the instrumentation of folk music and the prose of grunge together into what is now hipster music.
And that’s wonderful. Like a Hemingway novel, its pure, unadulterated emotion at its very essence. That’s damn good songwriting.
It really shows too, considering bands like Modest Mouse, Arcade Fire, Arctic Monkeys, the xx, Tame Impala and the Black Keys are some of the best bands to play on radio in the 21th century.
There was once a time when hippies were just as hated as hipsters. Does that mean the latter will someday be just as romanticized?
If that’s the case, wouldn’t you rather say you rather say you embraced the movement rather than fought it?
