Youth Culture - Hippies 1960s [brizzle born and bred]Is being a hipster what you wear? Is it the music you listen to?
Does the essence of the hipster lie within their worldview? Or perhaps their political leanings?
What is a hipster? Do you know one? Can anyone come up with a clear-cut definition?
Hipsters have been around forever. As long as mainstream culture has existed, there has been a counter culture. They've had different names over time: the Libertines, the Beats, the Hippies, the Mods, the Hepcats... you get the idea. They were all hipsters.
[In fact, the term "hipster" originated in the 1940s with the Beats subculture-- I remember being curious about how long the term has been around when I read Burrough's Junkie for the first time, when I was in high-school. "Ah," I thought to myself, "They had hipsters back then too, except the hipsters of his day were all messed up on goofballs and the like."]
People call me a hipster sometimes. I think it is sometimes meant to be an insult, but I hardly take it that way. I embrace different ideas, and I try to create my own style and set my own trends, but nothing is completely original. Every work of art, every fashion trend, every note of music you hear was inspired by something else.
If I were to ask you to define a hipster, how would you do it? Would you mention dark rimmed glasses and cardigans? I feel like those two things are the international identifier of the hipster for many people, which is pretty silly as many different types of people enjoy cardigans and Buddy Holly glasses.
The Beats (Gregory Corso, Allen Ginsburg, William S. Burroughs, and a hip lady whose name I do not know),
But that's just the thing. Anyone can be called a hipster these days, for doing just about anything. Like wearing skinny jeans. Or listening to weird music. Or reading certain types of books.
Maybe it's because of the proliferation of social media-- we all have access to the world, and thus styles meld together and "what is cool" can mean just about anything.
The definition of a hipster these days is so broad that the term is essentially meaningless.
I'm planning on writing a song on this topic for my hip-hop project, the Occupy This EP(it's been brewing in my head, I just need to find the right beat), because I think it's just so crazy that no one wants to be labeled a hipster, yet we're all hipsters in our own ways. I've been called a hipster before a few times. Sometimes it was meant as an insult, which is equally ridiculous.
If it makes someone feel better to slap a label on me, they are free to do so. I don't think I belong in any category, really, though I do have gothic and punk rock tendencies, while maintaining an obsession with hip-hop, trashy pop music, and old school melodies. I dress however I want, and my style varies according to my mood. I'm a Democrat and a Liberal, but I'm not an extremist. Is that being a hipster?
Am I am hipster just because I'm in my 20s? Is it because I have a blog?
How do you define what it means to be a hipster? And what are your thoughts on the label itself? Please tell me in the comments section!
2 comments:
For me, the "hipsters" in my town wear skinny jeans with knitted hats & scarves when it's much too hot to wear such things. They also tend to have German Shepards that they take to the cafe & sit on the patio sipping their nonfat lattes while reading on their ipads. Uh huh...
For most people, it seems to be a fashion/ trend thing. Makes sense.
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