A Problem

[Jasper]

Yes.  The only way to deal with the problem is to pretend you've never heard of them, and ignore anything people say about them.  Even if you're clenching your teeth until they shatter.

Or, hire a marketing guru to make them aware of you without seeming like you're a known band.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Hire? No, I'll hire someone after the hipsters give me their loot and I can afford it.

Hipsters are good to get your name out there. When they stop listening to you because you're not obscure anymore, it's a good thing.

[Cramulus]

See again I don't think this Hipster thing is anything special. I think the meta-contrarian vibe is a sort of natural extension of the state of modern living.


Sort of like how after a movement like disco, we had to have punk
after boy bands, we had to have grunge
after arena rock, we had to have garage rock

and we've had another decade of treating pop stars like demi gods, watching celebrities show off $10,000 dresses on the red carpet, we've had entire years of overproduced unsatisfying crap rock, hopeless politics which only further disenfranchises us, and there is no real movement we can latch onto to carry us away from it.

I mean, so many of us got fired up on the HOPE and CHANGE meme back when we elected Barack, and the slick fuck is treading Bush's water? How can you not feel disenfranchised by it? What else can we do but be sarcastic and cynical and condescending towards anything that used to matter?

I can dig on the hilarity of irony. My most-watched VHS cassettes are movies that most people would consider unwatchable. One is a bad horror movie from 1981, one is the instructional tape that came with the board game DRAGON STRIKE, one is a poorly produced "how to prepare for the Y2K" video I picked up in February 2000. This is absolutely no different than wearing a grandma sweater and horned rim glasses. You don't resonate with contemporary culture so you're essentially embracing some kitschy cultural artifact from decades past.

these "hipsters" strike me as people who would have been beats or hippies if they had a Jack Kerouac or Ken Kesey. But what have we got today? there are a lot of great writers out there, but nobody's painting any new utopian pictures anymore. We (collectively) got fed up with the hippie's idealism, so we got punk nihilism. Then we got jaded with being nihilists, which moved us back into corporate rock, and that in turn produced this "indie" kick where all of the sudden music was about being high energy and sentimental at the same time.

I feel like the youth movement's motto is a sigh of frustration at all this crap, followed by a degree of acceptance. "This is it. Fuck it. It is what it is."

And ultimately I can't fault people for that. I'm frustrated too. I don't think there's a lot I can do to fix this world, so all I can do is comment on it. And yeah I'm fucking dissatisfied, but until there's a meaningful way to affect things what else can I do?

[Cain]

I think we need more threads on hipsters.

[Cramulus]

hipsters are the new libertarians

[Jasper]

Hmm.  I suppose I'll grant that it's not an invalid statement, given the times.  I'm more offended, though, by the overcomplication of 'cool'.  

I've always had fairly simple taste in 'cool'.  Beastly cars, neat gadgets, badasses...  I suppose if cool was simpler, I'd be a "James Bond" coolist.

[Doktor Howl]

Cool, by it's very nature, cannot be defined, at least with respect to specific things, people, or ideas.

[Cramulus]

I think that our idea of Cool is generated almost entirely by lame things.

In this decade, things are lame in very complex and nuanced ways. So the contemporary version of coolness contains both affinity and disdain. You're right, I don't think this is going to change.

[Doktor Howl]

Cool as a general concept, though, is very easy for me to explain.

It's anything that makes me feel good about being alive.

[Bebek Sincap Ratatosk]

Cool as a general concept, though, is very easy for me to explain.

It's anything that makes me feel good about being alive.

For some people, maybe it requires a bit of complication to feel good about being alive. Given the state of the universe... or at least the bit we monkeys are on, I can see why some people may not be satisfied with simplicity.

"Like what you like, enjoy what you enjoy and don't take crap off anyone."

[Don Coyote]

Just be glad they aren't doing covers using hurdy-gurdys.

[Jasper]

Great, now the idea exists.  It's going to happen now, thanks a lot.

[Doktor Howl]

Just be glad they aren't doing covers using hurdy-gurdys.

I fucking hate you. 

[Don Coyote]

Great, now the idea exists.  It's going to happen now, thanks a lot.

I fucking hate you. 

I aim to please.

[Triple Zero]

hipsters are the new libertarians

if you have Free Will you might be a hipster.




HEY SERIOUSLY

where are these mythical hipsters?

I saw some people in hipster-ish clothing a while ago, but it was a few years back (at a concert) and then half a year back (at a second hand design furniture dump store) . So I guess those weren't it.

Do they actually exist?

How come we are all suddenly worrying about a bunch of people that 99% of the people participating in these threads have never even observed?