"Unhappy Hipsters" Blog

[dhermann1]

Have I ever posted this blog before? Has anyone? Did I first see it here?
Whatever.
This blog is wonderful.

http://unhappyhipsters.com/

 

[Doublegun]

"Unhappy Hipster" I thought hipsters were supposed to be unhappy. Isn't that a major point of being a hipster - being unhappy so they can whine about everything?

 

[jlee562]

Isn't that a major point of being a hipster - being unhappy so they can whine about everything?

No. Not at all.

 

[ButteMT61]

No. Not at all.

You appear to have inside Hipster knowledge. Can you share (enlighten) us on the movement?

 

[Flat Foot Floey]

No, not at all. Hipsters seem to be rather hedonistic. Maybe you mistake them with the trend before...emos. (what ever happened to them? did they just grow up?)

 

[Flicka]

No, not at all. Hipsters seem to be rather hedonistic. Maybe you mistake them with the trend before...emos. (what ever happened to them? did they just grow up?)

Yes, emo =/= hipster. Emo is (was) sad, hipster is ironic. And I know plenty about what you people would probably call the hipster culture. Heck, a few years ago, I was cheek by jowl with Pitchfork in finding new 'hip' bands. Now I am far too old to keep up, and I am immensely out of touch, but FWIW:

1. It's not a "movement", or even a coherent subculture.
2. Not everyone under 30 with funny clothes and hair is a 'hipster'; they're just young.
3. No real 'hipster' would ever call themselves a 'hipster' - it's a derogatory term applied by people on the outside.
4. The heyday of the 'real' hipsters ended back in '08. What you see now is the mall variety.

 

[Doublegun]

My experience with "Hipsters" is purely vicariously through my 18-year old daughter and we both agree; calling oneself a "hipster" is similar to one calling oneself "cool." If you have to tell people what "you are" then you probably aren't one.

My observation of hipsters: they are like lemmings and are rather aimless; they are overly self absorbed; they have poor senses of humor. Again, my only experience is vicarious and I am far too old to really care.

 

[Rudie]

Funny, how the term changed its meaning. In the 1930s and 1940s it meant a hip person; hip meaning knowledgeable, aware, to be well-informed, sophisticated, independent and wise; in fashion alert, and courageous. All positive connotations. Blacks dropped the term as early as the late forties. Among whites the term "hipster" became popular during the fifties and into the sixties. And now it's obviously meant derogatory to describe some pompous wannabes. [huh]

I always associated fashion forward and cool trendsetters, mostly jazz musicians, with the term. Cab Calloway, Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonious Monk were all hipsters.

 

[Undertow]

:deadhorse

 

[jlee562]

You appear to have inside Hipster knowledge. Can you share (enlighten) us on the movement?

I don't fancy myself an expert on hipsters, no. However, I'd wager being 28 - and living in a city that is known for having a hipster population - that I have a better handle on it than someone of my parents generation; no offense intended, kind sir.

I would agree with Flicka's points 2 and 3. The first is debatable; as I said in the other thread, a San Francisco Hipster is not the same as a Brooklyn hipster. But there are some generalities. The fourth point, I think is also debatable.

Via Wiki, I think this is an agreeable generalization:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hipster_(contemporary_subculture)

"While mainstream society of the 2000s had been busying itself with reality television, dance music, and locating the whereabouts of Britney Spears’s underpants, an uprising was quietly and conscientiously taking place behind the scenes. Long-forgotten styles of clothing, beer, cigarettes and music were becoming popular again. Retro was cool, the environment was precious and old was the new ‘new’. Kids wanted to wear Sylvia Plath’s cardigans and Buddy Holly’s glasses — they revelled in the irony of making something so nerdy so cool. They wanted to live sustainably and eat organic gluten-free grains. Above all, they wanted to be recognised for being different — to diverge from the mainstream and carve a cultural niche all for themselves. For this new generation, style wasn’t something you could buy in a department store, it became something you found in a thrift shop, or, ideally, made yourself. The way to be cool wasn’t to look like a television star: it was to look like as though you’d never seen television."

 

[Gin&Tonics]

http://hipsterhitler.com/

:: throws it in the thread and runs for cover::

Google can produce interesting results...lol

 

[Aerojoe]

3. No real 'hipster' would ever call themselves a 'hipster' - it's a derogatory term applied by people on the outside.

and how do they call themselves then?

 

[ButteMT61]

and how do they call themselves then?

Meh...

 

[scottyrocks]

Wow, three hipster threads running concurrently, and none of them too complimentary although this one is somewhat informative. Took long enough.

 

[jlee562]

Wow, three hipster threads running concurrently, and none of them too complimentary although this one is somewhat informative. Took long enough.

..but it's the hipsters who are perpetually dour and hate everything.

Isn't it ironic?

 

[Son_of_Atropos]

..but it's the hipsters who are perpetually dour and hate everything.

Isn't it ironic?

Well done, Jlee562, well done indeed.

 

[ButteMT61]

..but it's the hipsters who are perpetually dour and hate everything.Isn't it ironic?

I find it redundant...and, meh.

 

[SGT Rocket]

I think they are unhappy because they live in an Ikea store.

 

[ButteMT61]

I think they are unhappy because they live in an Ikea store.

Well, you don't expect them to WORK in one, do ya?

 

[aught12]

Funny, how the term changed its meaning. In the 1930s and 1940s it meant a hip person; hip meaning knowledgeable, aware, to be well-informed, sophisticated, independent and wise; in fashion alert, and courageous. All positive connotations. Blacks dropped the term as early as the late forties. Among whites the term "hipster" became popular during the fifties and into the sixties. And now it's obviously meant derogatory to describe some pompous wannabes. [huh]

I always associated fashion forward and cool trendsetters, mostly jazz musicians, with the term. Cab Calloway, Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonious Monk were all hipsters.

I agree, Rudie. And I'll add that when I was a teenager in the early-mid 70's, the term 'hipster' was being used at that time in my corner of the universe. And not in a derogatory fashion.