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When is this hipster craze going to go away

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JustAFriend said:
Roland Deschain said:
It apparently started in 1999 in New York.
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The Beatnik cats of the 40s and 50s disagree... its just another trend that keeps recycling over and over again.

beatnik.jpg
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Well thats quite true. It feels like I'm living through a sequel to the period 1930-1960. The 60s were colourful, optimistic and hedonistic. 1930-1960 was an almost purgatorial era of depression, war and conformity and beatniks were the lame countercultural response. And likewise most of the West is in a great depression, there are middle eastern wars this time round which are all rather pointless and hipsters are a similar response. Except they're even worse than the beatniks as there is nothing revolutionary about them, there is nothing beyond the surface, they all work in advertising or want to and consume retro cultural products because its cool. They don't even read marx or engels, they don't write poetry and if they do its probably crap.
 
Living in the fashionable zone of the universe, I'm not really sure what "hipster" mean.

So I guess that nobody follows that "fad" around here... or everybody does. :shifty:
 
Roland Deschain said:
And likewise most of the West is in a great depression, there are middle eastern wars this time round which are all rather pointless and hipsters are a similar response. Except they're even worse than the beatniks as there is nothing revolutionary about them, there is nothing beyond the surface, they all work in advertising or want to and consume retro cultural products because its cool.
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Perhaps modern youth is less creative, and cannot find any other way of being counter-cultural?

Perhaps this hipster movement is also an extension of the 'scene' cultures of the 1990s. Back then there was the grunge-scene, the depressed-kids-scene, the gay-friendly-scene, the rave-scene, and so on.

Hipsterism is a subscribed social identity (like these scenes of the 1990s), as much as it is counter-cultural.
 
For those who are uncertain of the definition of newest incarnation of the hipster, the Hipster Olympics, while a few years old, gives a perfect overview:

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAO4EVMlpwM[/yt]

I live in the heart of hipster territory, and they can be a bit obnoxious. However, some of the fashions are insipid, and I find myself caving into them. The latest craze among white hipster men, though, I can never abide. There is this trend of growing a molestache and pairing it with large squarish glasses and short sleeved plaid button up shirts and the like. The end result is a bunch of dudes running around New York City looking like mug shots of pedophiles taken in the 1980's.
 
Jadzia said:
Roland Deschain said:
And likewise most of the West is in a great depression, there are middle eastern wars this time round which are all rather pointless and hipsters are a similar response. Except they're even worse than the beatniks as there is nothing revolutionary about them, there is nothing beyond the surface, they all work in advertising or want to and consume retro cultural products because its cool.
Click to expand...

Perhaps modern youth is less creative, and cannot find any other way of being counter-cultural?

Perhaps this hipster movement is also an extension of the 'scene' cultures of the 1990s. Back then there was the grunge-scene, the depressed-kids-scene, the gay-friendly-scene, the rave-scene, and so on.

Hipsterism is a subscribed social identity (like these scenes of the 1990s), as much as it is counter-cultural.
Click to expand...

I think there is a decline of creativity in all spheres of cultural endevour in the West at least in terms of games, films and music. I don't mind incorporating existing influences but I think the problem is that people are following their sources of inspiration exactly rather than deriving something new from them.
 
Roland Deschain said:
I think there is a decline of creativity in all spheres of cultural endevour in the West at least in terms of games, films and music. I don't mind incorporating existing influences but I think the problem is that people are following their sources of inspiration exactly rather than deriving something new from them.
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Well, this isn't anything new, really. Since...well...forever, kids have tried to be 'different' only in the sense that 'different' was cool...and thus not 'different' for very long. More and more kids start dressing like their idols...then Madison Avenue gets a sniff of green and turns counter-culture into culture. With a corresponding quadrupling of price. And a complete missing of the original point... very much favoring form over substance.

For example, the musicians who found themselves in the center of the Seattle 'grunge' movement wore flannel because it's cold and rainy in Seattle, and flannel was warm, comfortable, and, most importantly, cheap. These guys were all broke as hell...and their dress was never intended to be a trend - it was intended to be functional.

In interview after interview with these guys in the mid-90's, they expressed simultaneous amusement and disgust that Madison Avenue turned their dress into a major fashion trend...and that by 1993, people were paying over $150 for a flannel shirt that they'd purchased a couple of years earlier at the army surplus for less than $10. And baking their brains out tooling around a warmer city like LA in this stuff. :lol:

I guess what I'm saying is that 'kids will be kids'. And a sure sign of achieving adulthood is that you will no longer care about what is cool and what is not cool....but only about what you like and don't like personally.

Some super-popular music is super-popular because it is good. Some, however, is super-popular because somebody out there had a good idea for a money-making gimmick.

Conversely, some super-obscure music is super-obscure because the right guys haven't lucked into the right breaks just yet (and might not ever luck into them, for that matter). Some, however, is super-obscure because...well...the band just sucks. :p

I am always wary of the super-popular and the super-obscure. There is usually a reason for either of those states...and sometimes (oftentimes?) the reason isn't good.
 
If I had a good agent who actually got me work rather than say 'You never wanted to listen anyway' then I'd give you all that sound/my self which is, just my brand of rock & roll and me, I guess. If only I knew anyone with a strip club and a stage...
 
Roland Deschain said:
I think there is a decline of creativity in all spheres of cultural endevour in the West at least in terms of games, films and music. I don't mind incorporating existing influences but I think the problem is that people are following their sources of inspiration exactly rather than deriving something new from them.
Click to expand...

Over the past 50 years or so, we've had this growing entertainment industry, where music, then cinema, then television, then computer games, then internet have quenched our growing thirst for entertainment.

But this is entertainment we consume, rather than create. At one time, we would have gathered at the piano and made up a tune and a song for music. We might have made up a story/drama to create the cinema equivalent, or made up a game using sticks and stones.

Entertainment has always been part of the human condition. Yet we spend less time creating this entertainment ourselves because we have it provided for us. We've got into the habit of consuming it rather than creating it, and we've become less skilled at creating as a result.

Creative entertainment we call play. Play is essential for happiness. It's not enough to be merely entertained, but how many of us realise this? We might even go as far as saying that depression thrives in an absence of play.
 
Roland Deschain said:
Well thats quite true. It feels like I'm living through a sequel to the period 1930-1960. The 60s were colourful, optimistic and hedonistic. 1930-1960 was an almost purgatorial era of depression, war and conformity and beatniks were the lame countercultural response. And likewise most of the West is in a great depression, there are middle eastern wars this time round which are all rather pointless and hipsters are a similar response. Except they're even worse than the beatniks as there is nothing revolutionary about them, there is nothing beyond the surface, they all work in advertising or want to and consume retro cultural products because its cool. They don't even read marx or engels, they don't write poetry and if they do its probably crap.
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You sound like an anti-hipster-hipster, with a simplistic grasp of history...which is just as pretentious. Why do you care?
 
T'Baio said:
Roland Deschain said:
Well thats quite true. It feels like I'm living through a sequel to the period 1930-1960. The 60s were colourful, optimistic and hedonistic. 1930-1960 was an almost purgatorial era of depression, war and conformity and beatniks were the lame countercultural response. And likewise most of the West is in a great depression, there are middle eastern wars this time round which are all rather pointless and hipsters are a similar response. Except they're even worse than the beatniks as there is nothing revolutionary about them, there is nothing beyond the surface, they all work in advertising or want to and consume retro cultural products because its cool. They don't even read marx or engels, they don't write poetry and if they do its probably crap.
Click to expand...

You sound like an anti-hipster-hipster, with a simplistic grasp of history...which is just as pretentious. Why do you care?
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Wait...are you insulting me to stoke your own nerd ego? A simplistic grasp of history? Fuck you! Its called the global perspective you fool! Wait I won't deign to argue with you, you've proven yourself unworthy. I could destroy your argument in 5 seconds but I have things to do rather than multiquote like a nerd. For the record I AM JOHN TITOR!!! I CANNOT BE A HIPSTER BECAUSE I AM SO AWESOME!



YUH!
 
Jadzia said:
Roland Deschain said:
I think there is a decline of creativity in all spheres of cultural endevour in the West at least in terms of games, films and music. I don't mind incorporating existing influences but I think the problem is that people are following their sources of inspiration exactly rather than deriving something new from them.
Click to expand...

Over the past 50 years or so, we've had this growing entertainment industry, where music, then cinema, then television, then computer games, then internet have quenched our growing thirst for entertainment.

But this is entertainment we consume, rather than create. At one time, we would have gathered at the piano and made up a tune and a song for music. We might have made up a story/drama to create the cinema equivalent, or made up a game using sticks and stones.

Entertainment has always been part of the human condition. Yet we spend less time creating this entertainment ourselves because we have it provided for us. We've got into the habit of consuming it rather than creating it, and we've become less skilled at creating as a result.

Creative entertainment we call play. Play is essential for happiness. It's not enough to be merely entertained, but how many of us realise this? We might even go as far as saying that depression thrives in an absence of play.
Click to expand...

I pretty much agree with all of this.
 
Roland Deschain said:
T'Baio said:
Roland Deschain said:
Well thats quite true. It feels like I'm living through a sequel to the period 1930-1960. The 60s were colourful, optimistic and hedonistic. 1930-1960 was an almost purgatorial era of depression, war and conformity and beatniks were the lame countercultural response. And likewise most of the West is in a great depression, there are middle eastern wars this time round which are all rather pointless and hipsters are a similar response. Except they're even worse than the beatniks as there is nothing revolutionary about them, there is nothing beyond the surface, they all work in advertising or want to and consume retro cultural products because its cool. They don't even read marx or engels, they don't write poetry and if they do its probably crap.
Click to expand...

You sound like an anti-hipster-hipster, with a simplistic grasp of history...which is just as pretentious. Why do you care?
Click to expand...

Wait...are you insulting me to stoke your own nerd ego? A simplistic grasp of history? Fuck you! Its called the global perspective you fool! Wait I won't deign to argue with you, you've proven yourself unworthy. I could destroy your argument in 5 seconds but I have things to do rather than multiquote like a nerd. For the record I AM JOHN TITOR!!! I CANNOT BE A HIPSTER BECAUSE I AM SO AWESOME!



YUH!
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Well, that was easy. :guffaw:
 
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