You can’t deny their presence in a local dive bar, knocking back Stella Artois and other imported Belgium beers. Unique in everything they do, they listen to the most exclusive and obscure music that you have probably never heard of. They are trend setters in the sense that they love organic food and only shop at boutiques or thrift stores to find one-of-a-kind items that would never be in any regular department store. They are the kind of people known as Hipsters. The true consensus from various dictionaries is that these people are “individuals who think and act hip/cool in relation to others.” They are simply cooler than you are.
The problem is these people are the local celebrities that are looked up to by the less fortunate. They look fabulous and I can’t deny that I’ve wanted the expensive clothes on their body, but I simply couldn’t afford it. They have an undeniable style and they always get a lot of attention for being that uniquely complicated individual that values independent thought and cheap wine. But then I think to myself: is the person actually hip or is it just about jumping on different trends to stay above the “normal” population?
For hipsters, they embody a way of life. Everyone one may like certain aspects aspects of the hipster lifestyle, but the true hipster must embrace a sleek, confident attitude, have a striking style and must always be willing to challenge the “norm” for all of those restrictions and such! Add a couple of trends and some wayward connections with music-business wannabes and here's your new best friend for six months. After six months, hipsters start to get threatened at the fact that they pursued any one person or thing for that long period of time.
Their contributions to the mainstream population should be applauded. No, I really mean it! They often find those bands that are popularized at outdoor music festivals, where they get discovered by music journalists at Vice, Pitchfork Media and Alternative Press, which then get discovered by national music magazines like Rolling Stone and Spin many months later. Take MGMT and Vampire Weekend for example. MGMT was all over the festival circuit in 2008, and they will make an appearance at this year's Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival in Tennessee. As for Vampire Weekend, Pitchfork had those cats in the bag last year, yet Perry Farrell nabbed them for this year's Lolla line-up.
They contribute to the economy by working at low-paying jobs, thus stimulating other businesses with their hard-earned cash. Coffeehouses may not succeed without their ever-constant presence by both hipster employees and the hipsters who hang out in their favorite Chintz chair, blogging incessantly about their daily rumblings and grumblings on the free Wi-Fi network. They love coffee, which keeps generating cash for the foreign coffee trade business (which does not truly support the farmers who actually produce and roast the coffee beans. But the corporate businesses are certainly flourishing, thus stimulating the “currently” dismal worldwide economic outlook.
They are the art students at Columbia College, disguised in tight, black jeans and a messy, yet perfectly styled haircut that we secretly wish we want when we head out to the bars, just because it looks like an effortless creation. They are purveyors of poetry readings, open mikes and art and fashion shows and they always know where to get the best food and which bars to go (dance at) once the sun goes down.
So why are hipsters hated by the general mainstream population? They have a pretentious and condescending attitude, and they can be driven by the things they own. One can say that in the effort of trying to be cool, they’ve lost sense of the individual they once were before they began to care about staying “hip” or “cool” in order to look good.
I absolutely despise hipsters because I know that me and all of my 447 friends on Facebook are all cooler than them. They walk around, thinking they have the “one-up” on me, when it journalists like myself that seek to discover the true stories of our time. I exist to inform others, while they simply exist to please others and eventually get laid by the opposite sex. They may have style, but where's the substance? Where is the individual within?
The answer is, they are selfish, self-promoting douchebags that get joy and pleasure from reveling in the fact that they look better than everyone in the room and the fact that they have a plenitude of obscure topics to start up a random conversation with someone. Believe me, it's not jealousy that seethes from my pores, but what else is really needed in the art of “match-making?” Yes, it will probably end up in a passionate tryst, but like the trends they follow, a new thing becomes old really quick. What a slut! For these hipsters, all they want to do is get noticed, which gets them attention from all the right (and wrong) crowds.
Forget about all the haters and getting stereotyped, they live to win those cool points and to be unlike anyone else. So why aren't they individuals? Because what you think is cool (in terms of your individual taste and style) is drastically different from what others think is cool and impressing them with those “trendy” and “hip” styles. Sure, they really do love their Belgium beers (and so do I) but they love the attention they receive from others more than anything else. Well, there may be an exception for what hipsters love the most; it might be those expensive leather boots or that signed t-shirt from that one band no one really knows much about.
There is truly no limit to the hipster culture. For a more detailed list of attitudes, trends, bands and styles that hipsters follow (usually on a short-term basis), check out the definition of Hipster on Urban Dictionary or the blog Stuff White People Like as well as the blog Stuff Hipsters Don't Like to get an up-to-date list on some Hipster favorites.
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