All about being a hipster (not that there's anything wrong with that)

[utopia]

Originally Posted by Lena

come now.. i think some take the hipster thing far too seriously,
not all of them are rich or spoiled,
not all of them wear low wait trousers,
not all of them have messy hairstyles,
not all of them are cannabis smokers or drinkers

the term goes back to the 50s and the beatniks
but hipsters have been around for ages,
its nothing new and can be found in all forms and shapes, really

some of the generalisations i've read here just made me simply go

yeah I agree... true hipsters cannot really be catagorised - like lena said, they can be found in all forms and shapes.

[AniexDaffodil]

I really don't find this that important to talk about and why everyone is individualizing here?
Why take one group and basically rip it apart until there isn't anything left?
Talk about hipsters as if they are uncivilized people is silly and to say they aren't well educated?
that my friends is just absurd

[pradaesk]

Originally Posted by tangerine

Next question: what are scarfie shoes?

I could only find this:

I like your connotation.

[guccigirl1121]

Would you consider "straight-edge" part of the whole hipster scene? Both groups dress similiarly and have a holier-than thou attitude...

[lady grey]

i suspect everyone at tfs dresses at least a little bit 'hipster.'

speaking for my city new york, where the williamsburg hipster defined the trend for much of usa, there's no doubt that the terms 'hipster/scenester' carry negative connotations in 2004/05. if you told a hipster that he was a hipster he'd hate you. it carruies a negative connotation its a fact.

its a cultural fact of nyc language & social perception in 2004. hipster carries a deeply negative connotation even if many of us dress somewhat like hipsters.

[Kimkhuu]

Hipsters are invading Montreal seriously.

They all spend tons of money on their look to make it look as though they didn't try so hard, same goes for makeup and hair. I don't find them that annoying though, most of my friends are actually hipsters, but they aren't arrogant.

[isis]

Originally Posted by guccigirl1121

Would you consider "straight-edge" part of the whole hipster scene? Both groups dress similiarly and have a holier-than thou attitude...

I think it really depends. Back when I was a freshmen in highschool, there was this huge huge huge gang of straightedge vegan guys who would totally fit into this whole hipster category. They were basically all upper rich white beachside kids who wore expensive clothing and walked around with holier than thou attitudes same looks and extenside sXe tattoos. A friend of mine who knew some the guys said they sometimes had quarrels inside their own group when a member supposedly "sold out" and some members even disowned each other for some time on their myspace or livejournals or whatever. They have all graduated now, and from what I hear, the majority have given up on their beloved straight edge ideals. It's going to be funny one day when someone asks them in a bar what the XXX tattoo on their arm is for. I'll bet they'll probably say that they were really into porn when they were younger haha.

It's not a bad movement, and the idea behind it is definitely good, but so many kids do it nowadays to identify more with the hardcore scene, and because of that they really shun anything else that isn't part of it. I guess it would fit into this hipster thing.

[softgrey]

Originally Posted by utopia

yeah I agree... true hipsters cannot really be catagorised - like lena said, they can be found in all forms and shapes.

popular culture takes words and gives them new meanings...
just as the word...bad...came to mean 'good' at one point...

hipsters of today are a very different breed...and have absolutely nothing to do with the original hipsters...they don't even know about the original hipsters...they think they INVENTED all of this...(annoying...!!)

it is an inescapable cultural phenomenon...begun in williamsburg brooklyn...and as lady grey says...it carries with it definite negative connotations...

in nyc today...to call someone a hipster is an intentional insult...
it means annoying wannabe, trying too hard, uncool...period...it may be different in other parts of the world...but this is not a matter of opinion...this is a cultural fact...at least in this part of the world...it may be of interest to some to know what the trends are in other parts of the world...i know i am always interested in what's going on in other places...

for example...sloanies (or sloans?) in london...i'm not going to argue with people in london about why they are called that and whether it is accurate or not...
it's just interesting to me that there is such a thing in that part of the world...

[AlexN]

I think [almost] everyone on TFS has "hipster" traits. But what makes hipsters hipsters, in my opinion, is their pretentiousness and phoniness. A lot of us at TFS like to stand out, enjoy art, listen to [good] indie music, etc... So are we hipsters? No. Because we truly enjoy these things, and it's who we are. If we were hipsters, we'd all be lying to ourselves about all of this stuff, putting on a mask to make us acceptable and socially successful among the people we wish we were, and who wish they were themselves.

That's my take on it, anyway. That's how I see the hipsters around here. So, I'm trying to say that there's no reason to be offended by the hipster definitions and everything if you possess some of the traits, because you truly DO possess some of the traits. It's who you are. Which means you can't possibly be a hipster.

I'm having a very difficult time putting my thoughts into words right now...

[Nemova]

^I agree. Being a hispter means you're trying too hard, and you'll probably end up being just phony. Even though I don't like indie bands and indie culture in general, I know that there's a world between being an indie and being a hispter.

[tangerine]

Originally Posted by guccigirl1121

Would you consider "straight-edge" part of the whole hipster scene? Both groups dress similiarly and have a holier-than thou attitude...

I work with a guy who is straightedge and into hardcore, but I would say he dresses much differently from the hipster stereotype. In fact, I thought he was a "jock" at first. Very tidy hair, ironed shirts, dark non-distressed Levi's, Nike AF1s.

That's just one guy, I don't really have much contact with the straightedge scene so take it for what it's worth.

[60'sRelic]

It certainly is true that the expression hipster was used in the 50's to refer to beats, and the word was of course derived from hip, to be in the groove, or groovy. Those were fresh words then and had not become meaningless.

The term Hippie was a co-oping as we would then say of the term hip, but it comes from the San Francisco area with the Merry Pranksters and Ken Kesey. In 1968 in SF, there was a giant parade marking "the death of the Hippie" in their words, because from the POV of the original turn on, tune in and drop outers, who were using acid, dressing crazy and painting their cars and buses and living communally, the larger counter-culture had co-opted, or essentially snagged the meaning of the term away from its original use. The turn on, tune in and drop out line was of course spoken by Timothy Leary, a Harvard professor experimenting with hallucinogenic drugs.

BUT, my essential point is that hip is derived from hep, and is an African-American jazz musician's term, as is hep cat, which is a person who is hep. So it dates way back at the very least to the early 20th century, and for all we know, could have been in use in the time of Blind Lemon Jefferson or even on the plantations.

[softgrey]

does that have anything to do with what a hipster is today?...

why all this fascination with the root of the word?...i don't feel it's relevant to the topic...that is in no way appicable to how it is being used here...

in fact...it is the opposite meaning...hep means cool...and hipster means not so...

don't get me wrong...that is all true...but i'm afraid it might confuse the issue at hand...or maybe not...
anyway...thx for the etymology lesson relic and wlcome to tfs...

[Elegance.Is.Refusal.]

too cool to smile always have that soulfull, moody look on their faces!

too cool to dance but still go to clubs just to stand!

[60'sRelic]

Thank you softgrey. I'm sorry if you feel it's not relevant, but I do think that fashion trends have been attached to the terms hep and hip over the years. I defer to you of course, but let's remember the beret as a style among jazz musicians as well as beats; the color black in men's daily wear; and I needn't describe the psychedelia of the 60's hippies. Today I agree with those who believe that anyone thinking they are a hipster are simply overstudied and self-conscious. It isn't like the 60's when on campus "normal" guys wore Ivy clothing and "hippies" wore jeans, tie-dye, etc. Ivy meant Bass Weejuns with duct tape wrapped around the foreshoe rather than repair it (they were crap and fell apart in 2 months); hippie meant zip up boots. Of course I'm talking hommes. How can there even be hip now in an age where even the dishelveled look takes 20 minutes for a man to get right? Peter Wolf was a hipster, I would say, among white boys, but you KNOW Thelonius Monk was a hep cat. Two periods, two very different looks. I vote for elimination of the term hip. It's seen it's day. Thank you for your kind greeting. I love this forum.