Look at this Fucking Hipster

[caption id="attachment_10638" align="alignright" width="199" caption="Photo by Sebastian Diaz"][/caption] “Look at this Fucking Hipster” displays photos of 20-somethings sporting bushy beards, handlebar mustaches, glasses with the lenses popped out, and occasionally posing with taxidermy and giving the thumbs up. One photo shows two young people kissing in a dumpster. This image seems to sum up hipster quite nicely; there is something romantic in the hipster culture, but that sentiment is buried in a pit of garbage no one wants to take responsibility for. HISTORY OF HIP “Hipster” is a word derived from much earlier subcultures. The term itself was brought about in the 1940s and given to those who were aware and participating in the growing jazz scene. African-Americans used the term “hip” to refer to the most up-to-date individuals. In the 1960s, the term split into two subcategories: the hippie and the beatnik. The beatniks were those who were participating or indulging in the postmodern literature movement, while the hippies were scorned by the beatniks. They were considered uninformed, unpatriotic drug users. A recent evolution has taken place. In terms of more contemporary culture, modern day hipsters could be said to be descended from the emo and scene movements of the 1990s and early 2000s. It seems that those who wore thick eyeliner and called Weezer their favorite band in high school are now the same people drinking Pabst and browsing through reviews on Pitchfork. The term found really resurfaced in the late 2000s when journalists began to take note of a new culture emerging that had great respect for the authentic, but little respect for each other, much like the animosity demonstrated between the beatniks and the hippies. Though these origins are apparent to those being labeled a hipster today, there seems to be a stark difference between how the original hipsters were perceived and how modern day hipsters are viewed. A CULTURE WITHOUT A CAUSE “This whole subculture has become a huge movement, but it really stands for nothing,” says 19-year-old business major Nick Rattigan. “Hippies were protesting a war. Beatniks were coming up with all these cool philosophies and writing novels and such, but the hipsters are just kind of getting drunk and doing drugs. There’s no unified thing we stand for. Like any counterculture, we get the negative connotation from the mass culture, but in this case, I feel it deserves to get the negative connotation.” Rattigan attributes this negative connotation hipsters receive to their pretentious attitude on everything from music to politics. Rachel Cochrane, a 21-year-old French major, agrees, saying that hipsters are characterized as judgmental people. “They scoff at mainstream culture and tremble in their vintage lace-up boots at the thought of not being original,” Cochrane says. “They immediately judge your style, your tastes, your haircut, your voice (and) your opinions.” Cochrane says she looks like a hipster because of her love of thrift store shopping and 90s fashion, but it isn’t something she seriously identifies with.  “Numerous people have called me a hipster—including myself—but it is not something I ever strive for,” Cochrane says. “If I like something, then I like it, regardless if it’s too mainstream or not alternative enough.” Cochrane says her enjoyment of movies like Atonement and gossip magazines set her apart from the hipster ideal because those things are “mainstream.” Others say there is no such thing as a “hipster,” but rather the term is used to slander the Millennial Generation. Sterling Hall, a 20-year-old philosophy major, believes it to be a term used to discredit young people. “It’s cast upon people of our age to try to make us look more naïve and less empathetic and less caring than we actually are,” Hall says. He says it is especially detrimental because it seems to be an attack used mostly by young people. “I think it’s more horizontal, like young people against young people. It’s really an absent term.” Many have a difficult time defining what exactly makes a hipster in terms of intellectual makeup, and instead refer to their way of dress and hangouts in which they might be found. Will von Tagen, a 23-year-old English major, says hipsters are the people who wear beanies, flannel shirts and scarves, all while reading a book in an independent coffee shop. “They consider it an intellectual haven,” von Tagen says.  This definition, however, does not always ring true. “I don’t see a lot of hipsters in this café,” says Mark Norris, a barista at independently owned Bibo Coffee Company on Record Street. Norris is wearing horn-rimmed glasses, suspenders and a beret and plays in a local punk rock band. Norris does not identify with the hipster culture and says it contributes little to society. “In general, when you talk to (hipsters), you just get the impression they don’t care about much,” Norris says. “You might see a hipster drinking a beer before going out and telling some dude not to be a racist.” In other words, hipsters’ actions to curb social injustice are often done with little passion or urgency. Norris says the hipsters from the ‘50s and ‘60s had much more of an impact than the hipsters do now. “I don’t see this generation, in general, doing a whole lot to make their lives, or the future of our country and our planet a little better.” THE OUTLIERS Rattigan is the music director at Wolf Pack Radio, which makes him in charge of putting music on the stream and recommending bands to disc jockeys. He is the source of knowledge on new indie music to the college campus. He is wearing a cardigan that he is proud to say he just bought at Junkee prior to the interview. Rattigan fits the bill for the average hipster—except in one important way: he identifies with the culture. “Fuck it; I’m a hipster,” Rattigan says. “I’m sick of this whole hipster hatred going on.” Rattigan believes that, despite the negative connotation he discussed hipsters getting, they have contributed a lot more than the general public seems to give them credit for. He relates the Technological Revolution that hipsters grew up during to the Industrial Revolution. “Hipsters are kind of the romantic stage of the Technological Revolution,” Rattigan explains. He refers to websites like Tumblr (a blogging site used to display different mediums of art and popular memes) and Bandcamp (a site used for budding musicians to spread their music to the masses and to sell merchandise to their fans) and says outlets like that are doing a favor for the arts because of their ability to spread creativity to millions of people. “Because more people see it, we get a broader spectrum and we’re inspired by more things,” Rattigan says. Vice Magazine is considered a hipster publication because of its dictating of fashion, ironic takes on politics and its status as a record label for indie bands such as Chromeo and Bloc Party. Many have labeled the magazine as pretentious because of its assertion that all published material is imperative and must be read in order to be cool. Katie O’Neill, a University of Nevada, Reno alumnus and Vice intern says working with the publication and living in Brooklyn changed her perception of hipsters. “Hipster, to me, now really means being free and comfortable in yourself that you’re not afraid to wear clothes that other people don’t think about wearing, or maybe you listen to music that is totally different from what others are listening to,” O’Neill says. She argues that hipsters are reconstructing the art scene because they’re taking old elements and blending them with new ideas. “It’s important to remember that nothing is original anymore, but attempting to put together different elements of style to create something unique or inspiring to you is a part of evolving and creating identity.” This idea of incorporating the old has been chastised wrongly. Critics argue that, because hipsters revive old trends, they’re being inauthentic. Christian Lorentzen wrote in his 2007 article, “Kill the Hipster: Why the Hipster Must Die: A modest proposal to save New York cool” that hipsters “fetishize the authentic,” and while the tone of his article was clearly condemning, there is something to be said for the preservation of old fashions. As von Tagen points out, there is a reason why these methods lasted so long in the first place. “There’s problems with digital archiving, (but) we still have film negatives from the 1800s that’ll still produce almost a better image than some of those top digital cameras out there,” von Tagen says. “You never know when we might want to fall back on that.” “IT’S LIKE A MOVEMENT” Indie band LCD Soundsystem deconstructs the hipster movement in their song “Movement,” saying “it’s like a culture/Without the effort of all the culture.” There’s truth to that. Hipster isn’t a movement yet, but there’s potential. It’s an especially poignant time for one, considering the financial and emotional climate of this country. “We’re trying to get back to a simpler time when not as much money was spent on things,” Rattigan says about the hipster’s tendency to shop at thrift stores and rob their parents of their record players. This would also be the reason why cheap beers like Pabst and Schlitz are the drinks of choice, and why illegal downloading is at an all-time high: We just don’t have the money. There is a plight to be fought, but the current generation will not rise up. “No one can embrace their culture,” Rattigan says. “And I think that if we did embrace it, we can channel it to a better thing.” There is strength in numbers, and there are clearly enough hipsters to fill up thousands of blogs and Polaroid photos. There is no use in denying the culture exists, and it is useless to condemn the youth around us; that’s simply denying the reality of the situation and hindering our own growth. The Millennial Generation is often labeled apathetic, apolitical and lazy. Perhaps, it is because that we deny our own passions when their potential is right there in front of us. The hipster movement has the ability to become an explosion of creative moxie, but it needs backing. It needs to stop collapsing upon itself and build.