Hipster (contemporary subculture)
Overview
Hipsters are a subculture
of young, recently settled urban middle class
adults and older teenagers with musical interests mainly in alternative rock
that appeared in the 1990s. Other interests in media would include independent film
, magazines such as Vice
and Clash
, and websites like Pitchfork Media
.
Hipster culture has been described as a "mutating, trans-Atlantic melting pot of styles, tastes and behavior[s]." Christian Lorentzen of Time Out New York argues that "hipsterism fetishizes
the authentic" elements of all of the "fringe movements of the postwar era—beat
, hippie
, punk
, even grunge
," and draws on the "cultural stores of every unmelted ethnicity," and "regurgitates it with a winking inauthenticity." Others, like Arsel and Thompson, argue that hipster signifies a cultural mythology, a crystallization of a mass-mediated stereotype generated to understand, categorize, and marketize indie consumer culture, rather than an objectified group of people.
The term itself was coined during the jazz age
, when "hip" emerged as an adjective to describe aficionados of the growing scene.
Subculture
In sociology, anthropology and cultural studies, a subculture is a group of people with a culture which differentiates them from the larger culture to which they belong.- Definition :...
of young, recently settled urban middle class
Middle class
The middle class is any class of people in the middle of a societal hierarchy. In Weberian socio-economic terms, the middle class is the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the working class and upper class....
adults and older teenagers with musical interests mainly in alternative rock
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...
that appeared in the 1990s. Other interests in media would include independent film
Independent film
An independent film, or indie film, is a professional film production resulting in a feature film that is produced mostly or completely outside of the major film studio system. In addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies, independent films are also produced...
, magazines such as Vice
Vice (magazine)
VICE is a free magazine and media conglomerate founded in Montreal, Quebec and currently based in New York City.Vice is available in 27 countries...
and Clash
Clash (magazine)
Clash is a popular music and fashion magazine based in the United Kingdom. Its magazine title is published 12 times a year. It has a circulation of around 40,000....
, and websites like Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...
.
Hipster culture has been described as a "mutating, trans-Atlantic melting pot of styles, tastes and behavior[s]." Christian Lorentzen of Time Out New York argues that "hipsterism fetishizes
Commodity fetishism
In Marx's critique of political economy, commodity fetishism denotes the mystification of human relations said to arise out of the growth of market trade, when social relationships between people are expressed as, mediated by and transformed into, objectified relationships between things .The...
the authentic" elements of all of the "fringe movements of the postwar era—beat
Beat generation
The Beat Generation refers to a group of American post-WWII writers who came to prominence in the 1950s, as well as the cultural phenomena that they both documented and inspired...
, hippie
Hippie
The hippie subculture was originally a youth movement that arose in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to other countries around the world. The etymology of the term 'hippie' is from hipster, and was initially used to describe beatniks who had moved into San Francisco's...
, punk
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
, even grunge
Grunge
Grunge is a subgenre of alternative rock that emerged during the mid-1980s in the American state of Washington, particularly in the Seattle area. Inspired by hardcore punk, heavy metal, and indie rock, grunge is generally characterized by heavily distorted electric guitars, contrasting song...
," and draws on the "cultural stores of every unmelted ethnicity," and "regurgitates it with a winking inauthenticity." Others, like Arsel and Thompson, argue that hipster signifies a cultural mythology, a crystallization of a mass-mediated stereotype generated to understand, categorize, and marketize indie consumer culture, rather than an objectified group of people.
The term itself was coined during the jazz age
Jazz Age
The Jazz Age was a movement that took place during the 1920s or the Roaring Twenties from which jazz music and dance emerged. The movement came about with the introduction of mainstream radio and the end of the war. This era ended in the 1930s with the beginning of The Great Depression but has...
, when "hip" emerged as an adjective to describe aficionados of the growing scene.
Discussions
