What Comes After the Hipster? We Ask the Experts

[dave]

Article Here.

Generation Sell

Hipster: The Dead End of Western Civilization

Reconsidering the Hipster

ECCE HIPSTER: A FEW THOUGHTS ABOUT TODAY'S YOUTH

Is "Indie" Dead?

(Caveat- Generation Sell appeared in The New Republic)

Some Excerpts:

The Internet can, of course, facilitate such connections, but subcultures generally need physical spaces to grow in, because they involve a way of life, not just a set of tastes shared over a communication device. Otherwise, they are more accurately described as “taste cultures,” which may be a better term for the hipster.

The one thing I don’t think will happen is that youth culture will fragment into cultural tribes. [So, just in punk alone, how do you explain Crusties, Garage Punks, Str8-Edgers, Hardcore punks, Pop-punks, Oi! punks... Plus, they usually don't like mixing with other types of punks.]

In a media-saturated world where profit-oriented industries are always desperate for something new to sell to people, those industries themselves will be partly, perhaps largely, responsible for making the next subculture coherent.

I live in Singapore, where opposition subcultures are not allowed (and I mean that in a very real, legal sense). Here, people consume many things they consider to be subcultural, but the ideals of those cultures seem largely absent. So we have local kids who call themselves Skinheads or Mods or Rudies. There are also a lot of kids who just dress in unconventional ways and who are generically known here as hipsters. When you sit down and talk to most of these kids, you don’t find much that is actively political in their identities. Instead, these identities were premade, made available in catalogues and bought by people searching for a way to stand out in a culturally stifling environment. This is akin to what Theodor Adorno called “pseudo individualization” in his critique of popular music. This is not true in all cases to be sure, and I think there is freshness and uniqueness to be found in youth cultures today. So maybe that’s not being fair to many of the kids out there, but my point is that a lot of young people in the US as well as here in Southeast Asia buy into what they believe to be individuality (and being subcultural is often defined by insiders as a way of being free from mainstream constraints), when it fact what they’re buying are mass-produced commodities targeted at them. Understanding who is doing the targeting and why will be important in making sense of what comes next.

There’s really no way of knowing what will emerge after the hipster for several reasons. The first is that the hipster really isn’t a movement at all but rather an affectation that has been perceived as being a movement by a consumer culture desperately in needs of trends.

Now as to whether the Internet and other changes to American life are making this a nation of fragmented cultural tribes the answer is a solid YES!!!!

And do you know what made the Beats, Hippies, and Punks possible more than anything else? There were no distractions. There were three television networks, no cable or satellite. There were only a few radio stations, and they still featured live, local djs. There were no video games, nothing digital, no iPods or mp3 players… there weren’t even cassette players for most of those times. There were no VHS tapes or DVDs or CDs… you wanted to see a movie you had to go to the theater. No Internet of course. No computers of any kind. There were no ATMs or credit cards… no cell phones… there weren’t even xerox machines until the 1970s. The only things we had were each other. The only things we could do was hang out together, talk, have sex, do drugs, and make our own music and art. Yes, there were all the cultural influences I mentioned earlier but the only way to share them all was face to face real human interaction. There unquestionable will be subcultures in the future… but their form and longevity will probably be very, very different than anything that preceded them (unless of course they are revivalist movements). The subculture is dead. Long live the subculture!

[John Battles]

No distractions is right....But how much you let yourself be distracted by these "Improvements" is still up to you. I only watch one TV station with any regularity, and I listen to virtually no radio of any kind, I have'nt downloaded more than a few MP3s , I don't have a 12 year old Niece or Nephew  to help me keep up with the internet. But , it's not about me , it's about the younger generation , coming up. The Hipster will be replaced by a psuedo - tribal offspring that will have access to more information , and choose to ignore just as much , or more .

[dave]

Yeah, "choose to ignore just as much , or more", when you're trying to drink from a firehose, it's hard to get it all. Maybe they'll get better at filtering what they want/need a'la Twitter.

I kinda like the idea of a bunch of micro-tribes. Have you read Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age?

But when people think that they buy a lifestyle, they're missing the point.

Will we get any more deep thinkers, since the 1st wave of Punk/Cyber-punk?

[John Battles]

   nO , i HAVE'NT read "The Diamond AGE". gOOD TITLE...

Excuse the misplaced caps (Another good title.), but , people are breaking off into other subsections of Hipsterism that also take more money than mere record collecting to maintain , it seems.... I mean , when I first saw Steam Punks , I did'nt know what they were about , or if they even had a name for it. Now there's a store on Michigan Avenue for the stuff , not to mention smaller , but lucrative , 1890s (By way of Verne and Welles' visions.) General Stores with Y2K + prices.

 I guess some of these people still start bands , but , are Hipsters dreamers or doers ? Or ,neither ? You see 'em at shows , arms crossed , acting unimpressed , but have they ever tried to get on stage and throw themselves to the lions ? I dunno.

Even in the 80's , there was so much to be influenced by , even if it was something you were only moderately interested , that if you started a band , a zine , or anything else somehow connected to the subculture , there was , in Poison Ivy's immortal words , "No excuse for not having good influences". The same is so much more true , today , when everything is at your fingertips....Can't say , then , why I'm not seeing or hearing that many interesting bands here in Chicago , of all places. I can name , MAYBE , 10 local Garage bands that I've seen , by that , I mean with SOME  mid-60's overtone , not the "We sound like shit and we don't care " variety , since I moved here , 25 years ago. BUT , WHEN YOU DISCOVER A BAND THAT'S MORE YOUR SPEED THAN WHAT YOU'VE BEEN HEARING , IT SHOULD BE WORTH THE WAIT.    I don't know that the next generation will produce anything comparable to 60's and 70's Punk and/or Cyberpunk , which I never followed , but , I recognize your distinction , here.)...... Individual people are always going to be the ones to watch for .

[dave]

"Individual people are always going to be the ones to watch for."

Now that is wisdom for the ages, John!

Did I mention just before I moved out of Austin, 'bout 7 years ago, there was this guy next to me in Beerland. He was kitted out like a "garage-punk" meaning gas-station jacket (w/ matching pants! Oy!), chain wallet, hornrims, the whole 9 yards.

It took me a moment, but this was a guy I knew, Pete by name, who had been a hippie for the past 6 years! No problem with that, but suddenly acting like a "garage-punk" is raising a whole buncha red flags. Authenticity, anyone?

[John Battles]

......Even 7 years ago , you'd have thunk that whole 90's "Garage Punk look" would have registered as dated ,especially somewhere like Austin. Just sayin'. Maybe I'm wrong , but , that's around the time , I think , that whole look had become a vague memory , at best ....It was'nt even that prominent , here , in and after Estrus' heyday. If you went to the infrequent  Garage gig , in the 90's , around here (As opposed to the nearly non - existent ones of The LATE 80's.) , you might see a couple of guys sporting (Not necessarily rockin') that look... But , I don't think there was ever a "Garage Fashion Scene", outside of places like The (L.A.) CAVERN IN THE 80's , which , I'm told , was very elitist in that regard. It SHOULD be about individuality....Do your own thing , damn you ! HA HA. I mean , there are , obviously , 60's looks that have stood the test of time , but , unlike in the 80's , you can't just go into a thrift store and find that shit.           I don't know what "Acting Garage Punk" entails , really. I don't !  Local writer and Musician , Brian Costello , really did me a mitzvah , tho' , when he said , in The Chicago Reader , that I ( Meaning me , a name I call myself.) live this stuff , and that I know it's not a lifestyle built on "Puking out Sailor Jerry in schooners".

Naturally , I had to find out what Sailor Jerry was , and what a (Non - nautical ) schooner is. I'm not kidding , I'm THAT out of the loop.

[dave]

It's true, at that time it was just a cheesy 'look'. As Tim Warren noted, all you need to be in a band is a tee shirt and a pair of jeans and sneakers.

Ugh, the 80s fashion bands and 'paisley underground', Lord, don't remind me! Thank God for the Lyres (always in, nnnevah! out), no posin' all rockin'.

During that whole Estrus/Crypt period all the people I knew just wanted to have a good time. It was too hot and humid to do any posing. Just have a beer and bang your head to some great music.

And please kids, enough with the PBR...