SMITH: Hipsters and why we hate them

Maybe it’s a little close to the fact to be so definite. However, as we sit here on a generously warm evening in April, the facts seem increasingly clear to me. We are the Hipster Generation, and there’s not a thing we can do about it.

“Hipsterism” seemingly rose from the ashes of the Emo movement in the mid-2000s, at first easy to accept in all its floppy-haired apathy compared to that previous dour subculture. That’s not to say Emo disappeared as a movement, or that all Emos necessarily woke up one morning and became Hipsters. That would be far too convenient. In fact the origins of the term can be traced back to the Beat Generation of the 1940s and 1950s, the largely literary movement spearheaded by people like Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg and seen as the spiritual predecessor to the Hippie Movement. However, to cast today’s Hipsters in the same boat as these highly idealistic movements would be as great a mistake as anything.

Hipsters don’t care. That’s their thing. That fact probably remains the shining and holiest emblem the movement yet has left. The other characteristics are becoming a little unclear, as they cease to be the values of a sub-culture and begin to become the values of a generation, but are as follows: A hipster is a person in his or her late teens through twenties who is recently settled, usually in an urban environment, liberal arts educated, not completely financially independent (parents), a fan of alternative or indie music, a practitioner of Liberal or nihilist politics, a fan of literary figures such as Jack Kerouac, who surrounds themself with retro things such as old bikes, typewriters or record players and brands they perceive as being genuine or un-commercial, such as Pabst Blue Ribbon.

The most important key to being a hipster is the refusal to acknowledge yourself as one. In fact, you must shun and shutter at the mention of the term. To be defined in any capacity is counter-intuitive to the hipster cause. Unity is the only slightly more tolerable cousin of conformity. If the movement fights against anything it’s this: Commercialism. Other than that the movement has very few ideological goals. It’s politically liberal, if anything, but more often than not it’s nothing, as participating in the political process at all is seen to be conforming to the system to a degree.

This whole article so far reads as a tirade against hipsters. It’s not. In fact, I’m a hipster. Self-admitted. Much of the angst is a matter of confusion. I’m confused as to where my affiliation with my sub-culture ends and my affiliation with my generation picks up. So many of the “hipsters” in the article could be substituted for the terms “we” or “us” as in our generation. The values of this movement are increasingly shared by all of us, and that’s not necessarily a good thing.

Skinny pants have become the fashion norm, oversized eyeglasses the optic correction of choice. All these things, which were meant to spurn consumerism, have done nothing but develop a niche within it. Hipsters’ affinity for indie music was meant as a means of escaping popular or singular artistic taste, but now bands that are deemed “indie” by record labels, like Of Monsters and Men or “Fun.” are racking up countless number-one hits. It’s almost as though it’s impossible to succeed in the music industry today without being branded “indie.”

All this sounds incredibly snobbish. “Not everyone can like what I like!” (They can). “I was here first!” (I wasn’t). Not even close.

I’m not concerned about shared artistic or fashion interests across a generation. History has shown that that’s going to happen. What I’m concerned about is that we lack the grace of our parent’s generation, or even our older siblings’ MTV generation. We don’t unite over our shared interests but instead claim creation of them, fighting tooth and nail for the dwindling resource that is personality.

Our generation doesn’t care. We’re liberal … kind of. We like books, but mostly we like reading the first ten pages and putting them on the shelf for people admire. We like indie music, but only really because it’s what’s on.

All great generations had something to fight against. The Greatest Generation had the Nazis, had absolute evil. Their children, the Baby Boomers, had the conformity and choking safety their parents had created. It was their kids that battled the notion that everything was all peace and love, and they battled it with people like Kurt Cobain.

Our generation needs to find something to fight for and fast. Things are too good, and the product is a limp generation low on goals and ideas and high on entitlement and self-declared originality. And anyway, it’s gotten so bad that we may have even created a sub-culture to air out our own hatred of ourselves.

Colin Smith is a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences, and a weekly columnist for the Daily Free Press. He can be reached at colin1@bu.edu.