The Wolf Magazine

Issue date: 2/5/10 Section: Fine Arts and Culture

Media Credit: Raven Crane [Click to enlarge]

 It is 10 a.m. at a coffee shop in Uptown New Orleans. The barista is apathetic, the furniture looks as if it was taken out of Grandma’s living room and beaten with a golf club. The wall paintings are crummy. But if it isn’t the decorations that hint at whose domain this is, it’s the people. The girl with the legwarmers, heels, striped scarf and eco-friendly carry-all bag who keeps staring off into space may give a hint. And the guy wearing the purple skinny jeans, and glasses bigger than the ones Mom wore in her high school yearbook picture is sure to give it away. If not, the fact that they are both sitting around the shop drinking badly mixed soy lattes and discussing how the new Death Cab album is not as good as the old one should seal the deal — these  people are hipsters.

The hipster results from a unique phenomenon. As the “hip,” in hopes of individualization, distances itself from the mainstream, it falls into subculture conformity. Scenes like the one just mentioned are common in Loyola University life. Hipsters are everywhere, dawning their Urban Outfitters apparel and Bohemian scarves. If it is not the clothing that strikes you as odd, it’s the conversation. Critique of the latest independent foreign film, or a discussion of the latest fashion blog is sure to ensue in the dialogue of the hipster. You may also find strange  their urge to discuss a musician’s value in the form of past tense, because the new albums are never “good” enough. (i.e. Hipster 1: “Man, Big Rock Candy Mountain’s new album is decent, but they’re nothing like they were in their prime.” Hipster 2: “Yeah, man, you’re so right,” he replies, taking a sip of his Pabst Blue Ribbon). It’s the crazy music genres this group loves, like shoegaze*, and No Wave* that makes outsiders to this cultural phenomena cringe and say “How can I keep up?” Or better yet, “Why would I want to?” Perhaps the most interesting thing about this group is their denial of their label. If you mention the H-word around them, they are sure to shrug you off and scoff that such a perception of them could not be true, because they are just being “different.” Regardless of whether they claim or deny their title,the question remains: where do all these so-called hipsters come from and what brings them to Loyola and to New Orleans in such abundance?

WHERE DID THEY COME FROM?

The term hipster made its first appearance on the pop culture scene in the 1930s and 1940s in the African-American “jive” scene. It was a terminology meant to refer towards someone who is “in the know.” But today, the hipster group is one which takes a lot of criticism. Hipster is the only subculture that people often attach another disliked subculture to – there are emo hipsters. Pop culture websites like http://www.yourscenesucks.com even poke fun at the label, with illustrations of “Williamsburg hipsters (the great number of hipsters who live in Williamsburg, New York)” So how did a 20th century tone of endearment for someone who is knowledgeable about popular trends become a 21  century noun to describe an individual who has so many enemies in the  pop culture community? Perhaps the best way to illustrate why hipsters are so hated would be to look at the history of groups like them – the beatniks, the hippies, the punks. Like any submerging subculture of the time, hipsters do things frowned upon by mainstream society, for the sheer sake of rebellion. And the more they rebel, the more they are frowned upon. With such harsh definitions out there it’s easier to understand an urge to shrug off such a label no matter how much one actually seems apart of such a group.

 WHERE THEY ARE FOUND?   

 Hipsters are found everywhere the arts and  history meet: from the local corner coffee shop, to Buffalo Exchange, to your local record store, collecting vinyl albums. They are hoarders of the old and they show great distaste for the new, usually because they are mad they hadn’t thought of it first. If they do adopt the new, they must be first to claim it, and are usually equipped with Daddy’s credit card  to ensure their first-in-line status. It is for these reasons that your friendly neighborhood hipster can be found…  well, in your neighborhood. They spend endless amounts of money and time to look like they have nothing.

Wherever there is a thrift store, an unknown music venue, and a coffee shop, this group is likely to roam, but they are drawn like magnets to places with rich history and culture. Therefore, it only makes sense that this group would run like a dog being hailed by a whistle to a city like New Orleans. The hipster’s intense need for recognition draws him or her to a small, Jesuit college like Loyola where their fashions and cultural tastes can be gawked at by other students and professors, priests, and nuns alike.

WHAT GOOD ARE THEY?

All obnoxiousness aside, hipsters can be beneficial to society. They contribute big dollars to mom and pop businesses because of their love of the quaint and historic. They are the collectors of the ugly, gaudy, and old; the primary vintage consumers. Hipsters contribute to the music business — they seem to be at the venues for the bands before other fans, in the audience for every new album, lining the pockets of their favorite musician and keeping them on tour. Hipsters can even be credited with the green movement.
They make it a trend to recycle, use natural products, and support local organic grocers.

Through their submersion in underground culture, hipsters find common ground. Like the hippies of the ’60s, or the disco queens of the ’70s, hipsters tried to find their own piece of pop culture fame, but stumbled upon a larger eclectic and less original culture along the way. Whether or not you like the label, this subculture may just be around until it is no longer “hip” to be a hipster.



*shoegaze – subculture of alternative rock that emerged from the United Kingdom in the 1970s. Got its name because performers tend to stand around staring at their shoes in a detached way when on stage. Ex: My Bloody Valentine, The Cure, Bauhaus.

**No Wave - Noisy, highly experimental apocalyptic bands bred from New York gutters. Ex: Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, Mars.

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