But I'm not a hipster...

[nfotxn]

A lovely response to Adbusters increasingly inflammatory, negative and conspicuously researched editorial. They take on hipsters "The Dead End of Western Civilization" this month and it's kinda horrendous. Allow the quote to explain itself:

Take a stroll down the street in any major North American or European city and you’ll be sure to see a speckle of fashion-conscious twentysomethings hanging about and sporting a number of predictable stylistic trademarks: skinny jeans, cotton spandex leggings, fixed-gear bikes, vintage flannel, fake eyeglasses and a keffiyeh – initially sported by Jewish students and Western protesters to express solidarity with Palestinians, the keffiyeh has become a completely meaningless hipster cliché fashion accessory.

The long and short of it is that Adbusters has, in a desperate gasp, decided to eat it's own. As basically the premier lifestyle magazine of the trendiest of hipsters ("But I'm not a hipster!") Adbusters has been a barometer of style for the cool kids for close to a decade. Now by deriding the progeny of their varying po-mo ideologies Adbusters once again foresees the death of western civilization. Who knew the horsemen of The Apocalypse would come clad in gold lamé and cheap Italian sunglasses from the 80s? I suppose the second time is a charm.

It's a monthly occurrence for Adbusters to conflate their anti-capitalist anarchist agenda with something unrelated, usually something joyful. This time they're up against youthful pursuit of identity and space. Using unwitting pariahs such as a 17-year-old "hipster" who likes mugging for photos at parties. Clearly it's because he is a symptom of end-stage culture that he enjoys being adored. Not because he's an insecure teen looking for his place in the world as an adult.

The same argument is and has been easily made for hippies, yuppies, hipsters and probably back throughout the ages. What I still can't comprehend is Adbusters alternative to hipsters. Some sort of dour survivalist netherworld where we gather around the fire after a hard day of organic farming and parade around in our hemp leg warmers drawing heartfelt impressions of each other. The overall "GIT AWFF MY LAWN YOU [HIPSTERS]" tone of the article more accurately predicts the end of the magazine in question as a particularly insightful guide to much other than the expressions of jaded hipsters.

Comments

[danlmarmot.livejournal.com]

Oh gawd yes that article is weak.

"Hipsterdom is the first 'counterculture' to be born under the advertising industry’s microscope". Uh, Coke was teaching hippies and the world to sing in perfect harmony forty years ago.

Hm. The terms 'slacker' and 'Gen-X' appear nowhere in the article as well. What happened to them, and how do they relate to hipsters? Or are hipsters just slackers who like fashion?

The mind is boggled.

[nfotxn.livejournal.com]

No way man Gen-X started culture jamming!

You know and then they all got jobs in advertising just like the hippies.

[nfotxn.livejournal.com]

While I don't disagree with many of Adbusters points I still think the hopeless perspective that culture is somehow broken and is spiralling toward inevitable doom is baseless. It's easy to blame the young folk of today for the trajectory of the human race. This in particular is less some doom-y symptom of a culture that's coming to an end but moreso a feature of human cultures everywhere in the world throughout time.

Btw: Adbusters is selling us magazines and shoes in order to "fix" the world. Frankly I'll take my 100% recycleable Zaha Hadid plastic shoes over their organic hemp re-used bike tire undergrad chic trustfunder liberal-er-than-thou bullshit. And that's my point. It's all a sell.

[nfotxn.livejournal.com]

The sad fact is that today hipsters are doing their Andy Warhol factory shit and like farther and longer across the world than just in New York City. It's a common gentrification deal and a huge contributing factor in Richard Florida and whatever we haven't figured out right now about cities. This is one of those forces for good in the western world.

[satarnion.livejournal.com]

I've always had a love-hate relationship with the magazine, and this article didn't strike me as anything extraordinarily different from what they've always done.

Adbusters owes its entire existence to the shifting landscape of advertising; it works within that context and, because of this, can never really escape it. It's a magazine for chrissake.

It can't really have a clear plan for the world any more than advertising can.

All I know is that the stuff still makes me think.