In his book Sincerity , R. Jay Magill, Jr. He argues that all of these things have complicated and totally non-hipster roots, which makes them the perfect ironic statement. Another example of irony identified by Schiermer is tattooing. Hipsters utilize irony in their style to separate themselves from imitable mainstream drivel, but also as a means of identification.
Hipsterism is not an individual sport. Hipsters use their irony to reveal their superiority and gain leverage in their critique of pop culture. Picture an archaeologist, clad in khakis, digging around in the dirt. Now cuff the pants, keep the hat, change the shirt to flannel, and add glasses and facial hair. We now have a hipster, digging around in thrift stores. The role of an archaeologist is to study past human activity, and classical archaeologists do this research by recovering and analyzing the material culture that was left behind.
Like an archaeologist studying and learning from ancient times, a hipster brings to the present artifacts that were once new and cool but, due to the unrelenting nature of consumer culture, have lost their mojo. As they are rediscovered, these relics of the past regain authenticity and new cultural capital. And this veneration is not ironic. Schiermer argues that such fascination with the past is more than nostalgia or repetition but is directly related to the search for an authentic experience.
The hipster works against pop culture through a specific cycle. Everyone is identical and unexceptional. Plain Vanilla. This prompts the hipster to embark on a new archaeological exploration.
As opposed to going along with what music the radio says is popular, hipsters discovered record players and underground, decades-old music.
With these newfound treasures, the hipster shares the wealth of authenticity with mainstream culture. Not only do they excavate and decide what is cool, hipsters also take on the task of keeping this material in the public domain and safe for future generations. By sharing her finds, the archaeologist becomes the curator. Feedback We've Added New Words! Word of the Day. Meanings Meanings. Word of the day. Redefine your inbox with Dictionary. This article appeared in Guardian Weekly , which incorporates material from Le Monde.
The hipster is dead. Long live the hipster. As a fashion it has been lampooned endlessly, but the social trend has an economic impetus which is spreading beyond its urban roots. Hipster culture has become a global commercial and social phenomenon. From flappers to grunge, a century of the invincible hipster — in pictures.
However, to those of you who feel strongly that hipsters are nothing more than rank cultural appropriators, here is even more ammunition for your arguments, since even the name hipster has been borrowed from an earlier use. Who were these s hipsters that the New York Tribune is referring to? They were, quite simply, drinkers who lived up to their name, and carried hip flasks with them. There was a good reason to carry a hip flask in s New York, if you wanted to drink liquor.
It was the early days of Prohibition , and the distillation and selling of alcohol was illegal; carrying a flask of your own supply was thereby somewhat more common in the year Prohibition began than it had been in This use of hipster was relatively common throughout this decade, never rising to the level of Standard English perhaps, but well enough known that it was used in a variety of newspapers, without the writers who used the word feeling that they needed to explain it.
Hippety, hippety, hop, A hipster meets a cop, Away, pell mell, To a dungeon cell, Hippety, hippety, hop. Arkansas Democrat , 24 Dec. The new meaning of hipster was still based on an anatomical etymology dealing with the physical hip , rather than the sense of style hip , as the word was applied to hip-shaking dancers.
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