Hipster

A hipster is a person who is strongly associated with a subculture that has been deemed "hip", or "hep." The term was used originally in the 1940s and 1950s to describe aficionados of jazz, and it eventually described many members of the Beat Generation, but its usage declined in the 1960s, with the advent of hippies. Since the mid 1990s, the word "hipster" has been redefined to refer to members of a different subculture. Modern hipsters are those devoted to ironic retro fashions, indie music and film, alternative comics, and other forms of expression outside the mainstream.

Hipsters come lately

Since the late 1990s, the word hipster has resurfaced as a term to describe performers and devotees of indie rock, intelligent dance music, and related styles of music, and those who follow the associated fashions and tastes. Accessories of the modern hipster include Buddy Holly-style glasses, patchy facial hair (in the case of men), tattoos, and vintage clothing with patches and buttons bearing ironic messages.

Related Topics:
1990s - Indie rock - Intelligent dance music - Buddy Holly - Ironic

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Modern hipsters often follow or are involved with the local art and DJ scenes, and are often associated with independent film and alternative comics. Unlike previous generations of hipsters, they are rarely now associated with the jazz scene, though the term may have re-entered use as a result of the swing revival of the mid-1990s, which many current hipsters were associated with at the time.

Related Topics:
Art - DJ - Independent film - Alternative comics - Jazz - Swing revival - 1990

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The present hipster pseudo-rebellion is sometimes regarded as a natural reaction of the more intellectual or artistically inclined Generation Y person to living in a postmodern society; wherein the only viable way to "rebel" is to superficially partake in what all previous counter-culture hipsters despised: consumerism and kitsch.

Related Topics:
Generation Y - Postmodern - Kitsch

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As with any distinctive subculture, the hipster -- or at least the supposed hipster stereotype -- is sometimes a target of derision or satire, though, as the subculture is a fairly amorphous group that generally appreciates irony and self-deprecation, the audience is often as not the hipsters themselves. Robert Lanham's The Hipster Handbook affectionately lampoons the hipster cliche in its current incarnation. Numerous web sites also exist that less-affectionately express their authors' exasperation at hipster cliches. Many would argue that the term "hipster" itself has become mildly derisive, and it is seldom used as a label for self-identification, except in an ironic or self-deprecating way.

Related Topics:
Robert Lanham - The Hipster Handbook

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Hipster districts

Due to financial circumstances hipsters have often been forced to live in formerly unfashionable, often blighted neighborhoods in large cities; after wealthier middle-aged people (many of whom are former hipsters themselves) move into these areas and begin to gentrify them, hipsters often move on. As of this writing (September, 2005), noted hipsters live in every major city in the world.

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Noted hipster districts in the United States include:

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• Echo Park, Silver Lake, and Eagle Rock in Los Angeles
• The French Quarter and The Marigny in New Orleans
• Williamsburg, Red Hook, Lower East Side, and East Village in New York
• Thayer Street in Providence
• Hampden and Fells Point in Baltimore
• Davis Square in Somerville and Allston/Brighton, near Boston
• East Nashville in Nashville
• Houston Heights and Montrose in Houston
• Logan Square, West Bucktown, Ukrainian Village, and the very few remaining ungentrified blocks of Wicker Park in Chicago
• Baxter Avenue in Louisville
• Mount Pleasant, U Street Corridor, Le Detroit Park, and Adams Morgan, in Washington, DC
• Old City and Northern Liberties in Philadelphia
• Capitol Hill in Seattle
• Portland, Oregon
• Austin, Texas
• The Cass Corridor, Detroit, and Hamtramck, a city surrounded by Detroit
• the Mission District and the Lower Haight neighborhoods of San Francisco

In the UK, the popular hipster places of dwelling include Hoxton in the Old East End of London who became the legendary Shoreditch Twats, satirised by Chris Morris in Nathan Barley, as well as the adjacent Bethnal Green. New Cross, around the Goldsmiths College area (also in London) is popular with hipsters, especially the local art-punk scene.

Related Topics:
UK - Hoxton - East End - London - Chris Morris - Nathan Barley - Bethnal Green - New Cross - Goldsmiths College - Punk

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Canadian hipsters tend to congregate in The Plateau and Mile End in Montreal; the Parkdale (Queen West) and College Street neighbourhoods in Toronto; Mission, Kensington and Inglewood in Calgary; and the Strathcona, mid-Main, and Commercial Drive neighbourhoods in Vancouver.

Related Topics:
Canadian - The Plateau - Montreal - Parkdale - Toronto - Mission - Kensington - Inglewood - Calgary - Commercial Drive - Vancouver

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Noted hipster districts in Australia include Fitzroy/Fitzroy North and Brunswick in Melbourne, Newtown and Darlinghurst in Sydney and Fortitude Valley in Brisbane.

Related Topics:
Australia - Fitzroy - Fitzroy North - Brunswick - Melbourne - Newtown - Darlinghurst - Sydney - Fortitude Valley - Brisbane

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In Germany, they tend to swing in Prenzlauer Berg, a district of Berlin, and the Schanzenviertel, a district of Hamburg. In Spain they gravitate, among other areas, towards the Chueca neighborhood in Madrid, and the Gracia neighborhood in Barcelona. And of course many parts of France, Italy, and Greece.

Related Topics:
Prenzlauer Berg - Berlin - Schanzenviertel - Hamburg

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The most famous district for Japanese hipsters is Shibuya, Tokyo. Vancouver and New York are particularly noted as destinations for Japanese hipsters visiting or living in North America.

Related Topics:
Japanese - Shibuya, Tokyo

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