In the beginning, it was funny. The word “hipster” or the phrase “you’re a hipster” was thrown around. “Emily you’re such a hipster!” I laughed along, but honestly I didn’t even understand what the word “hipster” meant. So I did what any child of the 21st century does when they don’t know something – I Googled it.
As I did further research, I found that a hipster is more than the clothes that he/she wears or the music they listen to. It’s a belief, it’s a love for everything unknown. It’s a subculture within a subculture. I found that there was no specific criteria for what a hipster is. They just have to love things that are “different.”
This column is an attempt to prove why I am not a hipster.
You could pick out a hipster from a mile away, merely by the way they dress. Someone wearing jeans, jeans not the color of jeans, anything purchased from a thrift store, plaid, deep v-necks, fedoras, ironic graphic T’s, or anything from American Apparel or Urban Outfitters. I usually stumble out of bed fifteen minutes before I am supposed to leave the house. This gives me no time to deal with fedoras or attempting to match my colored pants with a top. Instead I sport shirts and jeans.
Hipsters reject anything mainstream. Whether it be movies, music or ideals.
I’m sorry, you have to be kidding me if you say that even half of the movies that play at AMC are actually good. I can’t handle two hours of singing chipmunks, Tom Cruise or Nicholas Cage.
Maybe there is a reason I typically don’t like bands that are super famous. It’s like going to a concert at Palladium Ballroom versus the American Airlines center. I would rather see a band in a small, crowded, intimate room, where you can literally smell the sweat dripping off the band members than see someone the size of an ant sing over the shrill screams of thousands of girls. Music sounds more authentic that way. Listening to a band that isn’t playing every half hour on Kiss FM is like stumbling upon a hidden treasure. You know you like the band not because their famous, but purely because you like their music.
Maybe I do reject mainstream ideals. Though, I’ve grown up in a house hold where this has been the case. My parents have encouraged me to keep an open mind.
I have a problem with the word “hipster” or any stereotype for that matter. No one likes to be grouped, or generalized in masses. Using the word hipster, nerd, or jock to describe someone is an attempt to categorize people in neat little groups. It’s an attempt to look beyond the things that makes someone their own, and find the things that make them like everyone else.
Yes, I do drink coffee – I’m a Starbucks Barista for goodness sakes. I have a “COEXIST” bumper sticker on the back of my car. Two of my favorite movies are “50/50” and “Like, Crazy.” I have a Tumblr – no, I won’t give you my URL. I’m listening to Arcade Fire as I write this. I have tickets for concerts to see Young the Giant, The Kooks, and Foster the People. I don’t listen to top forty radio (“Party Rock Anthem” is an exception). But I’d like to think that those things are just parts of me. They aren’t the parts that define who I am. Not one word, no stereotype, not even Google can figure that out for me.
