htHipsters
Hipsters is a contemporary subculture - it is a group of young people ages 20 to 30 years old which is in opposition to the mainstream. They come from the circle of intelligentsia and universities.
Characteristic things
Hipsters are interested in counter-culture, progressive politics, an appreciation of arts and Indie-rock, creativity, intelligence, and witty banter. A very interesting thing is that they often do not even consider themselves hipsters. They want be to be a kind of alternative in all areas of live.
Specific fashion. A typical hipster must be an alternative to the mainstream, we haven’t got a typical fashion of that group of people still they have some characteristic features.
A hipster wears colorful clothes, this is a very important factor in hipsters' life. The style should be vintage - inspired fashion, tight-fitting jeans, old-school sneakers, and sometimes thick rimmed glasses or, in Poland, Ray Ban brand one. Both hipster men and women have specific hair styles that include various combinations and asymmetric side-swept bangs.
A short history of subculture
The subculture comes from the USA, before World War II a hipster was a person who liked hot jazz. Afterwards, in the 90s of the 20th century and 2000 hipsters changed their subculture profile.
This is an extract from an article:
"Hipsters are the friends who sneer when you cop to liking Coldplay. They're the people who wear t-shirts silk-screened with quotes from movies you've never heard of and the only ones in America who still think Pabst Blue Ribbon is a good beer. They sport cowboy hats and berets and thinkKanye West stole their sunglasses. Everything about them is exactingly constructed to give off the vibe that they just don't care."
If you want to meet a hipster in Warsaw it is quite easy, you should go to pubs and cafés specific for that kind of people. The most popular is Plan B - it is located close to Zbawiciela Square.
http://natemat.pl/
It is one of few subcultures which does not create hazards for the environment, but it is often an object of aggression from other groups of young people for example: skins, punks, football hooligans. The reason of that behavior is quite obvious, hipsters are different, that’s way they are persecuted.
http://www.pinger.pl
Questions
- What do you think about theirs otherness ?
- Do you like this subculture, yes/no, and why ?
Personally, I don't care about hipsters and any other subculture as long as they don't interrupt my life or violate the order. If hipsters truly believe in what they are doing, they should keep on doing this. But if someone wears specific clothes only in order to show he is alternative it sounds quite stupid. Sometimes subcultures are closely connected with the fashion. I don't know much about them - maybe now it's fashionable to be a hipster.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you - as long as the subculture is harmless I don't really care. The case about hipsters is quite funny, cause now it's kinda fashionable to be a hipster but any hipster would ever admit he is one. I think that most of young people look like hipsters nowadays, just because they dress in a specific way, but they don't have too much in common with 'the original' hipsters.
ReplyDeleteI love when people are different and they have a concept of how they want to look like and what to represents - I really enjoy seeing out of the ordinary dressed people, but when it is unnatural and forced it doesn't make sense.
Yes, the hipster subculture is very hard to identify as no hipster will ever admit he is a hipster. They obviously like independent music and wearing unpopular clothing styles. They don't want to have nothing in common with "mainstream" things. But apparently this rule doesn't concern the Apple products. Someone once said that the only difference between hipser and a homeless person is that the first one has an IPhon. That's very amusing indeed!
ReplyDeleteBut I don't mind hipsters. They want to be different and I don't think they are actually hurting somebody doing that. They just look a bit creepy.
I am not hipster but I like what they like, so I have no problem with hipster subculture. It is ok for me that someone openly display love to independent art and music, superior cultural, existentialist philosophy or exposing literature, this is the hipsters background.
ReplyDeleteHipsters tend to be well educated in liberal arts, graphic art, math and science, they like fashion especially vintage fashion. I dislike this sitting style with iPod’s and Mac’s in coffee bar but I can live with it. They are colorful and I like it.
I have the same opinion as you. When people, who belong to another subcultures, for example hipster, do nothing that may be harmful- doesn’t matter for me.
ReplyDeleteAlso I think, that it’s fascinating, when we have often completely different (mind) view and we can meet and be in relationship with this person- it expands horizons and change ordinary world.
Hipsters are for me normal subculture. Honestly I’m not interested in subcultures, I haven’t got detailed information about this group and I haven’t got special opinion about this culture.
I think Hipsters are very specific kinds of people, who want to be creative at all costs. I will not write about the music they are listening or clothes they are wearing, because we can observe it every day around us. They wear designer clothes and often have expensive gadgets. We meet these people every day and sometimes they look really interesting but another time it is a real tragedy how they look like. Their clothes don't match their personality, but that's their business and we won't change it. Whether we like it or not.
ReplyDeleteThe most amazing thing for me is that how they behave. They are very noisy and want to attract others attention.
I don't mind their presence around me. Sometimes they can even positively suprise me. Thanks to them the world becomes varied.
We should remember that we all belong to some subcultures...
At some point I stopped considering hipsters as an individual subculture. I think they somehow intermingled into our society - in Warsaw you can easily spot a lot of people fitting to the description given and it's rare to see someone extremely different from what we used to call "mainstream". I've got the feeling that many clothes stores and venues are even lancing this style of being, so it doesn't look 'weird' anymore. Dressing like a hipster, listening to poorly known music bands and visiting certain places (eg. cafes around Zbawiciela Square or Powiśle district) is quite common. And I don't see anything uncanny in it, because I find all of these activities enjoyable!
ReplyDeletePS. You forgot to mention one very special treat: cult of a beard! :D
I was once forced to interact with few of them. It was uncomfortable because I didn't know if it is even possible to by hypocrite on purpose. Apperently, you can. Just be hipster.
ReplyDeleteStory is pretty funny to me. I was sitting at the bus stop reading a book about gauge theory. Apparently it is so alternative topic, that some of them started talking with me. At first I was confused, later one of them who looked like nerdier version of Doogie Howser (without lab coat, I think explanation was in order regarding their clothing :P) said something about how it feels like occultism, because of how Heisenbergs principle of uncertanity is connected to existance of ghosts. When it became apparent that I'm not one of them, altough I passed 'I'm not a hipster' hipster ritual, just physics student they tried to insult me by saying that all I learn is wrong because it can't give any insight to real world. I was even more confused when they started talking about bike one of them renovated. He (I think) bought almost 80 year old bike for more then I spent on my laptop. On the plus side, they forgot about me.
I'm serious, it was one of most bizzare experiences I ever had!
But to sum up, I don't think they are bad or have no right to be. They are just annoying and unpleasant. At least in my experience. It can be fun to be alternative, but just for the fact of showing that? Or posing as an alternative thinker and not for any other purpose? I find it childish. It's like playing basketball and instead of competing, be stuck on scorekeeping because 'being a player is just to mainstream' ;).
Well, in my opinion being alternative just for being alternative itself is one of the most stupid things in whole universe, especially when alternative look and posing is becoming the new subculture. Also i don't really approve their look, however it's their own decision. So - personally i don't have right to judge, so i'm not criticising them, but if you want to know my opinion - they are totally out of my taste.
ReplyDeleteAccording to me histers are simply posers. Most of them don't even like the music they listen to, don't feel the way of their clothing. They simply hate everyone and everything what is mainstream without any knowledge of the reason why they do this. At the end the truth is that nowadays hipsters are the most mainstream subculture. I don't understand the phenomenon of hipsters, but i like the way they dress.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion hipsters are hipocrites. They want to be alternative just for being alternative. They want to look different than the others but in fact, they all look the same -tight-fitting jeans, checkered shirt, glasses (even if they have a great eyesight). Of course, they don;t bother me, but I consider the way male hipsters dress in unmanly. I also want to add that at the beginning they really was alternative people. They wanted to express themselves in some different way. But now, this subculture became more mainstream, so it does not have such a meaning as at the beginning.
ReplyDeleteI have nothing against otherness people. Hipsters wear colorful clothes and through them the world looks better I think. They are very intelligent and brilliant person so that well they exist. It is true that today hipster mean something diffrent than at the beginnig. It is difficult to identifity whether a person is a hipster because it is not enough to wear corolful clothes or having swept bangs.
ReplyDeleteHipters- it is a very specific subculture. They don't belive in something conret, the diffrence is in their way of wearing and spending their time in a specific place. This is a closed group for the person who wears colorful and suprising things. They are often don't fit together but this weird style is so important and caracteristic for this specific group. I really like this sort of people because the have their own style, they are creative people who not embarrased to go out with this clothes. They create their own world in a definite places like Plan B or PKP Powisle.
ReplyDeleteI think, that hipster style is really stylish. I like, that they wear colorful clothes and the fact, that they are standing out. In my opinion there's nothing wrong about having different style than others. Subcultures like this make a life more interesting. They have their views and they want to show it their's life. If all people were the same, the world would be boring.
ReplyDeleteThere is more and more hipsters In Warsaw. Characteristics of hipsters are so refined that people don’t know exactly how they looks, certainly have very original style. Hipsters are very unique they want to pay attention to themselves on the street. Very characteristic for hipsters are retro glasses from the 80’s and big bag and that’s all. Everything else is optional and colorful. Hipsters are not a subculture because they don’t want change the world, they haven’t got any ideology. Hipsters wearing originally and that’s all.
ReplyDeleteI don’t really care about any subculture. If they want to wear like idiots it is just their free will. But thinking that thanks to wearing old and secondhand clothes and at the same time using the most expensive devices from Apple they are better than others – it is just stupid. But as long as I can find them only in very few places like PKP Powiśle or Plac Zbawiciela I don’t care about it. Perhaps it is just another fashion that will disappear just like hippies did.
ReplyDeleteWe live in free country, so people can be anything what they want, even a hipister. In my opinion they just look ridiculous, but I don't have any problem with it, hipisters are free people and they know what they are doing and wearing. I can't say that I like or dislike this subculture, becouse I don't know any hipister, for me they are neutral, but form the other side I think I would never wear clothes like hipisters just to look differently than other people.
ReplyDeleteI think my presentation present all the most important thinks about that subculture. this is the beast presentation forever. I think hipsters is a group of people with mental problems and problems with acceptance in common people. The otherness stems from a desire to impress. I don't like that kind of people they are repulsive.
DeleteI think that hipsters can't be really treated as a subculture, because the only thing, which distinguish them from other people is their otherness. When we look closely to other well known subcultures, we can see that their members are always quite easy to recognize - they usually dress in a very specific way (hipsters don't have any specified dresscode, because it would be against their unwritten rules), they listen to a specific music (again, against hipster's nature) and what is maybe the most important: members of the same subculture usually have sense of unity. Hipsters don't have it, there is no man in the world, who will tell you with proud that she/he is a hipster and even the word "hipster" is used only as a kind of insult by people who are againt hipsters and probably also by hipsters - because as they are against everything, they are also against themselves in a way. I think that hipsters are a product of our times. They have their genesis in this very common problem among young people, this need of being against something - which in our times of peace can't be fully satisfied. It's really a mechanism simmilar in many ways to this, which is pushing young people in Warsaw to make street riots on 11 November. These hooligans are result of the same social process as hipsters, but they probably wouldn't be happy to hear that.
ReplyDeleteHipsters? I don't really have problem with them. As well as I don't have problem with metalcores, emos, skaters, skinheads and any other subculture. Of course - as long as they have no problem with me. In my opinion we all draw the inspiration for the way we live from somewhere else. We collect some thoughts, we give them some time to put in the order and then we have our own personality, which I think is changing as long as we live on this planet and draw the inspiration from something or someone. In my opinion, subculture is a group of people whose thoughts have been put in the similar order and that's why mostly they understand each other so good.
ReplyDelete