What me? Hipster?
Last week, Wayne & Wax, on his endlessly productive and useful blog, pointed out “The term hipster has become, almost exclusively I think, a pejorative. (Are there any self-identified hipsters out there? I don’t think so.)”
An in-DEPTH discussion of the race/gender politics of the MP3 blogosphere and its manifestations in the NYC/Bos/Philly/Bmore party scenes followed (see the laser-precise comments of Jazz Christmas stars John (here) and Alexis (here), and somebody named Dominic (here)).
But I thought I should say something as, and for, the self-identified hipster - I mean, who’m I kidding, right?
Here’s an excerpted, revised version of what I wrote. The original discussion is here. I hope you enjoy/disagree…
What me? Hipster?
When I got to college in 2000, people described my style as indie - which was ok but weird cuz I really wasn’t listening to that much indie music, mostly just new wave and rap (back then I called it hip-hop). Sometimes I’d get called “poseur” too (might have been the tube sock on my wrist). But after the Strokes blew up, people switched to calling me ‘hipster’. I thought it was an improvement. Now my identity wasn’t tied to the things I liked, but to a kind of practice.
I’ve held onto that meaning of hipster and sort of have worked out a description for the practice. I’d define ‘hipsterism’ as a set of methods (including improvisation, appropriation, role-playing, repurposing, inside jokes, double meanings) for changing or reversing conventional values. Hipsters believe that to do things with the right STYLE could have great, even magical, effects.
In my life, these effects have been huge. When Whitney and I think our work in terms of a tradition, its the Hipster Tradition of Filmmaking. Plus, I can’t imagine having the friends I do, the life I lead, or a single date with any of the girls I’ve ever loved if it wasn’t for my being a hipster. Talk to 16 year-old, prehipster Lev if you don’t believe me. I’m all for it.
What me? Die?
From the above list of methods, it’s clear to me that hipsterism was brought to its first mature level of expression and complexity in the Jazz Age - and that much if not all of the roots of hipsterism are African American. So even when hipsters aren’t ‘acting black’ they are still doing something that black people taught the world. That’s what Mailer’s acknowledging in ‘White Negro’ (cuz he doesn’t ‘act black’ does he? Not on Gilmore Girls, he didn’t). Of course Mailer didn’t say “some negroes” and he’s only writing for the benefit of white men. But these are unfortunately a regular kind of white man’s mistake - not one particular to the hipster.
Which is part of my point. A lot of hipsters - maybe most - are bigots, idiots, chauvinists, callous morons, know-it-alls and thieves (like forreal: of $$$s). And hipsterism’s methods are rich in their potential for misuse - especially by those in power. But I’d be way in favor of the debate shifting to ‘good hipsters’ vs ‘bad hipsters’ instead of now, when ‘hipster’ seems to stand for ‘everything I hate’ by whoever says it.
I mean, if TIME OUT really means “HIPSTERS MUST DIE”, ok - I’ll prepare myself to fight. But then they gave the gAame DVD a good review the month before, so I dunno. Do they really wanna kill me?
Cuz…yikes.
L
ADDENDUM: There, a hipster died. Happy, TIME OUT?