If No One Is a Hipster, Why Are They Everywhere?

Nicole Pasulka — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 20:19:00 GMT

Adbusters is the next publication up to take a shot at hipsters and their soul-numbing lack of depth, meaning or cultural relevance. This article claims hipsters can be easily identified by appropriated blue collar fashions, their love of the nightlife and a refusal to own up to their own hipsterdom resulting in scenes like the one described below:

“So… this is a hipster party?” I ask the girl sitting next to me. She’s wearing big dangling earrings, an American Apparel V-neck tee, non-prescription eyeglasses and an inappropriately warm wool coat.

“Yeah, just look around you, 99 percent of the people here are total hipsters!”

“Are you a hipster?”

“Fuck no,” she says, laughing back the last of her glass before she hops off to the dance floor.

Ah joyless and so full of irony the hipster, so says this article, cannot even dance with unselfconscious abandon.

The dance floor at a hipster party looks like it should be surrounded by quotation marks. While punk, disco and hip hop all had immersive, intimate and energetic dance styles that liberated the dancer from his/her mental states – be it the head-spinning b-boy or violent thrashings of a live punk show – the hipster has more of a joke dance. A faux shrug shuffle that mocks the very idea of dancing or, at its best, illustrates a non-committal fear of expression typified in a weird twitch/ironic twist. The dancers are too self-aware to let themselves feel any form of liberation; they shuffle along, shrugging themselves into oblivion.

How is it that hipsters have found themselves so unloved and unappreciated? Who will step up and defend these media whipping boys and girls? What do these critics want anyway? A world of dudes in white baseball hats popping their collars? You won't find us on Last Nights Party any time soon, but we'd take Justice over Dave Matthews Band any day.

Adbusters' Spoof Ads

Emily Farris — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 21:27:00 GMT

Adbusters has put together a nice collection of spoof ads that make us feel bad about shopping, eating, smoking and drinking. You, too, can learn how to create your own and order postcards, so maybe someone will make us feel bad about blogging all day, too (we know you want to).

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If No One Is a Hipster, Why Are They Everywhere?

Adbusters' Spoof Ads