Comments on: Adbusters.

By: O.Two

O.Two — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 08:54:59 +0000

‘Essence of Hipster’

A new fragrance available this fall - It’s a heady mix of coke-sweats, infused with subtle, hoppy tones of Pabst Blue Ribbon and the sweet musk of vintage flannel.

By: gregg

gregg — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 21:02:18 +0000

I thought the article had its poetic moments that served up the essence of the hipster.

By: O.Two

O.Two — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 00:00:51 +0000

So weak that Adbusters would print a story like this, let alone lead with it on the cover. I had always thought Adbusters was a savvy publication, that it knew what was going on, socially and politically.

We need to quit worrying about what it means, quit analysing and critiquing, stress less about what it all means for the ‘future’, relax, and just get on with things. Writers and magazines, cultural commentators and social critics will always try and define cultural movements, bidding to be the first to isolate creative enclaves and new strands of output, but it’s getting harder and harder, like Don said, because the trends have a half-life that is only getting shorter and shorter.

That said, I should probably take my own advice and go and paint something…

…or maybe order some sweat-sock head-bands from www.hype-ster.org.

By: Bill McMullen

Bill McMullen — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 09:42:27 +0000

“The hipster represents the end of Western civilization – a culture so detached and disconnected that it has stopped giving birth to anything new.”

…and somehow, we will find ourselves eight years from now, and kids will still be cool, while some other kids will eat up what a corporation shills them, except instead of The Monkees, instead of Miami Vice, instead of MTV, instead of Urban Outfitters, instead of ‘viral web videos,’ it will be some other vector of style information that can’t wholly be relied upon without critique. This is an ageless cry. As though Douglas Haddow notices, but truly cool people didn’t tack and cut line already? C’mon man. Did he just wield the word ‘hipster’ like a curse? Well, you’re already 20 points down in the first quarter, Douglas.

Somehow we will make it. Well, _we_ might not, but there’s always some kid that’s genuine and cool, and he/she will.

By: Don Pendleton

Don Pendleton — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 03:07:16 +0000

This is all very good conversation. There are a couple of reasons that I think it’s become a ‘Hot Topic’ (no pun intended) recently. Corporations are having a harder time trying to market their wares because they’re more confused than the kids are and that presents a conundrum to those who hold the money.
You can’t sell an instant lifestyle if you can’t figure it out and that’s raining on some parades recently.
I definitely think Adbusters is kind of stabbing in the dark on this topic. And I agree that this generation isn’t much different than other generations before it.
The atmosphere of culture has changed, the internet has allowed everyone to access the latest stuff like a virus and at the end of the day, there isn’t that march from LA and NY towards the midwest that used to exist.
If a bunch of dudes are wrapping sweatsocks around their heads and going out to party at dive bars in big cities, it used to take a full year for that stuff to spread over into other, smaller, more rural states.
But thanks to the internet, we can all be wearing sweatsocks around our heads the next day after we see it featured on a ’subversive’ fashion website.
And there does seem to be a sense of desperation coming from these people to a degree but I stank of desperation when I was a kid making JFA and Minor Threat t-shirts with spray paint and having my mom make ‘trendy’ skate clothes that couldn’t be found in West Virginia where I grew up.
So it may just be that kids are staying kids longer than they used to and that feeling of desperation is lingering longer than it has in the past.
I still think the funniest part about it is that nobody wants to be like everyone else, so they do a certain thing, wear a certain thing, listen to certain music and before you know it….all the people who were trying to be different are basically the same person from the outside in.
It’s all kind of confusing but just think of all those corporate think tanks that are trying to sell the next hip thing and recklessly releasing things like sweatsocks that you can wrap around your head. That shit is so last week anyway.
Thanks for posting this…I get a kick out of reading theories about it. I just think it’s something that can’t be explained because it’s like crop rotation. With the inundation of images via the internet, trends have shorter and shorter lifespans every year.

By: Steven Vogel

Steven Vogel — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 13:40:58 +0000

yeah this is just plain silly. i think it is a question of taking everything these useless editors read on the net for granted.
there is a real world out where real things still happen just as before. what people tend to forget is that previous niché cultures were just that. Niché. Without their own media presence, which the internet has changed, somewhat. I know that the genuine niché cultures, some of which I am still a part of, exist and do so still without media presence.

That might lead to a whole other point though, and that is, in reference to this niché culture, that what you see on the net and the magazines and is being sold as “street culture” is NOT STREET CULTURE! big fucking surprise I guess to all the kids that have duped these past six for buying all the bullshit on blog a, b and c, but wake up and smell the fucking coffee boys!

This rant could go on, but I am going out for a beer. Catch my drift?