I Buy, Therefore I Am

Published April 15, 2008
2 Comments (at bottom of article)

By Emily May

Bob Dylan once said that anyone who calls himself a poet probably isn’t one. The same could be said of a punk or a hippie. Labels are assigned to a subculture by the mainstream, and anyone who subscribes to these labels is effectively subscribing to the language and confines of “the man,” that nefarious puppet master that keeps us all down.

In the twenty-first century, all that remains of punks and hippies (and poets, for that matter) is a whole lot of nostalgia from the kids who believe they’re living as their idols did when they purchase all the right accessories and add the appropriate music to their Facebook pages.

Where to turn for those kids who realize the (corporate-induced) death of both punks and hippies as an effective cultural statement occurred before we were born? Anyone who hasn’t been in a reality TV-induced coma for the past five or so years knows that the beginning of this century has seen the birth of a new “subculture” onto the American landscape: the hipster.

Hipsters have existed since at least the 1950s — see Howl — but haven’t been identified as a viable market to sell stuff to till recently. I am a corporate target, therefore I am. By now, the concept of “hipster” has become so ubiquitous that your parents could probably pick a hipster out of a line-up, and corporations have had a field day selling youth culture back to its bored, boring self (see Urban Outfitters).

While the terms “punk” and “hippie” are commonly used to describe a relatively limited group of individuals, usually sporting some variation on safety pins and tie-dye, respectively, “hipster” isn’t so easy to pin down.

The term “hipster” can be used to describe a large variety of people, from working artists to college kids who spend a lot of money on certain sneakers. It is perhaps this vast definition that has led me to realize that the only real hipsters are people who hate hipsters (the irony is apparent), as it is the most important accessory of any aspiring hipster to attain.

Hipsters craft the shallow scene for the rest to splash around in and spend the entire time judging each other’s t-shirts. They discovered all your favorite bands way before you did, and are now wearing the haircut you’ll be sporting next week.

A contemporary take on Dylan’s quote might say that a hipster is either someone who would never acknowledge that the word “hipster” exists, or someone who desperately wants to identify with and is part of this subculture (and buys accordingly). Things sure get strange when the corporate commodification of culture comes into play.

The significance of the material culture of a youth movement is not a novel concept. Punks had their chains and blood; hippies had their floral prints and patchouli. If subcultures of decades past wore a firmly anti-authority stance on their sleeves in order for the world to see, hipsters put it there because it’s vintage and looks cool.

Both punks and hippies were disdainful of the mainstream and actively alienated themselves from it (to varying degrees). But the commencement of hipster chic conveniently coincided with the choke-hold that fanatical consumerism now has on the gasping throat of American culture.

In an age where “cool” is nothing more than a certain cultivated taste in music, a carefully chosen outfit can speak more articulately than the person wearing it. In this age the hipster manifesto fits snugly into the capitalist aims of those establishments that have profited off of our generation’s desperate attempt to achieve what we’ve grossly mistaken for authenticity.

Where punks and hippies clashed over destruction and peace, straightedge or LSD, contemporary American youth has been reduced to two consumer choices: the mainstream (“bros and hos”) or “hipster.” Abercrombie or American Apparel?

Where one could previously identify “progressive” American youths by their politics, whether it was idealism or nihilism, now the easiest way to spot a young American seeking an “alternative to the mainstream” is by where they’re shopping.

Print This Article

Comments