Great Perfect Thanks

11:00 am August 5th, 2008




			Great Perfect Thanks - AdBusters

billetdoux


	AdBusters
	My comment on that horrible traffic-baiting hipster article from AdBusters: Hipster is a meaningless term. It is, for every single person who has ever used it, the linguistic equivalent of eggplant. It takes the flavor of what's applied to it. It's solely reflective of the person who uses it. It is invariably negative. It shifts in definition. You've imprinted yours in this article. It's tantamount to trying to identify generation "lame." This article might have been cathartic a few years ago. Now it's just passé. Hipster bashing is so over. This just reads like AdBusters is trying to be the Gartner of counterculture, lobbing out ill-conceived portraits of various "generations" for PR Fodder. Unless, of course, you're just trying to catalyze the impending defense of hipsters. Because it's coming. It never ceases to amaze me how everyone of my generation (I assume you're an old fart like me) loves to rag on the next one, even though we didn't do JACK SHIT. I could go on and on about their greater political engagement, their better music, their better art, their better drugs, their racial harmony, their comfort with their sexuality. And I will one day (in three weeks when it becomes hip). But seriously. What did WE do? Invent hip hop? Sure. Our whole generation does seem to rush to take credit for that. And, finally. I'm old, fat and use a car service to get around, but if you stop and think about it, a fixed gear bike with brakes on it is kind of awesome on like three different levels. Have you ever tried to stop one of those things? Current Music: "The Light" By Sun Kil Moon from April

16 comments or Leave a comment


	Comments

	From: bostonista	Date: August 5th, 2008 03:02 pm (UTC)		(Link)

AdBusters hasn't been relevant in years. This is just another failed attempt to recapture their glory days.

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	From: mittenstone	Date: August 5th, 2008 03:26 pm (UTC)		(Link)

I thought Adbusters had gone the way of High Times.

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	From: deadpanwalking	Date: August 5th, 2008 03:31 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Hahaha, very nice. Hipster backlash backlash. And then next week, Hipster backlash backlash backlash.

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	From: billetdoux	Date: August 5th, 2008 03:37 pm (UTC)		(Link)

I'm trying to speed it up a bit... ;)

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	From: lizenthusiasm	Date: August 5th, 2008 03:36 pm (UTC)		(Link)

ha ha, our generation got off so easy. it was some kind of culturally relevant statement to be apathetic and ironic.

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	From: billetdoux	Date: August 5th, 2008 03:37 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Kurt saved us.

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	From: julishka	Date: August 5th, 2008 03:59 pm (UTC)		(Link)

hey, at least you kids got to wear the mantle of genX that was created for my generation (post boomers to very early 1970s births - the forgotten generation, inbetween generation, tenth generation (since revolution), or generation X).

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	From: dosboof	Date: August 5th, 2008 04:43 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Well what a load that was.

Let's all make sure to send some of those kids on fixed-gear bikes by AdBusters' lawn so AdBusters can yell at them to get off it.

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	From: solipsiae	Date: August 5th, 2008 05:18 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Everytime I think of AdBusters I think of kids who got molotov cocktails instead of baby bottles to suck on as infants.

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	From: billetdoux	Date: August 5th, 2008 05:24 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Ha! You'd think they'd be smart enough to know how this would have been perceived.

The only hip thing an old person can really do is insist that the kids are all right.

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	From: billyfleetwood	Date: August 5th, 2008 05:48 pm (UTC)		(Link)

I give him credit for creating a straw man so realistic that the villagers are still chasing it with pitchforks and torches...

What gets me every time is when someone attempts to make meaningful cultural comment, yet can't even properly define the culture they speak of.

To make a comment on "hipsters" without framing whatever that is in the context of mainstream youth culture, is pretty much the same as talking about hip hop as if it's still an inner city black thing.

the real gripe about our generation is that we didn't produce our own Tom Wolfe, with the language and observational skills to tackle this subject properly. Because I think there is some important social commentary to be made about the difference between our generation and the current one.

Most of allh, one would think that Adbusters would be able to look at the topic without falling for the trap of conflating youth culture with counterculture, while at the same time recognizing that consumerism is no longer the monster in these kids' closets. That was us. They have new windmills to tilt at now.

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	From: billetdoux	Date: August 5th, 2008 06:02 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Yeah, I mean, at least we had Douglas Coupland.

And he was definitely sloppy about whether he was talking about a sub-culture, or an entire "generation." Every generation has its slackers, but you can hardly define the generation by them without making a compelling argument as to why.

I met a 18 year old girl recently that had started a social network and raised $20 million for African AIDS relief by the time she was 16. Is she a hipster?

Edited at 2008-08-05 06:02 pm (UTC)

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	From: billyfleetwood	Date: August 5th, 2008 06:51 pm (UTC)		(Link)

I met a 18 year old girl recently that had started a social network and raised $20 million for African AIDS relief by the time she was 16. Is she a hipster?</a>

That depends... Will she get coked up and let me take pictures of her boobs in a bathroom stall?

which brings up an interesting point. Wasn't the whole point of the past 40 years of popular culture throwing off the yoke of labels and the cultural segregation inherent in slicing the demographic pie in such a way?

White kids listen to hip-hop, girls play video games, and nerds get laid. And it seems like anyone who tries to draw the old lines is failing miserably in the marketplace right now.

But I don't know if looking at privileged white kids* really tells us anything about the state of the culture. If you look at the kids in the hood outside my window right now, then we can safely assume that the good guys won.

Because the kids on my block right now defy all categorization, and if they are any gauge, the next 20 years will be really interesting.

*not making value judgements here. If you ignore the color of my skin, I too am a privileged white man)

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	From: piscesboy311	Date: August 5th, 2008 06:41 pm (UTC)		(Link)
	hipster

Hipster originates to the subculture of artists, the beat poets and their underground social scene of New York and the philosophical, "jazzy cool cat" Paris scene in the 1950s. I think everyone after that time period that claims to be a hipster is really just a poseur hipster in the disgruntled and unoriginal in style in the aftermath of that era.

I think most of us that identify with the music, cinema, fashion, trends, scenes, etc. that make up modern hipsterdom can rightfully criticize hipster stereotypes because we are cool and confident enough to have an anything goes, non-descript lifestyle/look/attitude that isn't a label.

Those Williamsburg brats-guys that wear tight girls' jeans, chain smoke, strive for the tired heroin look and have Pabst permanently attached to their hands are hipster scum. They have influenced that look that is unmistakeable in every "underground" part of a major city. Oddly enough that hipster stereotype might as well be part of the mainstream-commercialized, unoriginal and clearly branded.

I like the eggplant analogy-hahahaha...

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	From: wisheyeveiw	Date: August 6th, 2008 02:33 am (UTC)		(Link)

they just put breaks on the front.
So this article is basically by some guy who's pissed at kids for having fun. what's next? a scathing expose on the sun for shining?

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	From: hallie132	Date: August 9th, 2008 10:35 pm (UTC)		(Link)
	Ah, hipsters.

I've been called a hipster many times, and there's no shame in it for me. I remember working at Grand Opening, and hearing a coworker in the next room say "hipsters are assholes", but when she realized I was in earshot, she yelled out "except for you, Hallie". Too funny. Thing is, hipsterdom kind of got me out of Alaska. I would go on vacation to Seattle and see all of the hipster girls there, and I loved their hair, their fashion...and I genuinely loved the music. I wanted to move somewhere where I could dress like that (hey, the clothes look good on me- it's the easiest style aesthetic for me to rock) and would be sure that most people around me were liberal, non-homophobes, and liked the weird crap I liked. Thus, I moved to Boston. I don't take myself too seriously, and honestly, I miss 'the scene' because there isn't one in the Middle East, and sometimes I want to hang out with people who like The Smiths and don't think my clothes are weird. Don't be an asshole, be a nice person, and there's nothing wrong with being a hipster, dressing that way, and just having fun. It's not a dirty word. And yeah, Adbusters can go to Hell.

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