Sunday, January 13, 2013

Why Both "Hipsters" and "The Mainstream" are Irrelevant

     Hipsters.
Like my hipster glasses? (Okay, fine, I admit. They're 3-D glasses I pilfered from the movie theater. But close enough, right?)


     I just don't get them.

     What is a hipster, anyway?

     After spending about an hour Googling "definition of hipster" and reading entry after entry on Urban Dictionary, the answer still proves inconclusive. This was mainly because the relatively more reliable dictionary cites (Dictionary.com and Merriam-Webster.com) gave me vague, and sometimes outdated, definitions.

     So I was forced to resort to urbandictionary.com, which only reaffirmed the hazy idea of hipsters that I learned from the media and suburban culture. That is, to be brief, individuals who reject mainstream culture, wear skinny jeans and vintage clothes, drink copious amounts of coffee and tea and love all things "indie."

     The paradox of hipsters is that it is now seen as "cool" to be a hipster, thus making mainstream to be a hipster; a conundrum which challenges the very definition of hipsters. This is why, if you ever meet a true hipster, s/he will vehemently argue that no, s/he is certainly not a hipster!

     The specific aspect of hipsterdom that I will hone in on in this post is that hipsters reject anything mainstream. I am concentrating on this certain aspect because it is this characteristic that wannabe-hipsters latch onto. By wannabe-hipsters I mean people who will happily admit "Yeah! I'm a hipster!" A declaration which, as we know, reveals that they are not true hipsters.

     These pseudo-hipsters (I see them all the time walking the halls of my suburban high school), are consciously trying to be a hipster. This is why they will readily tell you that they are a hipster. And this is fine I guess. I have no problem with hipsters. Sure, mainstream music, books, clothes, etc. can be annoying. I can understand the disillusionment.

     But what happened to open-mindedness?

    What I mean by that is, why do we like things because they are not something else? So you like the band Arcade Fire because they're not mainstream, but isn't that just as bad as liking One Direction because they are mainstream?

     What happened to liking something just because, oh, I don't know...you just like it?

     This is not to say that either hipsters or mainstream-loving-popculture-fanatics don't like the music they listen to or the clothes they wear; in fact I'm sure a vast majority of them do. But that doesn't mean these two groups should hate on each other.

     A lot of the definitions I read on urbandictionary.com were really just insults aimed at hipsters, accusing hipsters of being snobby in their choice of music and books and clothing, among other things. Quite a few definitions asserted that hipsters thought themselves better than everyone else because of their superior taste.

     But what is taste, really?

     Fumbling for a definition? That is because taste differs from one person to another. I remember having a discussion about music with one of my classmates, a little less than a year ago. I mentioned to him that I mainly listen to singer-songwriters.

     "So you listen to Taylor Swift, don't you?" he said, his tone making it clear that he was definitely not Taylor's number one fan.

     "Yeah, I like Taylor Swift. I like that her songs are from the heart, no matter how superficial they may seem."

     "But she plays the same chords every single song! She's an awful guitar player!"

     And there you have it, folks. Taste is completely opinion-based. In the case of music, it's all about what you value or look for in a song or artist. My classmate would most likely argue that people who have good taste in music listen to talented musicians who can masterfully wield a guitar. Being practically tone deaf and knowing very little about guitars, I concentrate on a song's lyrics.

     What I'm trying to say is that we need to respect other people's "taste." And in order to respect others, we need to understand them. The best way to understand why someone loves a certain band is to understand what they value in music.

     Back to the whole "open-mindedness" thing.

     As soon as we learn to respect other people's "taste," we must reevaluate why we like the songs we like. Or, perhaps, more importantly, why we don't like certain music. We pigeon hole ourselves as being "mainstream" or "hipster," but reality isn't quite so black and white.

     Is it so wrong for there to be a girl who loves to jam out to Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe," but reads Kurt Vonnegut and Ayn Rand before bed? Or what about the guy in the colored skinny jeans and shaggy hair who loves The Hunger Games?

     Sure. There might be some people who are pure hipsters through and through, who for very thoughtful reasons, may only like non-mainstream things, and that's perfectly fine. On the same note, there might be individuals, who for very good reasons, like only mainstream things.

     But for the majority of us, we're a mix. If we would just overcome the stereotypes we try to define ourselves with, we may find that books or music that we previously thought were stupid are actually kind of awesome.

     It's like the kid who convinces himself he hates The Catcher in the Rye before reading it just because it's a book he has to read for school. Actually, buddy, you might like it. And it's okay if you like it. So what if people call you a nerd?

     You know how little kids always protest that they never want to eat Brussels sprouts even though they've never tried them before? They've just heard through media or their friends (or in my case, ironically, my mother), that they taste awful, so they don't want to try them. They hate Brussels sprouts. But how do you hate something you've never tried?

     Dear reader, I entreat you to eat your Brussels sprouts. Read a book that's mainstream. Listen to hipster music. Try something new and crazy. Who knows? You may even find yourself enjoying your Brussels sprouts.
     

     

    
    

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