Klein: Accept the mainstream
Hipsters: Chances are you know one. In fact, here at Yale, chances are you know many.
As a New Yorker — and as a white person — I’ve become familiar with the esoteric eccentricities and affectations of this peculiar class of cool-hunters during the twilight years of my adolescence. But even here at Yale, where most bear at least some small hipster attribute, I’m failing to see the appeal. Of course, that’s not to say that hipsters and I agree on nothing. I’m guilty of my own pretensions, my own esoteric tastes, and my own efforts at niche-carving individuality. Like you, hipsters,...
The idea that hipsters don't like old music like the Stones and Buddy Holly suggests the author has only observed them and never spoken with one.
dude, the decemberists and of montreal are pretty darn mainstream nowadays.
p.s. only the few superannoying hipsters fit the description in your article. most, i think, are a little more sane.
you had me agreeing with your article until the end when you proclaimed everything mainstream good and everything unknown bad. oh well.
"Favorite Music: Los Campesinos!"
...
#1, do you mean words like "esoteric" and "inexorable," because I like to think YDN columnists write for an educated reader. You want Hemingway, read Hemingway.
Yeah, you know, you're right, usually if the MOST people like something, it is the BEST. Shame I never thought of that one before.
I love "opinions."
There's a lot of idiotic "opinion" in this article but the concept that I could enjoy mainstreamist Larry the Cable Guy more than much hipper Mitch Hedberg is ridiculous. This is the inexorable truth: people like different things. His trying to attribute others' tastes to non-conformist conformity is cynicism that accomplishes nothing.
For a much funnier, more specific, better written and, actually, in every way simply BETTER, article, which I'm sure this opinionist has read: http://www.adbusters.org/magazine/79/hipster.html
Mr Klein, you got a lot of stuff right. Cultivating esoteric tastes in pursuit of social capital is not an endeavor to be praised. However, your assertion that hipsters disparage the Stones and Miles Davis isn't quite accurate--my experience is that they appreciate the more universally accepted music, but seek out little-known "favorites" in order to seem more original, and thus cooler. But I agree with your overall message. As a teacher whom I very much respect once said, "Be careful what you put into yourself, because that's what's going to come out." He was talking about the relationship between what one reads and what one writes, but I believe it can be applied broadly. Spending time with mediocre art and ideas can only result in more mediocre art and ideas.
yeah clearly hipsters like old bands too but because of them, "hipster/indie" music exists, and a lot of it sucks.
#5, Never mind.
You'll know what I mean in a few years.
Nick-
You mean once we're no longer undergrads?
I'll be counting the years until I think Hemingway a good writer and no longer find hipster culture toxic. If that moment ever arrives, I'll write a nice letter apologizing.
you're clinging too tightly to all these notions of meaning. what's wrong with just watching the world burn?
are you kidding, 12?
FAR more people appreciate the quality of mitch hedberg's comedy than larry the cable guy's... your definition of mainstreamist doesn't make sense. and yes, different people like different things, but since you clearly understand the group to which the word "hipster" refers, you also have to appreciate that individuals within that group share many common ideas and tastes. what defines individuals as "hipster" is their choice to adhere to aspects of culture not commonly accepted as valuable. of course they also appreciate some mainstream stuff, but their foremost favorites (and fashion sense, political outlook, etc.) are usually alternative. sure, klein's article has issues (like the writing style), but he's a freshman, and making some good points. no need to shit all over him by misrepresenting his views.
I dont know why he write, about his adoluscent years When I read it who hunted on you. read Aldous Huxly comment on the Bhagavad Gita
my roommate and I highlighted every incidence of the word "esoteric" (hint: there are five. see if you can catch 'em all!), and posted it on our window above our desks as a shared reminder when writing--thesauruses are your friend.
I looked in my handy Roget's for synonyms of "esoteric." Klein clearly should have done the same. Why use one word five times when he could have denounced the Sibylline, occult, heavy and confidential tastes of hipsters? Oh those hipsters and their acroamatic musical preferences...
Hi Alex,
You need to stop trying to use big words.
Think Hemingway.