Update: 3-9-2011:
One of my Facebook friends, Damian, pointed out that there are many groups who define what is "hip". What one group finds hip another finds repulsive. He is correct in this sense. There are many subcultures out there with a hip or in-crowd. Each is unique in their style, geography, social class, age range and philosophy. The best example I can think of a subculture is '80s punk's nihilistic underground. My original post covers what would be considered "mainstream American youth culture". The original post points to the ever changing composition of mainstream youth culture and its obsession with materialism and lack of philosophical ideals in comparison to recent youth movements.
Original Post:
Most of my posts tend to cover technology with a little finance thrown in for spice. This post is a personal view of modern American life. It is about the current state of being "hip" or "cool". The in-crowd member. American hipness is for young adults in the late teens through their 20's before they settle down and have kids. This is common and nothing new. Even in my 20's I was not with the in-crowd, but could spot culture trends. What I find confounding is the vapid nature of current hipsters.
Let's go back to previous decades, the 60's, 70's and 80's. In these decades, styles tended to be easy to pick out along with their social movements. The 60's had long-haired, second-hand clothed hippies. It was not difficult to pick out the styles and imitate them. The 70's had similar styles as the '60s, but certain aspects changed, most definitely the music. Fast-forward to the '80s, everything changed with the punk movement, electronica movement and hair-metal bands. Head-bands, bracelets, torn jeans and bright colors ruled the day. One could pick out these distinct styles. We will move on to early '90s with the grunge movement. The grunge movement was the antithesis of the '80s hair-metal. Simplistic in nature, grunge was easy to spot.
In the late '90s, styles became less distinct. There was no large scale social movement. Music became a rehash of prior styles (much of it good). Style sort of fell into a drift. What is cool? It seems like to be hip one had to have direct connection with the hip crowd. Styles change so fast it is difficult to even recognize that hat you are wearing was soooooooooo yesterday.
It almost seems as a few people monopolize on being hip. Instead of fitting into a crowd, it became excluding the majority of people, even young people. Often today, being a hipster has a negative connotation. I had a few friends about 4 years ago who were 18-19 years old. They were aspiring artists (i.e. no money). By all means, they would be considered hip. One night while at their numerous parties, a friend mentioned his bad run-in with a group of "hipsters" in Austin. This struck me as odd, but thinking more about it, it makes sense. I also know of a young lady who tried to keep up with the in-crowd and the chase put her $30,000 in debt. Currently, I believe being hip is more than about style and nothing to do with a social movement. It is about being the proper age/class and that is about being both young and wealthy.
I believe this reflects the income disparity and social stratification in our society. Even the youth are voluntarily excluding each other. Distinction not by race, religion, age, or philosophy, but exclusion by economic class.
One of my Facebook friends, Damian, pointed out that there are many groups who define what is "hip". What one group finds hip another finds repulsive. He is correct in this sense. There are many subcultures out there with a hip or in-crowd. Each is unique in their style, geography, social class, age range and philosophy. The best example I can think of a subculture is '80s punk's nihilistic underground. My original post covers what would be considered "mainstream American youth culture". The original post points to the ever changing composition of mainstream youth culture and its obsession with materialism and lack of philosophical ideals in comparison to recent youth movements.
Original Post:
Most of my posts tend to cover technology with a little finance thrown in for spice. This post is a personal view of modern American life. It is about the current state of being "hip" or "cool". The in-crowd member. American hipness is for young adults in the late teens through their 20's before they settle down and have kids. This is common and nothing new. Even in my 20's I was not with the in-crowd, but could spot culture trends. What I find confounding is the vapid nature of current hipsters.
Let's go back to previous decades, the 60's, 70's and 80's. In these decades, styles tended to be easy to pick out along with their social movements. The 60's had long-haired, second-hand clothed hippies. It was not difficult to pick out the styles and imitate them. The 70's had similar styles as the '60s, but certain aspects changed, most definitely the music. Fast-forward to the '80s, everything changed with the punk movement, electronica movement and hair-metal bands. Head-bands, bracelets, torn jeans and bright colors ruled the day. One could pick out these distinct styles. We will move on to early '90s with the grunge movement. The grunge movement was the antithesis of the '80s hair-metal. Simplistic in nature, grunge was easy to spot.
In the late '90s, styles became less distinct. There was no large scale social movement. Music became a rehash of prior styles (much of it good). Style sort of fell into a drift. What is cool? It seems like to be hip one had to have direct connection with the hip crowd. Styles change so fast it is difficult to even recognize that hat you are wearing was soooooooooo yesterday.
It almost seems as a few people monopolize on being hip. Instead of fitting into a crowd, it became excluding the majority of people, even young people. Often today, being a hipster has a negative connotation. I had a few friends about 4 years ago who were 18-19 years old. They were aspiring artists (i.e. no money). By all means, they would be considered hip. One night while at their numerous parties, a friend mentioned his bad run-in with a group of "hipsters" in Austin. This struck me as odd, but thinking more about it, it makes sense. I also know of a young lady who tried to keep up with the in-crowd and the chase put her $30,000 in debt. Currently, I believe being hip is more than about style and nothing to do with a social movement. It is about being the proper age/class and that is about being both young and wealthy.
I believe this reflects the income disparity and social stratification in our society. Even the youth are voluntarily excluding each other. Distinction not by race, religion, age, or philosophy, but exclusion by economic class.
