Having gone to a liberal arts college, I am quite familiar with the quintessential hipster type: PBR in one hand, American Spirit in the other, clad in a healthy mixture of fitted pants, flannel, thick-framed glasses and some form of high-top sneakers (bless their souls).
With hipsters comes oodles of irony and a strict adherence to the anti-pop-culture culture. While we expect to find hipsters in large American cities like New York and San Francisco, NPR points out that the hipster community is quickly expanding to some of the most unlikely locations in the U.S., including Nashville, Tennessee and Omaha, Nebraska. And the explanation for this “hipsterification” is simple: Hipster culture has become mainstream.
Stores like Urban Outfitters and a popular love for thrift shopping have normalized the hipster uniform. Hipster music has become well-loved, with bands like Matt & Kim playing sold out concerts to hoards of tweens and 20-somethings alike. Although many claim to dislike hipsters, most buy into the culture. In fact, as Peter Furia tells NPR, “Everybody hates hipsters … especially hipsters.” Now that’s irony.
The question that the hipster craze raises is, if hipsters have become mainstream and the extreme has become normalized, is it possible to diverge from the crowd? Or does the future bring with it an innate inability to characterize yourself as ‘different’?
Weigh in and let us know what you think in the comment section below!
