Was 2003 the year of the Hipster? (house, street, 80's, people)

[vasinger]

It was the year the Hipster Handbook was written. But I notice that the Hipster trend is fading. Where I live there is still a group of hipsters but its not as predominant as it was back in the early 2000's. It seemed to peek in the year 2003. When trucker hats and many people sported tattoos . But now its as if its becoming so that Hipster got so mainstream at its peak, that its sort of not Hipster anymore.

Many of the musical artists that Hipsters held dear to their hearts have become too mainstream for them to identify with.


The true Hipsters do exist, no doubt. But the mystique is gone.

[BlueWillowPlate]

True, cutting edge hipsters never did nor ever would wear a hipster label.
Modern hipsters, I suppose, used that label with ironic self-awareness.
I'm kind of tired of ironic self-awareness. Maybe they are too.
Sometimes labels become mainstream and lose their mystique.
Sometimes people simply grow up and move on.

[vasinger]

I think there are true hipsters and fake ones. The true hipsters are a lot nicer.

[BlueWillowPlate]

I think you're probably right.

[33458]

Quite honestly, I thought 1997 was the year of the hipster...before it became all (and everything) Hollywood about itself. But maybe it was already too late.

By the time somebody writes a book about it, it's already so over.

There is a fine line, even (or especially) in the subculture, between style and caricature. It's so easy to take a good thing too far.

[plaidmom]

I thought it was 1956?

[vasinger]

Originally Posted by 33458

Quite honestly, I thought 1997 was the year of the hipster...before it became all (and everything) Hollywood about itself. But maybe it was already too late.

By the time somebody writes a book about it, it's already so over.

There is a fine line, even (or especially) in the subculture, between style and caricature. It's so easy to take a good thing too far.

But 1997.... weren't they still in that grunge thing?

The Hipsters of that Era seemed more cynical and not as free.

The black frame glasses wearing coffee house serving indie Rock listening thrift store shopping hipsters seemed to make their own in the late 90s and early 2000s.

You do have a point- about the book. Thats why I say 2003 is when Hipsterdom came to its pinnacle. And then after the book came out it was already mainstream. So 2003 was the year of the Hipster.

[BlueWillowPlate]

Originally Posted by vasinger

The black frame glasses wearing coffee house serving indie Rock listening thrift store shopping hipsters seemed to make their own in the late 90s and early 2000s.

.

But the funny thing is that it's all been done before, and eventually will be done again. It's a cycle.
Each group has its own small idiosynchrasies, but what they share is that feeling of cutting edge hipness.
2003's Hipster is the 90's grunge, the 70's freak, the mid-50's Beatnik, the 40's Hepcat.
By the time they have a label, they're half over.
By the time they have a book, they are *definitely* finito.

[j33]

Hipsters will always be with us, but they'll dress different and listen to different music each decade. My mother used to joke with me "cool marches on, and rarely takes you with it", she was very right.

I own a copy of the Hipster handbook and find it very amusing, especially since I've lived for several years a few blocks away from one of their breeding grounds. It seems to be waning around these parts (Wicker Park, Chicago) but they are still very much a presence. I don't mind them so much, I've never had a hipster break into my car or pull a gun on me, so they can stay, even if they dress funny and occasionally sneer at me as I walk down the street in their misguided notion that I'm some sort of yuppie or corporate sell-out (little did they know that in the 80's, I was the hipster, only back then we just called it 'punk')

Cool is beginning to march on, leaving the hipsters behind, but being that it left me behind years ago, I have no clue where it is marching.

[plaidmom]

The black frame glasses wearing coffee house serving indie Rock listening thrift store shopping hipsters seemed to make their own in the late 90s and early 2000s.

Hmmm. I seem to recall that being the early-to-mid 80's.

Rep points to cil and j33. Great posts!