Hipsters, where have they came from all of a sudden? It’s not as if the concept or even the group of people are new, it’s just that recently, with the rise of Twitter and Tumblr, some people were, for the first time, exposed to music, culture and things that they hadn’t been exposed to before, and decided that it’d be cool, hip, swaggy, to devote time to these things. Knitwear, expensive cameras and Starbucks are key examples. But, still, this wasn’t a mainstream thing, this was a small community of people on the internet. It was the rise of the chinos and of Topman that brought this fashion style to popularity. Cashing in on the new wave of non-conformism, of the break away from pop music in the form of bands that were more folky sounding, (Mumford And Sons, Ben Howard, Laura Marling..), and with the older sound they brought, the high-street retailer started shipping off knitwear. And by knitwear, I don’t mean the occasional jumper. I mean seas and seas of stuff. And it was pushed hard. From this, they pushed chinos into the limelight, and here’s where it gets annoying; they added elastic cuffs to the bottom of the trousers, so tracksuit-wearing chavs felt comfortable wearing them!
Even then, with a ever-growing group of people wearing granddad jumpers, listening to pop-folk music, and covering themselves in yellow-brown-sandy chinos, there was no problem. I’d have no problem if that was the end of the story, but it wasn’t. Next came the rise of the indie hipster. Yes. The terms “Indie” and “hipster” entered the public conciousness. All the new things were quickly labelled with one of these, and then people started looking at the real meanings of the terms, and decided, okay, I am Indie/hipster/non-conformist, etcetera, etcetera, when, really, they’re not.
“I’m going to get a (Mac computer/Starbucks/clothes from Topman) to show how Indie I am.”
Ur, really. How does this work? Indie is short for independent, and these things aren’t anywhere near independent. They’re all major brands, who make seriously large profits every year, and even more now, as all these kids are buying into the hype surrounding the new-wave false-hipster movement.
Really, the whole thing is a well-planned corporate strategy, getting people to part with ridiculous amounts of money to be Indie by looking like 90% of the teenagers around today. Well played Topman with your overpriced clothes. Well played Apple, with your shiny white laptops that scream “look at me, I wasted thousands of pounds on this”, and well played non-comformist conforming teenagers, by buying into the whole idea of hipster.
Jemonn 