The Hipster Epidemic | DirtyandThirty

by Autumn Love

Have you ever wondered if you might be a hipster? Do you like things before they are cool, whether it is music, food, or thick-rimmed Buddy Holly glasses? If so, don’t be alarmed, some of us may very well be accidental hipsters. We are of a certain age where we value independent thought and organic farming – good coffee (Intelligentsia anyone?) and avant-garde food – but liking all this does not a hipster make. In fact, that doesn’t mean you’re a hipster at all. This highbrow pursuit of shunning “all-that-is- mainstream” has now become a trend, an epidemic of sorts, that is ingratiated into our popular culture.

It used to be that a hipster was impossible to define because they constantly evolved and transformed into something even more obscure, dressed even more outlandish, and liked even more underground music. Now it seems that the desire to be the most “evolved,” and/or the most “obscure,” has now become a mainstream trend. Sorry hipsters. It’s rather ironic because hipsters pride themselves on being uncharacteristically nonchalant, but they’re everywhere now! Not just in Silverlake or Williamsburg, but a hipster’s trademark skinny jeans, plaid shirts, and geeked out glasses can be seen on the likes of such mainstream artists as Lil Wayne (remember the zebra jeggings, smh) and even Tumblr has a page devoted to hipster parodies: “Hipster Game of Thrones!” Instead of having to raid a thrift store for counter-culture worthy duds, mainstream stores like Forever 21 and H&M are producing clothes that look like you could find them in a thrift store, because hey, it’s “hip.”

The point I want to make is that, we don’t have to fall victim to this epidemic. Just because we may love cutting edge bands, coffee houses, and ironic t-shirts (I hated Lana Del Rey before it was cool to hate Lana Del Rey) does not make us one of those misguided alternatives who attempts to transcend fitting in but accidentally excessively values fitting in…it just makes us cool.