No funny pictures this time. I mean business.
We’re living in a hipster’s dreamland. Our society has progressed to the point of self-parody and if “irony” is the operational word of the day, then hipsters are in heaven. After all, what is our political system if not a joke? Two sides with talking points battling it out over the fate of our country only to get nothing done. We’ve “won” the war in Iraq (but we’re just hanging out there for a little while longer) and the war in Afghanistan has just begun. Our economy is in shambles and each month, the unemployment rate continues to rise. With each new lost job, there should be the birth of a new hipster; cold, jaded, and ready to immerse himself in Dostoevsky. Instead, the hipster culture isn’t catching on, and if it is, then it’s not doing much of anything.
I’ve just finished Geoffrey Sirc’s article “Never mind the Tagmemics, where’s the Sex Pistols?” and I couldn’t help but think about the influence that music has in our world. It shapes us. Defines us. Changes the course of history.
Clearly, Woodstock is the prime example in this situation, but music as social change and reflection has only continued from there. Punk fired up in the late 70’s and on through the 80’s. The other side of the 80’s was the glam rock era which took the punk ideas of anti-authority and just interpreted the message as a means to get laid rather than attack the political regimes of the time.
The early 90’s were dominated by grunge music to reflect a directionless generation. Then, the mid to late 90’s spawned the rebirth of pop music in all forms; pop rock, pop punk, pop rap, pop pop, etc. Say what you will about 90’s pop, but at least it was fun even if it did strip away the dignity and politics inherent in punk and socially conscious hip-hop.
Now that we’re ten years past 2000, I think we can definitely say those were the years of country music and patriotism. Is it any wonder? We had a cowboy president and in our post-9/11 world, we needed some patriotism to cure our blues.
As a counter initiative to the Toby Keith “put a boot in your butt” movement, we had the Myspace wave of music. Suddenly, a whole new world of garage bands opened up as your kid brother could put his Weezer cover band up on Myspace and become an over night success. But, let’s face facts, we’re in a post-Myspace world now. This doesn’t mean we’re without social networking (Facebook remains strong) it just means that music is changing once again. Myspace was a shiny new toy for people to experiment with, but due to a bad interface and lack of interest (and probably due to Rupert Murdoch, the evil, old magus of the Conservatives) that time has passed.
So, where do we go from here? How do we shape our world through music?
Hippies were the poster-child for the free love era and punks were the symbol of a revolution, so who should be our new symbol for a new era?
Much as I malign the hipster, I would argue that this character type is prime to inherit the world if he’d just get off his lazy butt and do it.
Hipsters are well-read and their penchant for searching out obscure pop culture makes them prime for intelligent, and informed opinions. Is it any more ridiculous than three, yes, three former MTV stars running for political office? Not at all! By all rights, the hipster is perfect for invoking world change, but two things stand in his path: 1) his own laziness. 2) his own pretension.
All hipsters talk about “this great idea” that they have, but they do nothing. Whether it’s a book they want to write, a painting they want to create, or a band they want to start, a hipster’s own worst enemy is himself. The worst part is that the hipster thinks all of this is some sort of noble thing. I blame Fight Club because when Tyler Durden said:
“Man, I see in fight club the strongest and smartest men who’ve ever lived. I see all this potential, and I see squandering. God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don’t need. We’re the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War’s a spiritual war… our Great Depression is our lives. We’ve all been raised on television to believe that one day we’d all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won’t. And we’re slowly learning that fact. And we’re very, very pissed off.”
Hipsters didn’t take this as a battle cry to do something, they interpreted this as if doing something actually meant nothing. People view Tyler Durden as a character who speaks the truth about the meaninglessness of life, but then they forget that Tyler Durden was ####ing crazy. Life isn’t meaningless, it just so happens that we are the ones who shape meaning and yet, we’re all too complacent to do a single thing about our own situation.
We’re living in a world that is far different than the one that Palahniuk was writing about. We had the war in Iraq, but everyone was just as complacent then as they were in the 90’s. And I don’t mean that the war needed to be protested, because I whole-heartedly support our troops, but it would have been nice to have seen some passion from an otherwise empty generation.
Our first problem of laziness is further spurred by our problem of pretension. Judgment of culture has replaced baseball as America’s favorite pass time because baseball is boring and the uniforms are stupid. From our computers we can blast anything we deem low culture or “gay” as some people so eloquently put it and for what purpose? To feel superior to others?
Instead of changing the world, we comment on it. We’re a generation of commentators and speculators rather than doers. We’re not men of action, but of observation. We tear people down and we never once try to build them back up.
Right now, you’re probably thinking “How dare he?”
That’s because we’re programming ourselves to think like this. We’re perpetuating and idea that anyone who challenges us or wants us to change is automatically wrong and must be debated. Here’s an idea:
Why not go out there and prove me wrong?
Write that novel you’ve got in your head that you keep promising that you’ll write.
Start a band and challenge authority.
Keep watching the Daily Show, but start thinking about what they are talking about.
We ARE a generation of people of action, we just don’t do anything of worth. Look at the internet. Filled with memes that we’ve made popular and pranks that 4chan has perpetuated, if we shifted our focus from entertainment and mean-spiritedness to a focus on political activism, can you imagine what our world would be like?
If only we could get excited about politics the same way we united behind Conan O’Brien.
Don’t get me wrong, the political activism during the 2008 election warmed my heart. It was a beautiful thing, but we could do so much more. Why must our activism be relegated to election years?
Believe it or not, this article was originally supposed to be about an issue of the Sandman comic called “A dream of a thousand cats.” My favorite issue of the entire series, the plot revolves around a cat traveling the world and informing other cats about their secret history. Her story begins “Many, many seasons ago, cats truly ruled the world.” We learn that cats were larger than men and they used to hunt humans because they tasted better than any other animal. One day, the humans united and dreamed of a world where they ruled instead of cats and the result was that “they changed the universe from the beginning of all things until the end of time.”
The cats won’t listen to the cat who encourages them all to dream of a better world and it will come true. One cat responds, “I would like to see anyone — prophet, king or god — persuade a thousand cats to do anything at the same time. No, it will never happen.”
I was going to be cute and glib about how hipsters were much like the cats of the comic and how they will never unite to dream about a better tomorrow and therefore, our future would never get better. Eventually, this took a life of its own as I felt more and more compelled to write a manifesto of sorts.
If my tone offends you, then good. Prove me wrong and let’s make the world better.
If you swear off this website and never want to return, I implore you to stay because tomorrow, there will be an inane article about how much I love the 90’s or about some movie you’ve never heard of. I don’t get serious too often, but I find it necessary today.
Don’t let this article go unnoticed.
Don’t just be a sleeping cat who dreams of a better tomorrow.
Go out and do something.
Let’s end this echo chamber and start making our place in the world.
My God… That was beautiful. Here I am, Commenting on it, but you’d be daft to think I’m not going to spread this to every corner of the Net. If this doesn’t get millions of views, It’ll have been a waste. I will NOT let this go to waste.
wow man…. I’m gonna be honest with myself here, I’m part of the problem. I don’t know how many projects Ive come up with but let fall by the waist side. hoping to come back to them one day.
Well it was me. I’m now taking on a new philosophy of try and if you fail at least you got a story out of it. I’m writing everyday as often as I can and now I have my site to keep me motivated.
Looking around I see much of my generation sighing about BS and watching the Jersey Shore. I cant make much of a promise for other people but I’m not going back to the lethargic old me. In the words of Yoda “Do or Do Not, There is no try.” Thank you Cody.
Neo Voltaire – thanks a lot! That means a lot to me!
Mason – you’re trying to get interviews from LBCC. That’s contributing something. That’s doing something. Just keep it up.
HELL.
FUCKING.
YES.
Couldn’t agree more. (keeping my comment short because I’m too busy writing my novel.)
I don’t believe anyone means business until they spell and pronounce it “bidness.” I cry foul!
Buzz – I apologize for my lack of streetness. I believe I also should have said something about “laying the smacketh down” as well.
Cody,
While I appreciate what you are trying to do here, it is important not to make generalizations so broad that they reduce all these significant movements to nothing, sound bites. Glam rock for instance did have a political agenda in eroding gender stereotypes (not just getting people laid). Music is always evolving. You shouldn’t judge an era of music and culture by its most mainstream examples; there is always a thriving independent music scene that will take on the real issues.
Hipster culture is about being apathetic. It is about being cool by not giving a shit. The world, this country, does not need hipster culture to shake us out of our funk. We need people who aren’t so concerned with image and who aren’t afraid to care and stand up for things that matter. Hipsters are all about image, not about action. That is what hipster culture is.
Also, protesting the war does not mean that you do not support the troops. Let’s not play that old tune out anymore.
And I can’t help but think that you aren’t writing this to yourself.
Also, it is Geoffrey Sirc. Not Sire.
Just some reactions to your thoughts. I fully appreciate how much you clearly care about the world and about what you are writing about. I appreciate your earnestness.
“Glam rock for instance did have a political agenda in eroding gender stereotypes ”
– Yes, songs like this –
and this –
I’m sorry, but your Glam Rock argument holds no weight unless you are willing to provide examples. If you have some, I would absolutely love to read them and if you’d like to write an essay about it, then I would be happy to feature you as a guest columnist because it intrigues me.
“Hipster culture is about being apathetic.” This was my point exactly. I feel that the idea of a “hipster” is someone who looks for alternatives to popular culture, and if we were to change this idea and apply it to government and the economy, then they would be perfect leaders because they are willing to find novel solutions to problems. They are perfect to inherit the world if they decided to quit being so lazy and become active. You’re totally right though, they are apathetic, but if we take the positive aspects of hipster culture and rid it of the apathy, then hipsters could be good leaders.
“Also, protesting the war does not mean that you do not support the troops. Let’s not play that old tune out anymore.” – I didn’t mean for my essay to come off like this. Of course protesting the war doesn’t mean you don’t support the troops and if the essay seemed like I was suggesting that protesting the war was in some way protesting the troops, I apologize, because those were in no way my intentions. I sincerely apologize.
“And I can’t help but think that you aren’t writing this to yourself.” I’m not sure what you mean by this, nor how to answer it. On the one hand, I wrote it because I wanted to make an inspirational message, but I didn’t have a particular audience in mind. On the other hand, I posted this on my blog knowing that an audience would look at it. I have no clue how to answer this. I’m sorry.
“Also, it is Geoffrey Sirc. Not Sire.” Fixed and I apologize.
Finally, and most importantly, you said, “You shouldn’t judge an era of music and culture by its most mainstream examples.” Unfortunately, I have to whole-heartedly disagree with you. Mainstream examples are “mainstream” because they are the most prevalent. Meaning that the social consciousness generally accepts them to be true. If we can’t trust the general social perception of something as being true, then what exactly is truth? Allow me to provide another example:
I was an emo kid in high school. I loved At the Drive In, Bright Eyes, Cursive, etc. etc., but I was infuriated that other bands were being considered “emo.” In my mind, those bands were not what “emo” was, but unfortunately, my opinion didn’t matter within the larger context of the social consciousness. The emo I loved died and other bands came along and transformed it into whatever they wanted and people bought into it. Therefore, I can scream to the heavens all I want about how Mineral and American Football are emo bands and My Chemical Romance is not, but it doesn’t matter because the public perception will tell me I’m wrong.
Anyway, thank you so much for your thoughtful comments. I appreciate a good debate!
I agree with one portion of what Jenny said, which I think can be summed up by the description of hipsters being a group of people capable of changing the world, and how ridiculous of a concept it is. That’s not to say I wouldn’t like to see it, but I think that once a hipster DOES something meaningful or important, they cease to be a hipster.
I don’t know what comes after– maybe just regular contributors to society? Post-hipsterism? Some new culture which evolves from group consciousness and the internet and the vast wealth of creativity constantly being derived from today’s youth? It’s hard to say, but I do think there is some kind of niche that hipsters, as a collective, could evolve in order to fill.
This is pretty past the point but I have to make this point. Glam Rock and Hair Metal Rock are two very different entities. Whitesnake and Warrant ARE NOT examples of Glam Rock. Bowie. Queen. Roxy Music. Lou Reed. That is Glam Rock. All you need to do is Wikipedia this phrase and you will understand what Glam Rock is. I feel like your blog requires a little more research before you start giving such strong opinions.
Jenny -I apologize and you’re absolutely right that I should have done a little more research to get my point across more thoroughly. I feel a little dumb that I didn’t run the term “glam rock” through wiki to make sure that my definition of glam rock was correct and instead, I was relying on memories of VH1 documentaries about the 80’s that I watched while I was in middle school.
Thanks so much for the clarification and I really appreciate your comments! I will do my best to improve my work here at the Chaos!