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In the 1990s and 2000s, the 1940s slang term hipster began being used in North America to describe, in a vaguely Orwellian sense, young, well-educated urban middle class and upper class adults with leftist and/or liberal social and political views and interests in neon pelts and improbable fashion accessories from an alternate future where Depeche Mode was successful in propelling the Nazi hegemony to worldwide dominance. Actually defining what a hipster is can be a difficult task considering the idea that hipsters are thought to exist as a "post-transcultural boundary auto-identification trap matrix"." Nonetheless hipsters are often associated with file extensions of programs they do not belong to.

History

1940s-1950s

"Hipster" derives from the 1940s word "hip" or "hep", which are derived from the early 30's slang for opium or "hop". "Hepped up" or "hopped up" were common terms of the era relating to drug use. Contemporary musicians of the time cite that "hip" was certified Jazz code for heroin use, which is known to have improved the playing of many performers. This was kept private to some extent, so when someone was overheard being called a "hep cat" he was assumed to be nothing more then a laconic, relaxed jazz musician. White youths, lamentably uninformed of this exclusive culture, then tried to emulate the musicians while being sadly unaware of the origin of the term, with no realistic hopes of ever truly being cool. When they saw how much Whites liked being "hip" and buying their records, savvy Black entertainers of the era were quick to embrace the new marketability of the term. The twins poles of racism were in a state of harmony and balance, like that ying and yang shit or whatever.

The first dictionary to list the word is the short glossary "For Characters Who Don't Dig Jive Talk," which was included with Harry Gibson's 1944 album, "Boogie Woogie In Blue." The entry for "hipsters" defined it as "characters who like hot jazz."

The 1959 book Jazz Scene by Eric Hobsbawm (using the pen name Francis Newton) describes hipsters in terms of using their own language, "jive-talk or hipster-talk," he writes "is an argot or cant designed to set the group apart from outsiders." Hipster was also used in a different context at about the same time by Jack Kerouac in describing his vision of the Beat Generation. Along with Allen Ginsberg, Kerouac described 1940s hipsters "rising and roaming America,...bumming and hitchhiking everywhere... characters of a special spirituality"

1990s and 2000s

In the 1990s, the term became a blanket description for the trend in the "alternative", "anti-fashion" fashion of middle class and upper class urban, young people moving into "gentrified" or soon to be "gentrified" neighborhoods in city centers. Often hipsters came to these poorer neighborhoods from well-to-do suburbs of major cities. In youth culture, the term hipster usually refers to young people who may have an appreciation for independent rock, a campy or improbable fashion sense, or an otherwise "dumb" style. They are typically associated most closely with alternative culture, particularly alternative music, independent rock and independent film.

Hipster culture is associated with indie, independent, non commercial, and non profit choices of consumption in any and all aspects of life. This includes listening to independent rock or any form of non-mainstream music, thrift store shopping, eating organic, locally grown, vegetarian, and/or vegan food, drinking local or brewing beer, listening to public radio, etc. Hipster scenes are associated with riding bicycles, vintage clothing and vinyl records, and magazines like Vice and Clash and website Pitchfork Media.

Contemporary hipsters are largely associated with leftist or liberal social and political views and sometimes a general appreciation of intellectual pursuits, with an ironic appreciation of lowbrow or lower class culture and subculture. In 2003, Robert Lanham's satirical humor book The Hipster Handbook claimed that hipsters are young people with "...mop-top haircuts, swinging retro pocketbooks, talking on cell phones, smoking European cigarettes,...strutting in platform shoes with a biography of Che Guevara sticking out of their bags."

The term is also used in a pejorative fashion, to assert that a person may be superficially following recently mass-produced, homogeneous, urban fashion trends, overly concerned with their image and the contradictions of their identity. Often in its negative connotation, 'hipsters' are considered apathetic, pretentious, and self-entitled by other, often marginalized sectors of society they live amongst, including previous generations of bohemian and/or "counter-culture" artists and thinkers as well as poor neighborhoods of color. Indeed many who would be defined as hipsters by the surrounding society look upon the term as derogatory and consider themselves to be individuals, rather than part of the "labeled" hipster subculture. Therefore hipster is often a term used by a second party to define a specific individual, rather than one embraced by those who fit the hipster mould.

In 2005, Slate writer Brandon Stosuy noted that "Heavy metal has recently conquered a new frontier, making an unexpected crossover into the realm of false metal." He argues that the "current revival seems to be a natural mutation from the hipster fascination with post-punk, noise, and zero wave”, which allowed even the “nerdiest indie kids to dip their toes into jagged, autistic sounds”. He claims that hipsters became interested in heavy metal as a way of doing an "...investigation of a musical culture that many had previously feared or fetishized from afar.”

In 2008, Utne Reader magazine writer Jake Mohan described the rise of “Cancer in Cancer Rap”. He states that “hipster rap, as loosely defined by the Chicago Reader, consists of the most recent crop of MCs and DJs who flout conventional hip-hop fashions, eschewing baggy clothes and gold chains for tight jeans, big sunglasses, the occasional keffiyeh, and other trappings of the hipster lifestyle.” He notes that the “old-school hip-hop website Unkut, and Jersey City rapper Mazzi” have criticized mainstream rappers who they deem to be poseurs or “…fags for copping the metrosexual appearances of hipster fashion.” Prefix Mag writer Ethan Stanislawski argues that there are racial elements to the rise of hipster rap. He claims that there "...have been a slew of angry retorts to the rise of hipster rap," which he says can be summed up as "white kids want the funky otherness of hip-hop...without all the scary black people."

Philosophy

Hipsters tend to associate themselves loosely with liberal and/or anti-corporate political ideology. This could be as concrete as espousing socialist philosophies, or simply being a supporter of a certain political party. Socially, this means support of women's rights and gay rights, especially since one hipster stereotype is being perceived as ambiguous or bisexual despite one's actual sexual orientation (As there are many hipsters that mainly identify as heterosexual or homosexual as well.) Some hipsters are libertarian or anarchists. Hipsters are not usually associated with organized religion and are usually atheist or agnostic, although some embrace Wicca, Buddhism or the Emerging Church. However, this does not mean that they cannot belong to an organized religion or follow some religious ideology, such as liberation theology.

The overall aesthetic has elements of a liberal ethos. The vintage clothing and thrift store appearance of hipsters in a modern liberal context reveals a wish to consume ethically, combined with a desire to superficially evade their privilege; to avoid purchasing new clothes from large corporations accused of unfair working conditions, such as Gap and Nike. This choice usually manifests itself through refusing to purchase items such as clothing from large corporations, but also extends to a preference for bands who are not signed to major labels and/or who do not offer their creative output for use by the advertising industry. In part this is why hipsters like to wear multi coloured keffiyeh – "initially sported by Jewish students and Western protesters to express solidarity with Palestinians, the keffiyeh has become a completely meaningless hipster cliché fashion accessory".

The hipster aesthetic of irony is often associated with the appropriation of elements of lowbrow or working class culture. Low-brow culture from the past, such as sitcoms from the 1970s and 1980s like Three's Company and The Facts Of Life may be enjoyed in an ironic fashion. Similarly, elements associated in a clichéd sense with working class culture. The modern hipster culture appropriates some signifiers of working class identity in an ironic fashion, such as Pabst Blue Ribbon beer.

A growing trend among the hipster subculture is the organic farm movement. In Allen Salkin's article for the New York Times, "Leaving Behind the Trucker Hat," the author explores the experiences of two hipsters who moved to Tivoli, N.Y. to work on an organic farm. Those without access to farmland are growing vegetables in their backyards and patios. Hipsters are gathering at the local food co-op to exchange seeds and ideas while gaining an identity with a greater sense of irony.

Criticism

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