The (Mainstream) Hipster

i'm not sure if it was during the week that latfh.com (Look at this fucking hipster) became my favorite blog (this was before tfln.com came into my rotation), one solid year embedded in San Francisco or perhaps my recent travels to other Hipster hot beds such as St. Louis, Chicago, Southern Illinois and New York when it hit me. Most likely a combination of all three, during which my eyes were exposed to an amalgamation of our country's youth (ages 16-45) into one (former) ironic body of vomit induced ugliness.

How has the hipster movement become so mainstream i kept asking myself? Hipsters used to be cool, different, fringe. Something most liked to look at, maybe envy or partially copy, but never fully go there. It was too hard to achieve, too much to ask of oneself. You needed to go over the cliff to get there and that was the part that kept the masses restrained and the hipsters hip. Today it seems like you only have to walk up to the vista and look out beyond the cliff and you've made it into hipsterdome.

The pure idea of being a hipster meant that there had to be a limit, crossing a threshold towards a mass movement would make the hipster extinct, and by God if we haven't crossed that line yet i don't know where you are drawing your line.

Where does this contemporary subculture of irony go now that their non-mainstream fashion, culture, music and films are....wait for it....mainstream!

A true hipster would revolt.

Hipsters out there, this isn't the evolution the O.G. hipsters had in mind.

By taking the hipster movement to the fullest and throwing it into the mainstream, anything hip about its way of life has been crushed. And irony please. Ironic Tees are now a multi-million dollar business and it appears white sunglasses are on their way there too.

My travels from coast to coast and up and down the Midwest have shown me just how mainstream hipsters have become. Everywhere i turn, everywhere i go i see it all around me. And i'm not saying this is a bad thing. i love people watching and the hipsters are making it more fun each day.

But what i do take issue with is the hipsters thinking they are ironic, unique, cool and 'hip' when it appears their movement has become a magnificent mass of sellouts.

i love Urban Dictionaries take on hipster. Here is a small sampling:

- Probably tattooed. Maybe gay. Definitely cooler than you.
- Has a closet full of clothing but usually wears same three things OVER AND OVER (most likely very tight black pants, scarf, and ironic tee-shirt).
- Always on the list.

i cannot wait for the day of reckoning, when irony becomes visible only though button down polo shirts, loafers and docker stain defender chinos.

In the meantime i'm gonna throw on my straight leg Dickies with my Toms (sans socks), tuck my u-lock into my ripped boxers, and ride my fixie to critical mass before I head to the 18th grand opening of an organic wine bar.

p.s. hope you caught the irony of my lower case i's throughout...fucking sweet