what comes after the hipster?
tracking the death of the hyper-individualised, early-adopter, cool-hunter ‘hipster’ archetype and pondering what comes next.
what comes after the hipster?
K-HOLE and Box1824 captured the new landscape in their breakthrough 2014 report “Youth Mode.” They described an era of “mass indie” where the search for meaning is premised on differentiation and uniqueness, and proposed a solution in “Normcore.” Humorously, nearly everyone mistook Normcore for being about bland fashion choices rather than the... See more
subpixel space • After Authenticity
It makes sense that norms are shifting in this direction as Gen Z’s influence spreads. Raised on social media, with access to once illicit bad-taste touchstones like Rocky Horror just a click away, they’ve largely replaced IRL subcultures with a constellation of aesthetics—cottagecore, dark academia, Y2K—to be performed, then discarded or demoted... See more
judy berman • Welcome to the Era of Unapologetic Bad Taste
The aggressive cynicism of hipster responses to popularity reveal how deeply the hipster identity was situated within the authenticity paradigm. Hipsters clearly experienced a loss of value whenever something they liked entered the realm of mainstream pop culture.
From after authenticity by subpixel.space
we used to take pride in our sweat now we take pride in our tears
Brad Troemel • The HIPSTER Report, 2024
Gravitas: “I care, and it’s important.” Sermons, manifestos.
Self-deprecation: “I care, but it’s not important.” Hobbies, fandoms, being nerdsniped, “merely” personal wishes.
Irreverence: “It’s important, but I don’t care.” Edgy jokes, shitposts, grifts, procrastination.
Disdain: “It’s not important and I don’t care.” Actual indifference/silence;... See more
Self-deprecation: “I care, but it’s not important.” Hobbies, fandoms, being nerdsniped, “merely” personal wishes.
Irreverence: “It’s important, but I don’t care.” Edgy jokes, shitposts, grifts, procrastination.
Disdain: “It’s not important and I don’t care.” Actual indifference/silence;... See more
Sarah Constantin • Sarah Constantin (@sarahconstantin)
K-HOLE and Box1824 captured the new landscape in their breakthrough 2014 report “Youth Mode.” They described an era of “mass indie” where the search for meaning is premised on differentiation and uniqueness, and proposed a solution in “Normcore.” Humorously, nearly everyone mistook Normcore for being about bland fashion choices rather than the... See more
subpixel space • After Authenticity
The hipster was an information-sorting algorithm: its job was to always have good taste . The hipster listened to bands you’d never heard of. The hipster drank beers brewed by Paraguayan Jesuits in the 1750s. The hipster thought Tarkovsky was for posers, and the only truly great late-Soviet filmmaker was Ali Khamraev. The hipster bought all his... See more
Sam Kriss • All the Nerds Are Dead - By Sam Kriss - Numb at the Lodge
In the post-hipster era, you listened to what Spotify told you to listen to. If you read a book, it was because the precise pattern of blobby pastel-coloured shapes on its cover contained coded instructions to TikTok’s algorithm that sent it zooming to the top of your feed. Your tastes and preferences were decided for you by vast crystalline... See more
Sam Kriss • All the Nerds Are Dead - By Sam Kriss - Numb at the Lodge
This dialectic is muddy from the get-go, of course. It’s a version of the more familiar hipster trap: over time, the marginal labor of the bohemian experimentalist and taste-maker is swallowed up by the smug cartoon of the in-the-know consumer clone. But the near inevitability of this process also suggests that the first hipster was already part of... See more