Week 06: The Roots of Hipster

Hipsters, nowadays, are referred to as a group of people ranging from teenagers to mid-30s who try there best to stay away from anything that could be considered too mainstream. The hipster concept of "authenticity" is complex but largely based on age, where objects or ideas older than a few decades are perceived  to be more authentic as they sprang from a culture less corrupted by  commercialization. Borrowing a definition from Urban Dictionary:

"Hipster's can't be defined because then they'd fit in a category, and thus be too mainstream."

 Hipsters also seem to be very creative people which helps support the concept of authenticity. Nothing is more authentic than creating it yourself. Some examples can be music, visual art, lyrics, poems, etc. The trickiness of this subculture is finding a way to become successful and well-known throughout the secret underground community but not famous enough where you become too mainstream. If you hit the radio's top 100, you have sold-out and succumbed to the man -- and everyone know's that not cool.

MUSIC:
I don't find myself listening to a lot of folk-inspired music or anything that involves a ukelele, but it's what is widely heard throughout the hipster community. Of course, there are different sub-genres of hipster music but one band that I found happened to be called YACHT. The visuals in the music video showcase a lot of triangles (which seem to be a trend throughout hipsters) and unconventional clothes with clashing patterns subtitling hinting towards 60's fashion and 80's editorials.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHNtMWKqMeg

ART: 
Art is a very broad term when it comes to the hipster culture. Specifically, I would like to touchup on Graphic Design. It seems as though almost every hipster is in love with good design and has an aesthetic for typefaces and kerning almost to a point where one can point out a certain design style that hipster graphic designers often go to.

SOCIAL MEDIA & TV:

Social Media has taken the hipster culture by storm introducing new websites to showcase more personality than ever. Some major sites that has almost become a home to hipsters is Tumblr.com and even Pinterest. Blogging, venting, crafting and anything to show how unique you are and what you have to say is important in the hipster community. Sharing polaroid pictures of a Starbucks coffee next to a sunset or a lonely balloon in a forrest can really evoke feelings for your followers as well as give you an excuse to call yourself a photographer.

http://the-hipsters-blog.tumblr.com

TV has jumped on the hipster band wagon as well with shows like Portlandia and networks like IFC (their slogan is "Always on, slightly off"). All in all, hipsters of the 21st century seem to follow some important themes: authenticity, unconventional lifestyles, and staying away from anything that could be considered too mainstream.

Week 04: Haruki Murakami

Tsukuru Tazaki is an ordinary man living an ordinary life day after day. Tsukuru, after experiencing a painful event from his teenage years, slowly learns how to move on and live his adult life—but as much as he tries to get past this event, something keeps bringing him back. Much of the narration revolves around that single event in his teenage years, when he is part of a five person group. His four friends are described vibrantly and named “the colors”, and although Tsukuru feels colorless, little does he know that he is a vital member of the group. The rejection damages what little sense of self he has and validates his thoughts about being colorless, and he “becomes already dead without knowing it”, entertaining suicidal ideation for much of his twenties.

Though much of this world that Murakami has created is real, a lot of aspects of the story also become surreal. Tsukuru’s life is pretty mundane in how he decides to live it, while his dreams become more vivid and fantastical. These dreams symbolize the protagonist’s main desires and give the story more of a spiritual tap and how we can relate towards these experiences. Because Tsukuru is so colorless, this makes it easier for the reader to relate to him and see ourselves within this character whether he is 35 or a teenager. Murakami blurs the lines between adulthood and adolescence, to show how carrying around the scars of our youth can hinder us.