On the subject of “Hipsters.”
Pittsburgh’s biggest newspaper is writing an article on “hipsters” mainly because of this article that was published by The Washington Post a few weeks back that called Pittsburgh the new Portland. The writer of the article got ahold of me yesterday and asked me what I thought of the term and does Pittsburgh have any “hipsters” or should we expect them here shortly because of this, etc.
So, here’s what I responded with. I’m certain they won’t publish all of this, but I hope they at least publish the last part of it:
To be honest, I’m still waiting for what a clear-cut definition of what exactly a Hipster is from somebody. To some, it seems to be an extension of a person who goes to a lot of shows, has their finger on the pulse of unsigned/unheard of bands which is what I would’ve said a “scenester” was a decade ago since they’re wrapped up in the local music scene. To others, it could be somebody who gets their kicks living a counter-culture lifestyle to mainstream popularity such as an environmentally friendly one maintaining a vegan lifestyle, only shopping at Co-Ops/farmer’s markets, driving a hybrid, etc. To others still, it’s somebody who makes every decision based on irony, whether that’s a 21-year-old wearing grandma’s kitten sweater or updating their Facebook saying something along the lines of “I’m only going to the Laser Floyd show because I hate it.” In any regard, the only defining factor between these 3 circumstances (of what seems to be an endless amount of combinations) is that it involves young people and somebody else making the call about what is or isn’t a hipster and nobody who participates in any of these activities declaring themselves one because of it being a stigma. I’m certain that when this article gets published, some young person will read a quote from this and call the quoted (or you, [writer’s name], for writing the article) a hipster; that’s just how cliche and broad its usage is.
As for Pittsburgh being appealing to young people, well, why wouldn’t it be? It is cheap to live here. It’s the only city I know of where you can have a part time job at a coffee shop, still afford a mortgage payment and be able to go out once a week. I’ve even often heard the term “Pittsburgh Rich” to describe just about anybody who makes over $30,000 a year. How would that not be appealing to any young person who isn’t ready to settle down yet?
I came here as an outsider from Cincinnati, OH in 2001 and I’m sure that there are people here who will always view me as an outsider even if in 4 more years I’ll have been a Pittsburgher longer than I was ever a Cincinnatian. That’s perfectly fine by me, they’ve earned every right to do that. I wasn’t here for the collapse of the steel industry. I wasn’t here for shows at The Electric Banana when it was the only place in town to see a band of a different sort from the mainstream play. I wasn’t even here when the Steelers were terrible. I just never knew Pittsburgh when it supposedly “sucked.” But even in the 11 years that I’ve been here, I’ve watched Pittsburgh transform from an enjoyable city to my favorite city on Earth. It’s not a hard thing to convince friends to come visit here after they saw a Primanti’s Sandwich on “Man vs. Food” and then have them be completely blown away by how wonderful, beautiful and authentic the city is. Then you tell them how much you pay for rent every month and they’re on Craigslist looking for apartments here.
But to sum this up, really, the only clear-cut definition of hipster I can give is that there is no such thing as a hipster anywhere. There never has been and there never will be. It’s this term like “politically correct” where it’s only used by people who are insecure to call others but it doesn’t actually mean anything because it’s not a real philosophy.
