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SERIAL_HIPSTER

                                  June 19, 2006

It is relatively rare today for
someone to be satisfied with                GOING_UNDER
membership in a single subculture...
                                            SUBCULTURE
Instead there's a definite pattern
of getting interested in one scene,
then moving on to another, then
continuing on to a third...

    A harcore punk may become a
    raver then get into swing
    dancing.

    A goth might get interested
    in salsa.

    A punk may move on to
    industrial then to
    experimental noise and
    then improvised jazz.

It could be that this process of exploration
is the key characteristic of the hipster,          Which I guess 
rather than the particular style or scene          is something like 
that's embraced at the moment.                     V. Vale's point of
                                                   view.
      A meta-sub-culture?

                                   
                                   
I have a problem with        STRANGE_TRIANGLE      
this, though possibly
it's just a personal
problem...

If these are people so
intent on keeping up with
the vanguard that they                           
keep doing scene-identity        It's a distinction that   
switches, is there any           may seem shallow, but I   
real difference between          expect it's a familiar one
them and the people I            to most of the insiders of
might loosely name               my particular                     
"the trendoids", the             meta-sub-culture.         
people who feel the need         
to be up on the latest              If you go out to see a  
thing simply because it's           live band at that moment       
the latest...                       when the buzz is really     
                                    kicking in you can see         
  Let's try the thought             clear divisions in the         
  that the trendoid is              audience...                     
  motivated solely by                                       
  peer-group approval, and          Some people are there that  
  a desire for                      want to hear the band,        
  one-upsmanship; whereas           but there are other's that 
  the "serial hipster"              are just chattering amongst   
  (ideally?) is genuinely           themselves.                    
  seeking after some sort                                      
  of enlightenment, trying                        They want to be
  to keep up with the                             on the scene,      
  current state of the                            but are not      
  research among people on                        committed to   
  a similar quest.                                being in the     
                                                  scene.          
                                                                 
   One group is the vanguard of exploration,            
   The other blowing in the wind of fashion.
                                          
                                          
                                             Or so it usually
                                             seems to me...  
                                                             
                                                             
                                             I have a terrible fear     
                                             that this could be just    
                                             another rationalization,   
                                             a manifestation of the     
                                             usual tribalism where      
                                             your group *must* be better
                                             than those other guys,     
                                             on some grounds or other.  


                                                SOUL_SO_DEAD

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