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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             The creator of "Outpunk" (an early
continuing on to a third...                 queer-punk zine), calls this
                                            "being multi-subcultural".
    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 on
  to keep up with the                             the scene, but are
  current state of the                            not committed to
  research among people on                        being in the scene.
  a similar quest.


   One group is the vanguard of exploration,
   The other blowing in the wind of fashion.

       POSITIVELY_HIP
                                             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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