Those who must not be named?

The Hipster.

Hah. Oh those ‘hipsters’ as I hear them being called. Who exactly are these people?

I see them. Many places I go, in fact, as I watch their ray ban-clad faces and messy heads rush past me. Many travel in packs, small packs of two or three. They are typically young, but that is beside the point.

Their headbands squash the circumference of their heads, looking halfway between a tennis player from the eighties and a member of the Woodstock community. Dishevelment is not too far off; at least it seems that way to the outside world. You know, the world that takes regular showers and washes clothes.

I did not know who or what a hipster was in slightest before I heard the term. True, I noticed these people and the way they dressed, behaved, and carried themselves. They were like each other in so many ways I found it hard to be unconscious of it all. I did not realize that they were becoming a distinct culture.

The hipster is what it is: a conundrum. Defined as the definition of something that refuses to be defined. In some ways a hipster is the interpretation of the current youth. Without it, we might not have an intact idea of how our generation looked as a whole.

Their music influences them, like every subculture. Their genres range, yet are likely to include forms of electro-pop dance numbers and much independent music. They are the party types, and their music helps lead the way.

What makes a hipster? Is it a choice on the behalf of oneself or is it merely by accident that one becomes what is known as a hipster?

Some find that they are accused of being one, and realize they are in fact a ‘hipster’ without ever trying to look a certain way particularly. Others pick it up through lack of originality, depending on others to define how they should look. Some like the look and copy it. Then there are the few who just enjoy shopping at hipster venues, without really soaking up the hipster culture. Therefore these may look like hipsters on the outside, but are not truly to be considered hipsters.

Although hipsters will never admit they are hipsters, deep down they know that they are part of a legitimate trend or ‘look’. It is the sense of belonging that comes with being a hipster. A quick way out of having to deal with finding yourself or creating yourself originally. However, being the conundrum that it is, when one tries to be original, it may very well end up looking quite the opposite and thus defeating the purpose. By being different, they end up looking somewhere along the lines of well, everyone else. Attaching onto the hipster culture is their way of feeling established in a certain community. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as by human nature we feel the need to be accepted.

Nevertheless, the hipster is only human. We must learn to love them for what they are. Which we can probably distinguish from their various talking-tee-shirts anyway.