What makes hipsters annoying

Since before it was even cool. I have a beard, I wear glasses, lumberjack shirts, I sport an earring, I buy vinyl records, I work as a freelance writer an absurd way to make a living.

And yet, like so many perceived hipsters before me and since me, I have always reacted to the suggestion in the preordained manner — ie.

I make a list of arguments in favour of me definitely not being a hipster. Hopefully this would sharpen the focus and present a crisper image of this tainted breed of gentrifiers and restaurants queuers.

And the great news is that it sort of did to a point. It peered through the window with the same slight sneer that seems impossible for anyone to shift, it sipped from the jam jar and presented a preening rootless subculture that expertly builds over-elaborate castles on the sand, making them rich pickings for advertisers. It looked at the ripple effect from splashes in uber-trendy parts of New York like Williamsburg spanning across the pond to areas like Shoreditch in London.

Why are they what they are? And why do we hate them so much? Slightly more enlightened but still feeling like I was in a dimly lit bar wearing a pair of vintage Wayfarers, I activated Phase Three of my quest. I plugged in my MacBook Pro and took to my old friend Facebook. Before long, the opinions were flying in like ferocious shoulders barging through a converted warehouse door, and the theme, it seemed, was universal.

I don't actually chop any wood, I just want to look like a lumberjack! They're like a punk band on X Factor. The consensus was pretty damning, and it hit me loud and clear.

Right in the solar plexus. People hate anything that seems pretentious, and hipsters, it appears, are the very embodiment of modern pretention.

Achingly cool, humourless, full of themselves, uninformed, and at some level, possibly a bit thick. There was a sense that they manufacture depth in their shallowness, that their every move is made with one eye on your reaction.

Even The New York Times admitted to overusing the term. We are listening to these bands, drinking that beer, wearing that outfit for the right reason, and the hipster isn't.

Was there ever a time when the term had a clear meaning? A "golden age," if you will? Not sure if there was a golden age per se, but if you historicize the term it was indeed once interpreted in a much more positive fashion. In the 50s a hipster was an authentic countercultural rebel.

Around the mid 90s, the media depicted a homologous and symbiotic relationship between the term hipster and the emerging indie scene. They were cool. Things start to get more complicated in the early s when we see not only an increase in the frequency with which the media talks about hipsters, but also a change in the content of the discussion. This is the discursive turning point, and the beginning of the backlash.

Would you say hatred of hipsters is mostly an objection to how people dress? I don't think the stereotype should be reduced to just fashion sense. It's a more complex lifestyle representation.

Besides, dressing conventionally—for example: normcore—might be a status game in itself. But if a person is usually mainstream in their tastes, they will probably escape being identified as a hipster.

And that's what a person wants most of the time, right? Because being a hipster has negative connotations? There are more negative associations than positive ones. My work on the topic covered the public perceptions on "hipster" in the last decade, and even then it was a tricky category to be associated with. I haven't done a systematic analysis of the public discourse around the term in the last five years, but I would be surprised if things got better.

Part of the joy in hipster bashing therefore lies in claiming for oneself the much valued authenticity that hipsters lack. Adopting trends early and playing with different styles can be a sign of being up-to date and stylish, therefore a source of prestige.

Yet trendiness remains a tricky thing, being too interested in trends raises suspicions of blindly following fashion industries and therefore being inauthentic.

The most outspoken clothing styles that use fashion as a playful expression are found among the culturally involved. Michael found that while young Europeans with a huge range of different tastes in music, especially the avid music lovers tend to display an eclectic taste that combines several music genres. Other music listeners are happy with what the mainstream has to offer.