No title available
AnasAbdin
★
todays bird
d e v o n
Claire Keane
⁂
RMH
Misplaced Lens Cap
🪼
DEAR READER
h
Sweet Seals For You, Always
No title available
Sade Olutola
#extradirty
$LAYYYTER
YOU ARE THE REASON
No title available
pixel skylines
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Canada
seen from Philippines
seen from Singapore
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Brazil
seen from Colombia
seen from Colombia
seen from Colombia
seen from Netherlands
seen from France
seen from Italy
seen from Mexico
seen from United Kingdom
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from France
seen from United States
@chloecolloquy
Creative Project
My project will consist of a collage of photos taken by myself and outside sources representative of hip images. The collage will then be presented in a hipster-esqu format such as polaroids or an instagram account.
Thesis Statement
Whether it be in the form of fashionable trends, social rebellion, or the maintenance of popularity, being hip is an act towards cultural acceptance and is often promulgated by capitalists as the only means to a prosperous life.
What is Hip? Reevaluation
What is hip?
My meaning of the word “hip” has not changed much since the beginning of class till now even with writing two papers about it. For our first paper, “What is Hip?,” we were asked to provide a personal definition of what hip means to us. The way I described hip was this: “The term “hip” means something different to every single individual. Hip, in the broad, universal sense, usually means cool or awesome.” So, in others words, I thought that hip meant to be cool and it means something different to everyone, which it does today; but, it is not just that. Hip also means being unique and different from everyone else. It means to dress, think, and act differently from everyone else. One thing I did not state that now is clear to me is that hip today completely contradicts what it actually meant thirty years ago. Hip was to be the opposite of being mainstream, which hip is today. Everyone tries to be unique and different. By doing this, it makes hip not hip. As hip becomes more and more mainstream, it is less and less hip. Big corporations and the internet has been the main culprits in this process. This never really occurred to me at the start of this class, but now I am realizing more about hip and its mentality. At the beginning, I really only thought that hip meant cool. I never really thought about the uniqueness hip held. It is much more that being cool.
I also feel like my definition of hip hasn’t changed very much since my first paper. However, like you I think that I have a much broader understanding of what hip was like many years ago and how it compares to what it means to be hip today. In contrast to your statement, I think that the unique aspect of hip relates more to being a hipster than being hip in general and I will elaborate on that more in my paper.
Week 11, What is Hip? Reevaluated
In my original analysis on the definition of hip I stated that the word “hip” defined somebody who was cool, or stylish. That it was a word used to describe multiple aspects of modern cultural life including the way people act, dress, and carry themselves in public. I also stated that the definition of hip changes significantly with the time that it is relevant to. I believe that the assertion that the definition of hip changes with its relevant time period is still a valid argument. But I would like to tweak my other ideas of the word hip, due to the readings and projects we have done this semester.
I am now inclined to believe that hip is synonymous with rebellion. After studying the history of the hipster starting in the 1960s to this day, it is appears to me that the essence of hip culture is always some sort of rebellious mindset against a controlling power. For example, in the 1960s, through the 1980s hip culture was based on branching out through unconventional means of expression i.e. drugs, music, and protests. These were more literal forms of rebellion, and back then the hip idea was supportive of fighting against the system, which back then was the government. And after reading the different authors and considering their perspectives on the evolution of hip. Because of these readings I am inclined to believe that hip is slowly evolving into mainstream commercialised culture.
The merging of these two cultures has created the commercially oriented world that I have grown up in. A world ruled by the idea that buying new things is “cool” and “cool” is achieved by having the newest I-phone or the biggest television, or even the most expensive car. This Idea also goes completely against the older idea that the government is restricting our freedom to express ourselves. With the assertion that cool is achieved by buying commercial goods then it is also logical to say that the idea of hip is being controlled and marketed to the general populous and the idea of being hip in this day and age is disconnecting yourself from the consumer mindset.
I agree with you that the definition where hip has continuously changing forms is one of the most relevant definitions but I love how you go one to describe hip as being a rebellion as it once considered in history. You do well in delving into the idea that while people may think they are being hip by keeping up with trends today, in reality they are actually just feeding into corporate culture and control.
"The Game of Likes" In Relation to Hip
The “game of likes” is one of the biggest influences in today’s economy and hip culture. When you scroll through Facebook or Instagram and like a status or photo not only are you giving positive feedback to the poster but you are also feeding into an economical movement. Companies thrive off of how many likes they can get because for every one like it means that a person is out there somewhere sharing their product and essentially advertising for them. If something is cool or popular then it will typically have many likes because many people appreciate that something and want to promote it or be known for appreciating it.To be hip is to be trendy or cool and likes are essentially a direct correlation to how popular an object or idea is in today’s social media driven culture. The beauty of likes is that you don’t necessarily need to be popular to like things but it can encourage or discourage your popularity as others can typically see what you like. But in the reverse if something has many likes it is instantly associated with being popular.
11
In my first paper, I defined hip as a word that describes something that is ‘cool’ or ‘trendy’. The hard thing about being hip though is that it is constantly changing; one day it may be hip to wear bell bottom jeans and the next it may be jeggings. Since this paper, we have learned a lot more history about the word such as its hippie origins or how it is so easily influenced by music. We have also discussed how a hipster is not necessarily a hip person but occasionally the opposite. Some feel that a hipster is a person that likes to follow fashion or musical trends. Whereas the greater majority of others believe that hipsters tend to do the opposite and purposefully go against the grain listening to unknown bands and wearing disjointed clothing. I tend to agree with the later definition. Sure the word hipster contains the word hip but in reality I find hipsters to be individualistic creatures, people that wear funky clothes and act as if they don’t care what the world thinks.
For our next paper we are asked again to describe what hip means. In this paper, I will take a similar stance as described above and as I took in my first paper. Hip is essentially anything that is currently in fashion. I will elaborate on this to say that it varies depending on location, time period, and the element of a trend that one is analyzing. I will also touch on the fact that at the moment, it’s hip to be a hipster or unhip. Today, people are super focused on being individualistic. They demonstrate this by wearing clothes or styles that you don’t typically see in big box stores. However, to add to the confusion major retailers have picked up on this fad and are currently trying to sell clothes that meet such grunge or vintage standards. I will finish the paper by discussing how we are in somewhat of a conundrum for hip as it seems that we have exhausted be hip to the point where there are few more options.
“Indie, Then and Now”, A Talk Show
Good morning everyone! Welcome to our show Indie, Then and Now with myself, Chloe Headley as your host. Today, we are lucky enough to have five amazing authors with us to talk a bit about their opinions on indie culture through the ages. The first to start our discussion will be Michael Azerrad, author of Our Band Could be Your Life.
CH: So Michael, I understand that your book worked a bit more on indie’s transition to the popular scene, can you share your theories on the matter?
Azerrad: Yes, Chloe, I’d love to. Well as you mentioned, I focused more on indie’s history. Originally, indie was a short name for independent, which, in the music world, meant an artist that signed on with independent and often small inconspicuous music labels. At this time, artists that were indie appreciated a more intimate relationship with their music and fans and a rebellious encounter with corporate America and big time record labels could not afford them that so they turned to independent labels. I once said in my book, “…the music business is one of the most familiar manifestations of cultural power that American youth recognizes, in a larger sense rebelling against the major labels was a metaphor for rebelling against the system in general.”
CH: Interesting… Thomas you seem to have something to add. Ladies and gentlemen this is Thomas Frank, author of “Why Johnny Can’t Dissent” and “Alternative to What?”.
Frank: Hi folks, well I would have to initially agree with Azerrad on his comment about the rebellious nature of the indie movement. “Above all rebellion consists of a sort of Nietzschean antinomianism, an automatic questioning of rules, a rejection of whatever social prescriptions we’ve happened to inherit. Just Do It is the whole of the law,” and indie people seem to be compelled by this drive to rebel against societal norms.
Quart: Yes, I believe you are all referring to creative outsiders, as I call them in my writing. “These creative outsiders push up against the constraints-some legal, others more tacit-that society places on them.” “…these outsiders work to create identities more authentic than those offered or imposed by mainstream society…”, she calls this process “identity innovation.” “Whether these identity innovators fail or succeed, the outcomes can be attributed to the aggressively viral and short life span new ideas are now afforded in America.”
CH: That was author Alissa Quart who wrote Republic of Outsiders a book that details examples of current and historical indie people and influences. Kaya, would you like to comment? Ladies and gentlemen, Kaya Oaks is the author of Slanted and Enchanted.
Oakes: Alissa I agree with you in that the lifespan of certain indie fads in America today is incredibly short. “Indie, like punk and many other subcultures before it had been branded by corporate culture and repackaged as an aesthetic.” Indie has become a look or style that has been adapted by big time companies and like all other trends in corporate business indie will eventually fade or get altered. Another aspect that must be considered is how “…today, the dissemination of music and art moves at a faster pace than ever before…” “…the internet has made a huge difference for independent artists today.” With the technology we possess today, its beyond easy to hear the latest music from any band or artist and we don’t have to work so hard to get it.
CH: Next we’ll hear from Nitsuh Abebe who published his essay “The Decade in Indie” in 2010 on Pitchfork.
Abebe: Whether or not it can be spread more easily or has been adapted by corporate America,“Indie still does the thing that I care about most, which is providing a reasonably open minded audience and space for people…who make popular music that’s just a bit odd and stylized…”. I recognize that the indie world is constantly changing, however and I think it may be in for a big alteration. As I mention in my essay we are due for “Yet another big shuffle of who stands where under indie’s umbrella, and where indie’s umbrella stands in the first place.”
CH: Wonderful thoughts everyone! Thank you so much for joining us today and helping us to have a better understanding of indie culture!
The online marketplace and those who use it say that imitation handmade goods, and rules restricting how popular vendors can grow, are complicating the site.
This article is a good example of the drama that can occur within the Etsy world. It describes a particular shop on Etsy and compares it with Etsy’s buyer/ seller standards etc.
The online handmade marketplace is seeking to reimagine retail.
This webpage details how Etsy grew to what it is today. It also talks about their website interface and how it has changed small business e-comerce forever.
You won't find these definitions in the dictionary! Etsy sellers, shoppers, and all-around enthusiasts dish on what the marketplace means to them.
WP2: This blog is great because it gives a lot of insight into the people and mindsets behind Etsy.
Hipster Jargon
Gentrification: “this is the buying and renovating of houses and stores in poor areas by rich people in order to promote local property values” -“this does help the housing market but doesn’t necessarily help the surrounding community as it can sometimes displace low-income families and small businesses” source: Wikipedia
“Blipster”: “a mix of the words “black” and “hipster” in relation to an ethnically black person who is also a hipster” -“This type of hipster is one that embraces their body and race and promotes it rather than trying to hide or change it. A typical “blipster” will sport their natural hair color and style and maybe listen to old hip-hop or jazz. Source: Wikipedia
Witchhouse: “a genre of music created by surrealist goth ravers and post chillwaver's that consist of a linear beat with mild reverb and a popular sounding synth line” Source: Urban Dictionary
Downtown Love, Video Thoughts and Reflections
This video seems at first to be pretty straight forward. There’s a guy and a girl, they love, they fight, they end things. This story seems like its been said and done before, but G-eazy puts an incredible spin on it. The videography is unusual to start; rather than the normal fading transitions that videos use to go back and forth between scenes, the videographer decided to primarily film clips of the same location (the woman’s apartment) and have them scrolling continuously across the screen. This is creatively done to portray the passing of time and the changes that occur in the woman’s life. The video also switches back and forth between black and white scenes where the main focus is always on the man in the video, G-eazy, and color scenes that are centered on the woman’s life. The switch between video filters can be interpreted as a cross between good and bad, dark and light. This idea is supported because in the video G is presumably a bad influence on the girl, introducing her to drugs and alcohol, both of which eventually become addictions that get the best of her. The video ends by showing G and the woman crossing paths in a black and white scene. They catch each other’s eyes but G refuses to stop even when the woman pauses and looks at him with a sad longing. It is apparent in her ragged clothes and how she fixes her hat that the woman is ashamed of who she has become but G doesn’t slow, they’ve hurt each other too much at that point for him to give in to her. The video also touches on differences between social classes with the images of her shopping. It also addresses some materialistic ideas with the painting in her apartment and the fact that she is presumably a model.
Downtown Love.
The music video I chose for our first writing project was a piece by the rap artist G-eazy called Downtown Love ft. John Michael Rouchell. G-eazy released this video in 2014. The video begins by showing a black and white scene of G standing in a room smoking while looking out over a darkened cityscape. From there the video transforms into a scene of a woman in her mid twenties presumably moving into her first apartment, which is a simple room with wood flooring and blank walls. Next the videographer does something unusual by not just flashing from one scene to another but rather videoing clips of the girl living in her apartment and showing these clips by having them pass horizontally and continuously through the screen. The first clips shows the girl moving in, followed by a scene where she decorates, and then a scene where she leaves for a night out, and so on and so forth.
As the video goes through these scenes it is apparent to the viewer that the girl’s life is beginning to degrade. When she first moves in, the apartment is clean and she’s excited to be there, however, as the video goes on, she begins to go out at night bringing home a man who ends up being a bad influence on her. Shortly after the introduction of the man in her room, the video zooms in on the girl and transitions into a black and white scene of her modeling in a photo in a store front and the man, who is actually the artist G-eazy, walks by the photo. After this short interaction the video returns to a slideshow of the apartment.
The video continues to show the girl interacting in her room, as sort of time lapse so to speak. In one scene, she develops a shopping problem and fills her room with stuff, not bothering to organize or clean it. The next scene shows the girl and G-easy fighting and shoving each other around. In desperation, the girl resorts to alcohol and drugs to escape the pain of her current life. Slowly yet surely these substances begin to take over her life and she becomes a shell of the lively person she once was and hides away in her apartment with the curtains drawn.
To close the video, the scene transforms to black and white one final time. During this shot G-eazy is shown walking down an urban street during the night and eventually passes the girl from the apartment. The two recognize each other but G-eazy seems to want little to do with her and refuses to return the girl’s anxious look. At this point the video ends and the viewer is left to assume that the couple never get back together and the girl will continue to struggle with her emotions, resorting to drugs and alcohol as a crutch for life but in reality just hurting herself more and more each day.
"Ways To Go" is available on iTunes now: http://smarturl.it/waystogo Spreading Rumours -- featuring "Ways To Go" Available Now! iTunes: http://smarturl.it/sp...
This is another choice of mine by Grouplove - “Ways to Go.” I think this music video idea is original and is an attempt to send a good message to it’s viewers. This video brings up some negative issues that relate to North Korea and the directer puts a positive twist on the situation which makes the mood seem entirely humorous and uplifting to the viewer.
Jack Kerouac
Famous writer Jack Kerouac was born March 12, 1922 in Lowell, Massachusetts. Though Kerouac was born in the United States, his parents Leo and Gabrielle were actually immigrants from Quebec, Canada. Due to this, Kerouac actually learned French at home before learning English in school. Before Jack became a writer, he was most passionate about sports and football. In fact, when hard financial times hit the family during the Great Depression, Kerouac planned to gain future financial success for his family by playing football. Kerouac did received a football scholarship to the University of Columbia, however, before attending, he was forced to attend a year at an all boys prep school in New York City named “Horace Mann”. Here is where he first started writing short stories for the school’s magazine, “Horace Mann Quarterly” and working as a reporter for the “Horace Man Record”. This is also where he find inspiration in the revolutionary hip jazz music that played in New York jazz clubs. Unfortunately, when Kerouac did finally attend Columbia, he broke his leg and was unable to play football at the college. He eventually dropped out of school, and started working odd jobs. Kerouac went into the military and fought in the war during WWII. When he returned, he befriended Allen Ginsberg and William Boroughs, who they eventually became known as the leaders of the “Beat” generation. Kerouac wrote his first book, “Town & City" in the late 1940s, but did not become a big success until his book "On the Road” was published in 1957 (though this book was originally written six years earlier). This story was a half fact and fiction book based upon the experience he had with sex, drugs, and jazz while road tripping with a friend in the late 1940s named Neal Cassady. They travelled to Chicago, Los Angeles, Denver, and Mexico City. Another thing that was famous about this writing was that it was originally written within a three-week time period on a single scroll of parchment, 120 feet long. After “On the Road”, Kerouac wrote more semi-famous novels, but sadly never got back up to the fame he had after writing his “hip” novel in 1957. Unfortunately, Kerouac lived a short life, and died in October 1969 from a abdominal hemorrhage at age 47. However, his legacy, along with the other leaders of the Beat Generation, still go to inspire today’s rebellious and hip youth, and his writing of “On The Road" is still popular and well known even four generations after his death.
"Jack Kerouca.” Bio.com A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web.
08 Sept. 2015.
Timothy Leary (10/22/1920-5/31/1996) is most commonly known today as the Harvard professor who encouraged youth to experiment with LSD. Leary was born in Massachusetts but went on to graduate from the University of Alabama and eventually continuing on to Berkley where he received his doctorate in psychology. After a few years doing research work etc. Leary accepted a job lecturing at Harvard in 1959. Leary’s first experience with taking LSD occurred during a trip to Mexico where he took mushrooms to experience the effect they may have on the mind. Once having experienced them, Leary was convinced that they opened new doors and immediately started to research them back in his lab in Harvard. Leary worked with colleagues and students on these studies and this eventually caused him problems. The issue was not necessarily that his work wasn’t scientific or valued but rather that he was allowing if not encouraging students to take LSD outside of the experiments. Once Harvard realized what Leary what promoting, they fired him, but not before the press got word of his work at Harvard. Once the scandal settled down, Leary began to write about his findings, publishing many books and continued to promote the value of psychedelic drugs through the IFIF (International Foundation for Internal Freedom) he created. Thomas Leary eventually converted to Hinduism and is most famously quoted for his line “Turn on. Tune in. Drop out.”
http://www.biography.com/people/timothy-leary-37330#experiments-with-drugs
http://www.biography.com/people/timothy-leary-37330#background-and-early-career
(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiEwJTOderQ)
Music Video #3
This song is the epitome of todays definition of hipster. The video is artsy and has a retro vibe about it. The main characters, a struggling couple, are constantly fighting. The video shows this tension by flashing back and forth through difficult time in their relationship. Overall the video allows one to playfully flirt with both imagination and reality. This in combination with the fun beat and lyrics creates an interesting video to watch.
