what is a secenester?
last saturday i was asked the question "what is your definition of a scenester?" to which i replied "you know...that's not a bad writing topic. i'll post my answer later in the week." alas.
however, let's all bear in mind that i don't judge people. well, we all have a sub-conscious tendency to, whether we recognize it or not, but i make an effort to stay away from such an immature way of thinking. i don't consider myself a judgmental person, i just happen to have a knack for noticing the details which fall under the different stereotypes we've created to save us time from forming any fair judgment. but i'm not here to discuss that. my idea of what "scene" is, is merely a generalization. an accurate one at that.
but without further ado:
white belts. ridiculous hairstyles. 0% body fat. you might not know who they are now because up to this point, they have been particularly evasive of anything and everything mainstream. they are hipsters, or scenesters, and they are growing in numbers, constantly boiling and smoking underground, and they like it that way. hipsters savor shallow irony and they hate authority, but most of all, they despise any trends but their own. but now that their general sense of music and eclectic fashion has been invading the general public as of late, and despite the hipsters' best efforts, the seal is broken.
they cohabitate in web communities such as myspace, facebook and livejournal, and are constantly adapting each others' styles and innovations in their endless and exhausting quest for continuous acceptance amongst their hipster peers. If you live in a metropolis with a seedy downtown area full of small concert venues and bars, chances are there is a "scene" right under your nose. hipsters can usually be found in rich suburb areas where they are subscribed to thousands of ironic trends because they can afford to keep up with all of them. if one were to look in any hipster's closet, one might find several shirts with corny slogans such as "Getting Lucky in Kentucky" or "I'm Hungary for Turkey" and an arsenal of studded white belts with huge, tacky buckles. a female might have pea coats and tights, while a male might have girl's jeans with border-line belly button shirts from bands such as 'avenged sevenfold' and 'blood brothers.'
but what constitutes a scenester? most of the time, it's a sort of cocksure, deluded sense of faux-elitism in terms of attitude and fashion - a sense of fashion so random that it can only be explained in specifics, never characterized. In some areas, a hipster's fashion sense focuses on a combination of retro, an example of which would be leg-warmers, and irony, an example of which would be large and tacky trucker hats,. because of a constant paranoia of being captured by another hipster's webcam, they have an unhealthy obsession with their appearance that would drive the most iron-willed of supermodels mad.
hipsters will generally, and almost always in vain, subscribe to half-baked methods of shallow alternative thinking and will practice certain ethical pursuits such as vegetarianism or veganism. true to their form, however, they can only indulge in vegetarian or vegan products that the rest of the hipsters don't deem as "lame" which are in a sense, ordinary or more well-known products. within a their jurisdiction, no company or product is safe from the hipster's "lame" tag, from fast-food restaurants to jackets to shoelaces, and quality is almost never a factor. most of their decisions about what is "lame" or what is "scene" have no discernible methods to their inception, or maybe one that feels the need to question such decisions just doesn't "get it."
although a scenester would never acknowledge such bands as "scene," nor would they ever admit to liking them, if you've seen a video by hawthorne heights or medina lake, you get a general idea about what your average hipster might look like, and how they are slowly and unwillingly infiltrating the mainstream of american popular culture. it's best to be prepared when more than just the downtown areas and basements of suburban homes become flooded with awkward, androgynous types with tight clothing, white belts, and an irritating penchant to brag about themselves at the drop of a trucker hat.
-jem
however, let's all bear in mind that i don't judge people. well, we all have a sub-conscious tendency to, whether we recognize it or not, but i make an effort to stay away from such an immature way of thinking. i don't consider myself a judgmental person, i just happen to have a knack for noticing the details which fall under the different stereotypes we've created to save us time from forming any fair judgment. but i'm not here to discuss that. my idea of what "scene" is, is merely a generalization. an accurate one at that.
but without further ado:
white belts. ridiculous hairstyles. 0% body fat. you might not know who they are now because up to this point, they have been particularly evasive of anything and everything mainstream. they are hipsters, or scenesters, and they are growing in numbers, constantly boiling and smoking underground, and they like it that way. hipsters savor shallow irony and they hate authority, but most of all, they despise any trends but their own. but now that their general sense of music and eclectic fashion has been invading the general public as of late, and despite the hipsters' best efforts, the seal is broken.
they cohabitate in web communities such as myspace, facebook and livejournal, and are constantly adapting each others' styles and innovations in their endless and exhausting quest for continuous acceptance amongst their hipster peers. If you live in a metropolis with a seedy downtown area full of small concert venues and bars, chances are there is a "scene" right under your nose. hipsters can usually be found in rich suburb areas where they are subscribed to thousands of ironic trends because they can afford to keep up with all of them. if one were to look in any hipster's closet, one might find several shirts with corny slogans such as "Getting Lucky in Kentucky" or "I'm Hungary for Turkey" and an arsenal of studded white belts with huge, tacky buckles. a female might have pea coats and tights, while a male might have girl's jeans with border-line belly button shirts from bands such as 'avenged sevenfold' and 'blood brothers.'
but what constitutes a scenester? most of the time, it's a sort of cocksure, deluded sense of faux-elitism in terms of attitude and fashion - a sense of fashion so random that it can only be explained in specifics, never characterized. In some areas, a hipster's fashion sense focuses on a combination of retro, an example of which would be leg-warmers, and irony, an example of which would be large and tacky trucker hats,. because of a constant paranoia of being captured by another hipster's webcam, they have an unhealthy obsession with their appearance that would drive the most iron-willed of supermodels mad.
hipsters will generally, and almost always in vain, subscribe to half-baked methods of shallow alternative thinking and will practice certain ethical pursuits such as vegetarianism or veganism. true to their form, however, they can only indulge in vegetarian or vegan products that the rest of the hipsters don't deem as "lame" which are in a sense, ordinary or more well-known products. within a their jurisdiction, no company or product is safe from the hipster's "lame" tag, from fast-food restaurants to jackets to shoelaces, and quality is almost never a factor. most of their decisions about what is "lame" or what is "scene" have no discernible methods to their inception, or maybe one that feels the need to question such decisions just doesn't "get it."
although a scenester would never acknowledge such bands as "scene," nor would they ever admit to liking them, if you've seen a video by hawthorne heights or medina lake, you get a general idea about what your average hipster might look like, and how they are slowly and unwillingly infiltrating the mainstream of american popular culture. it's best to be prepared when more than just the downtown areas and basements of suburban homes become flooded with awkward, androgynous types with tight clothing, white belts, and an irritating penchant to brag about themselves at the drop of a trucker hat.
-jem