In modern terms there is no such thing as a hipster. These days they are just bunch of trendy jerks that steals cultural lifestyles that are not their own. Goddamn NYC coffeehouse vegans.

Some Article From Time:

'Jack Kerouac and poet Allen Ginsberg were early hipsters, but it would be Norman Mailer who would try and give the movement definition. In an essay titled "The White Negro," Mailer painted hipsters as American existentialists, living a life surrounded by death — annihilated by atomic war or strangled by social conformity — and electing instead to "divorce oneself from society, to exist without roots, to set out on that uncharted journey into the rebellious imperatives of the self." As the first hipster generation aged, it was replaced by the etymologically diminutive hippies'

Hipsters are just the anti-conformist group of present. As far as I know, this brand of anti-conformist became a part of society post-WWII, with the explosion of mass consumerism, consumption, the growth of Madison Ave's brand of advertising, capitalism like never seen before-American! style, and the loss individuality. Choosing to reject elements of mainstream society that, upon understanding, are downright depressing...I see no problem with that. That said, a society's anti-conformist group is a reflection of the society it exists in. And both seem to be getting worse with each passing decade.

Beatniks>Hippies>Hipsters

Exponentially worse. Anti-conformist and not.

The Thing That Wouldn't Die.

Not for nothing, HIPPIE was buried in Golden Gate Park back in September of '67.

UPDATE:

I detect a lack of compassion for young people faced with choosing a lifestyle from the past because everything's already been done before. "Hipster" may be lame, but there are worse choices, don't you think?

This is always worth a good laugh to see these hapless mopes. If you are as old as I am, you have seen it all before.

Bleh.

Most hipsters remind me of the type of insecurities most of us outgrew long ago...fierce insistence they're different (read "better") than others because of arbitrary decisions made that may seem unique to anyone outside the community, but are mainly a regurgitation of the same old shit. These are the same kids that were claiming their previous favorite band "sold out" the day they book a national tour when they were 14. Desperate competition with one another to be the first to find the next big thing has got to get exhausting at some point.

Hopeless cynicism complete with alarmingly pretentious group-think mentality when it comes to music and culture leave me generally disappointed when I meet someone new here in San Francisco who ends up having even a slight hipster proclivity (and there are PLENTY here). The most intense examples are basically synonymous with douchebag.

They are kind of fading into obscurity, but when they first arrived they were a refreshing alternative to the Hep Cats.

(Warning: fitman link to a video by ska artist Hep Cat forthcoming.)

Normally I'm a pretty easy going guy, and someone has to provoke me to get me going. But for some reason, every time I see some hipster guy wearing girl cut jeans, an old man hat, and black plastic rimmed glasses he only wears to make a fashion statement, I want to kick his ass.