Hipster Puntoff

On the first day of creation, GodHeadHipster created the Animal Collective record Merriweather Post Pavilion. (He was quite pleased with himself.) On the second day, he ordered Pitchfork to give it a 9.6. (GodHeadHipster already kinda fucked up.) On the third day, Hipster Runoff wrote Animal Collective is a Band Created By/For/On the Internet. (This is when all fucking hell broke loose.) On the fourth day, GodHeadHipster grew angry and told Idolator to jump on board; on the fifth, Spin fell in line. (GodHeadHipster has more loyalists than Obama.) But then on the sixth day, the woeful sixth day, Nick Sylvester told GodHeadHipster to get off his ironic ass and do something about it. (All was not well in the kingdom.) On the seventh day, everyone was too tired to rest. (Realzy: that Sylvester rant is in the running [hipster runoff!] for most inspired pop/internet writing of the year. Read it for this line alone: "Culture is a mating ritual. We are looking for ways to differentiate ourselves so as to attract one another. That is the deep dark secret of everything we do.")

5 comments

Alright, let's kick off the debate with this quote: "Just like Gawker, HRO won't stop until we're all too afraid to do anything, to step on the rug and take a fucking chance, to give a shit. Until we're all crippled by self-consciousness, and the worry of making a mistake."

posted by Rex at 2009-02-02 19:47:59

After four days of working my way through that RiffMarket thing and feeling like I'd slipped into Bizarro world, I left only with the strong feeling that either Nick Sylvester or I had been reading HRO incorrectly.

posted by josh at 2009-02-02 20:20:10

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

posted by R at 2009-02-02 20:20:24

I don't know from Animal Collective (unless I heard it in the background at your place, Rex). But to me, Nick's piece belongs firmly in the Billy Joel thread, which boiled down to this: Like what you like and don't apologize for it, to hipsters or anyone else. But I disagree with that part about how 'culture is a mating ritual,' though, violently. When I'm alone, I listen to what makes me happy. Sure, I pick stuff up because it's recommended or buzzy - but I'm sorry, when I feel like listening to music I'm just going to listen to what I like, so I can like what I listen to. And that can be Billy Joel or Bruce or "Crazy on You" by Heart or that song I will find myself singing along to in the Duane Reade and then I'll walk to the cash, still singing, and realize that the cashier and I are singing together, or the showtunes that other people write off as "showtunes" but I know to be as disparate as "City of Angels" or "Chess" or "Into The Woods" or "Little Shop of Horrors" or, fuck it, "The Sound of Music." Or they can be songs from old boyfriends or songs from my brother or songs I heard in a store, stopped, liked, and asked about so I could go out and buy the CD, or songs from "West Side Story," which no one told me to like, my parents just took us to see it and that was it (and no one told the 8-year-old me to leave "A Chorus Line" singing "Tits and Ass" at the top of my lungs, either). The point is, you like what you like and if you REALLY like it, you spend a little time thinking about why you like it and learn a little bit about yourself through that. And then that music is yours. Try to attract someone with music that isn't yours, and they'll see right through you - if they're smart. Posers are boring. Passion is what matters.

posted by Rachel Sklar at 2009-02-02 23:08:53

all are true but the first one...possibly second. Animal Collective are not hipsters. The vast majority who are into them are.

posted by liver at 2009-02-04 13:42:16

Hipster Puntoff

Rex Sorgatz