Listening to Indie Bands One Step Toward Becoming a Hipster

Hello, good morning, and welcome to this short and yet comprehensive guidebook on how to become a hipster. For the purposes of this article I'm going to assume you heard the term 'hipster' and became curious as to its implications. Also, to take that one step farther, I'm going to assume you have some personal desire to join the legions of hipsterdom.

What is a hipster exactly?

A hipster is a person who is up on all the new trends, an early adopter of lesser-known forms of independent and electronic music, and also a person who commands a certain non-generic sense of fashion. Chances are you've seen a hipster on the street, or in the movies. They tend to have a nonchalant attitude towards life, preferring to 'party it up' rather than hold a steady job. Stereotypical hipsters are artists that live in giant converted industrial lofts and like them think of themselves as being cooler than you.

But that doesn't mean you can't be cool like them, as under the carefully hewn exterior, a hipster is just like the rest of us, except that they have a unique understanding of what is cool and isn't. It isn't hard to emulate their style and behavior, however it will take practice. Are you ready to do what it takes to break in the hipster subculture?

If you're going to become a hipster, the first thing you need is a good outfit.

Hipsters frequent thrift stores: they obtain their best style from their great grandmother's closet. Retro is the name of the game here, think the 70's, gave or take a decade, and then throw in a touch of indie rock, and you'll have your 'look'.

Whatever you're envisioning as your new hipster look, you're going to have to try harder; being hip is no simple task. Your first instinct will no doubt be to visit your local Urban Outfitters, H&M, Anthropologie, or American Apparel, but be warned: these stores will not make you hip, they exist as an emulation of culture, taking an idea and sticking a brand-name where its soul should be.

That being said, these retail stops are a means to an end for you to attain your elevated stature as a member of the hipster underground: visit them, study their catalogues for a few hours, but then you must part ways. Everyone and their cousin's sister is shopping at Urban Outfitters and dishing out 70 dollars for a retro suit coat that five other girls bought an identical copy of five minutes before them. Believe me; you don't want to be that guy at the party that is wearing that same Triple Five Soul jacket that your buddy's girlfriend's ex is wearing.

In some places, such as Brooklyn's Williamsburg neighborhood, they've gone as far as creating used clothing shops that operate on the simple principles as used record stores. Hipsters sell the clothes they've had for years, and buy other people's heavily used clothing in order to maintain their image.

Next, you're going to have to listen to cool music.

This will be your hardest adjustment. Music is the lifeblood of hipster culture, and it's no easy task to replicate the tastes of the elite and incredibly hard to please. Here's a few bands to start you off, go to your local used record store, or similar alternative music selling location, and pick up a copy of each of these albums.

For the modern day hipster, you must download, listen, and actually like these bands: TV on the Radio, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Shins, and Bright Eyes. The Dresdon Dolls will make you want to cull a baby seal, but at least you've experienced true hipster listening. However, these artists are the be all and end all of indie music; there are a million other bands out in the universe that you're going to have to listen in order to truly understand what indie music is.

You're also allowed to listen to old bands, for the specific purpose of improving your 'indie cred'. You must have an obligatory copy of any of the early albums of The Clash, The Cure, David Bowie, Echo & The Bunnymen, Joy Division, Mission of Burma, The Smiths and The Velvet Underground. You don't have to like these albums; they exist for you to dig out of your vinyl collection to impress your newly obtained hipster buddies.

If you have any doubt whether a song is cool, assume that it isn't: If you're sitting at a party on sipping a gin and tonic on someone's bedroom floor and someone flips on an mp3 that sounds indie rockin', it's not: the music is deceiving you, they're posers, plain and simple. Either that or the band you're listening to is 'so over' to the point of irrepressible laughter on your part.

You can't be a hipster in a vacuum; you must surround yourself with hipsters in order to be appreciated by your peers as being an individual that truly embraces the culture. While your desire to become Wyoming's first hipster is appreciated, you certainly won't be appreciated there, so if you haven't already, it's time to leave town.

Hipsters tend to gather in the largest of American cities, and while there is specific habitat where you're guaranteed a hipster sighting, your luck will improve the closer you get to a city with a population over 2 million. Brooklyn's Williamsburg neighborhood owns the world title for most hipsters per square inch, while New York's Lower East Side comes in a close 2nd, and if you look closely, you might just see a hipster lurking around the corner in Chicago's Wicker Park. Cities on the west coast from San Francisco to Seattle are well known for harboring hipsters as well. You may also find hipsters as far away as London and Japan, however, the characteristics of each subculture may vary by location.

And finally, let me warn you of this simple truth: once you are a hipster it's not socially acceptable to refer to yourself as being a subscriber to the subculture, ironically enough. If you're cool enough to be a hipster, you don't necessarily want yourself labeled, and so it's common practice for hipsters to refer to hipster culture with a mark of disdain. Adopting this attitude may lead to some confusion on your part initially, but in the long run it will benefit your coolness in the eyes of others.