h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hello!

I was wondering what was the difference between hipster and fashionable. I say veganism is now fashionable, but someone else said it was only hipster.

Help. I am deeply uncool. I don't know.

I have absolutely no idea. Fashionable is a closed book to me and I thought that hipsters were trousers that were fashionable back in the 70's.

Ah, the 70's.

PP.

Fear not; the 70s isn't dead, it just smells funny.... As do, a few of my friends, who still haven't realised we're not in the 70s any longer

Fashionable, IMO, its mainstream; Its wearing 'this seasons fashion is . . . ' items, colours, designs etc, its a kind of dogged following trends, in fashion, (whether fashion meaning clothing, or diet, indoor/interior design, the fashioanble kitchen worktop for this year, etc., etc.,) Fashionable, is a unquestioning acceptance and adoption of what the 'mainstream' says is* fashionable, unquestioning it, just doing it/wearing it/eating it/whatever, exactly because* it is fashionable.

Hipsters, they're mavaricks, they're the ones who either start, or are very 'in' with the 'group', that starts, some new trend, method, design, style, etc... they're the ones who are grass-routes, err roots, tehy're the setters, the ones at the 'real end', although, fo course, there is cross-over; the Hipsters, can, have their mavirick new 'fashion' stolen; bent, warped and turned into a mainstream thing of descent and contempt, ; often derailing the 'fashion' itself, and causing the hipsters who first did/used/came up with it, to have to fling it in themsevels; its gone mainstream; Its been turned into an advertising campaign by a chain of cafes, its gone onto the catwalk, into boutiques with high price tags, thence into large department stores, and, lets face it, by the time its on the shelves at M&S and JL, its so* far removed from the hipsters origional concept, idea or 'thing', that no self--respecting hipster would ever wanna be associated with it again....

I think. maybe... I'm still annoyed that home baking, and bread making in particular seemed to get so fashionable just after I took it up, years ago; for the singular sensible reaosn, that my local bakery closed and then... it went all sort of the 'in thing' to be doing which kinda puts me off in a strange way

Hipsters are 'new' kind of rebel - in fashion,
art, music, lifestyle. They are (were?) marked
by irony and clashing of cultural symbolisms.

Sorta like steampunk without the boiler plates
and steam. They tend to revive trends of bad taste
from the post-steam era of the early 20th century.

They might wear suits and working class coveralls
from the 30s and 40s with sneakers from the 50s
and they listen to music on 60s stereo systems.
They have revived vinyl.

Here's a jpg guide to the cycle of hipster fashion.
http://www.freewilliamsburg.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/hipster-fashion-cycle-27457-1277773474-10.jpg


~jwf~

'Revived vinyl'.... some of us never left it to need it to be revived

OK, you're right. They just created a larger market
and continue to control most media consumption. You
are what I would call a hipster. You got the hats.

~jwf~

In my city, hipsters are fashionable. They're yuppies, transplanted trust fund babies from the suburbs, who move into the city, buy some clothes at the thrift stores, and gentrify the hell out of otherwise interesting neighborhoods. Cool independent businesses are replaced by Starbucks et al.

Veganism is neither hipster nor fashionable. It's not a fad, it's a matter of ethics.

And agreed about hipsters absolutely not "reviving". My OH and I have lived and worked in the local music scene for over 20 years and have never stopped buying vinyl. A couple of labels owned and operated by friends have never produced in any other format.

Had to laugh when a hipster co-worker once offered to introduce me to some "obscure" jazz and brought me a copy of a Miles Davis CD.

Brass suffers more from digital reproduction than
perhaps any other instrument. On CD, Miles Davis has
no bottom end. There's no Mingus amongus. Well yes,
I suppose you can hear the bass but not the basic
vibrato in the horn. Tinny in not a tiny way.

~jwf~

Why did the hipster burn his tongue?
































He drank his coffee before it was cool!


I'm here all week!



FB

Ferrittbager;

JWF: Brass cannot be reproduced at all... even on so-called 'decent' origional CDs of the recrodings; I notice this myself, each and every time I accidentially put the Frank Zappa Wakka jawaka CD into my system.... I useually manage about ten seconds before I press stop and find my origional but in very good condition vinyl copy and stick that on instead... Its differnt enough to almost sound like a totally differnt recording of the same music, which of course it can't be, as I assume both are from the same 'master' recordings and my hearing is shot to pieces thesedays thanks to my lousy sinuses

I have never been to a Starbucks, am I missing anything?

Not unless you enjoy burnt coffee.

That was kinda waht I figured... I try to use only the little independant coffee places, we've got left... They're useually cheaper, and I guess* they are better (not having tried the big multinational ones, I can't say for sure about the quality differnces) I did accidentially drink some coffee in a costa-coffee place once, err, wehn I say 'drank some', I mean that; I left 3/4 of the cup, it was so utterly tasteless Still lamenting the demise and closure of the coffee-bean and loose-tea shop in the centre of town, and trying to find a new source of beans

If you find Costa tasteless, you certainly won't like Starbucks.

"Brass suffers more from digital reproduction than perhaps any other instrument. On CD, Miles Davis has no bottom end. There's no Mingus amongus. Well yes, I suppose you can hear the bass but not the basic
vibrato in the horn. Tinny in not a tiny way. " [~jwf]



I had noticed that, though not with Miles Davis. I just turn the sound down to avoid distortion. I still have some vinyl, though not as much [many?] as I used to. I just get annoyed that the manufacturers decide to change formats so people will buy what they already had in the new formats . There are reports that CDs are dead now, what with so many people buying songs online and storing them in their hard drives. There must be tens of billions of CDs in people's collections. MP3 files are said to be missing some of the sound frequencies that equivalent CDs have. I would rather have the more complete sound.

Why should people feel pressured to do what business and the media tell them is cool or fashionable?

>> Why should people feel pressured to do what business and the media tell them is cool or fashionable? <<

There-in lies the great question asked by each new generation.
In the sixties we decided haircuts were not essential to happiness.
And today's hipsters are very ironic deconstructors of fashion.

They intuitively understand the tactile benefits of a fountain pen
and paper... ah paper... and inkwells... and 100% cotton...
and real wood... felt hats... real woolen jumpers...

And yet, for sheer irony they might decorate with plastic potted plants.
And simulated leathers and vinyl belts, handbags, coats.

But they stop short of steampunk gadgetry as too old fashioned
and complicated by pretentiously pointless over-engineering.


~jwf~

I have a large collection of CDs and was glad to see the back of vinyl. It was inconvenient and fragile. Warped easily, scratched easily and attracted dust, fluff and hair, all of which collected around the stylus and degraded the sound no end.

I listen to music in a variety of places, most of which supply me with an abundance of extraneous noise to interfere with my listening pleasure. And that would be the same whether I was listening to CD, MP3 or vinyl.

I have a decent CD player, speakers and amplifier and am very happy with the results.

You can keep your vinyl.

Thank you.

(I suspect that this means that I am not a hipster (until CDs become unfashionable and then start a revival again)).

PP.

My music listening ear finds the compressed sound of a CD to be less enjoyable than the sound quality from vinyl. I do appreciate that is very much a matter of personal taste. I do have an mp3 player, and I have backed up lots of stuff off vinyl (and cassette) so I have the option to listen on my commute. But I much prefer the sound of vinyl.

I think we probably own as many CDs as albums (somewhere around 1200 of each or so), and if I find something on vinyl we already own on CD, I will usually purchase the vinyl and then trade in the CD.

< aside >
You'd think with all the "revival" of vinyl, one would be able to find a good quality turntable out there. When we moved to a new place in 2012, the movers broke my old Technics turntable. Unfortunately Technics went out of business a few years ago, so I could purchase neither a replacement turntable nor parts to repair it. I wound up selling it for parts on eBay (for $1,200!) and purchasing Audio Technica instead.

Though one nice thing about getting a new turntable is that I can connect it directly to my laptop to rip mp3s if I like. Same for the new cassette deck / CD player combo. I do like having that!

< /aside >

"You can keep your vinyl." [Pink Paisley]

I used to become mesmerized by the sight of the record spinning on its turntable. I loved the smell of the record jacket -- it seemed to be a subtle perfume to my young nose. Those jackets were large enough to carry a lot of information about the recording. When CDs came along, they were just so tiny and cute! And their jackets were just downsized versions of the jackets that phonograph records had.

"My music listening ear finds the compressed sound of a CD to be less enjoyable than the sound quality from vinyl." [psychocandy]

The music industry has done you a great disservice, then, by severely limiting the number of new recordings that you can enjoy on vinyl. I enjoyed phonograph records a lot, but I was naive when CDs replaced them. I thought that there was no chance of fighting the change. CDs became widely available beginning in 1985, and were the dominant format by about 1990. I remember the criticisms that audiophiles
made of CDs: that the CD sound was a cold one. I also remember the criticisms that CD fans made of vinyl: that there was popping and hissing which distracted from the music itself. With Cds, you heard just the music.

Some day I will buy one of those units that plays all formats. I will take out my phonograph records and cassettes and spend a few days wandering down memory lane. I hope the jackets for my old records haven't lost their sweet smell. Chances are they've taken on a musty smell.

As a former radio deejay I have opened and smelled
more than my share of new long playing albums. And
I have now accepted that the musty smell is just a new
frontier in that experience. We must embrace the must.


~jwf~