You've probably heard enough about hipster metal, and you're going to hear more, because hipsters are to the 00s what poseurs were to the 1980s. If in nature every action has an equal and opposite reaction, hipsters are the negative reaction to good music.
Noisecreep gives us an unintentionally apt definition:
Like pornography, hipster metal is hard to define, but you know it when you see it. The term can refer to any/all of the following:
a) indie-rock bands who aren't really metal but own some fuzz pedals (Wolfmother, Dead Meadow, Boris)
b) heavy, critic-friendly drone bands like Sunn 0)))
c) "ironic" throwback metal (3 Inches of Blood, The Sword, Goblin Cock)
d) legit metal bands who get any coverage in Spin magazine (Mastodon, High on Fire). - Noisecreep
Decibel Magazine really kicked off the current dialogue on hipster metal:
I feel like all that's happening is the same sort of thing that happened with rap around 1998-1999. The indie rock people--many of whom get jobs writing, especially for middle and mainstream outlets like, you know, eventually the New York Times and Harp--the indie rock kids sort of got tired of their own little ghetto and they start branching out. They start listening to a little metal, but they sort of want to describe the metal in terms that makes it part of their shtick instead of its own universe.
I think if that is the definition of hipster metal, then it's more palatable and easier for indie kids or whoever to get into metal and maybe go out and buy Slayer records. - Decibel
The above is a very clever way of saying that hipster metal is what happens when indie kids assimilate metal, or absorb it into a simpler ancestor. Invisible Oranges took time out from writing about hipster bands to weigh in with a useful description of what makes hipster metal go hipster:
My take on hipster metal is this: hipsters get into metal when they find non-metallic things about it. In other words, they’re turned off by the essence of metal, whatever that is. I think most metalheads would agree that there is such an essence (and that it appeals to them). Hipsters, too, might perceive such an essence. They would also run the hell away from it.
What’s their problem with metal? They perceive it as unintelligent. But what exactly does that mean? I think, objectively speaking, that lots of metal is intelligent. The music is often complex (much more so than normal pop music) and requires intelligence to put together. Sure, there’s often posturing (especially with what I call “big words” metal). But the intellectual levels of metalheads and non-metalheads, in my life at least, don’t differ.
So why the perception of stupidity? I think that it’s a sort of classism. Metal began as white underclass music, and that stigma remains in the stereotype of the knuckle-dragging longhair. - Invisible Oranges
In short, the mainstream has always ignored metal because people in the mainstream are obsessed with social climbing. They don't want to be seen like us amoral cavemen who like war, hate peace, and don't indulge in the happy hippie hallucination that is our world of love, trust, tolerance, and buying the right products (a camouflaged modern hell straight out of Brave New World).
Much of the dialogue about hipsters and metal was kicked off by the article Hipsters: Dead End of Western Civilization, in which the writers point out that hipsters are not culture. They are anti-culture. They are people who use culture as a trend, and a product, all while claiming to be the "one true source" of culture and art. Notice how when they are cornered, they turn around and accuse the accusers, claiming that people are being intolerant of them, when in fact they are the aggressor.
A hipster is someone entirely dominated by society. Trends, how they look to other people, what they're eating and how they're entertaining themselves -- these are what a hipster thinks about. They are the ultimate surface people, never seeking a greater meaning in life but only the appearance of it. They are also the ultimate consumers, because they're always chasing the latest trend (and buying lots of stuff to that end) hoping that it will keep them "hip," or current, young, savvy and exciting.
Hipster metal is just as shallow. They like new trends, but for you to put a new interpretation of music into every band is impossible. So instead you take the tried and true and put a new face on it. Play that Elvis tune backwards, add a vuvuzela, auto-tune the bass line, maybe have a female vocalist. You're new and unique! But underneath, you're the same old same old.
When we talk about hipster metal, we're talking about the bands that appeared after 1995 or so. Black metal got big and got into the news, and suddenly the hipsters "discovered" death metal and black metal after making fun of them for years. You see how that works -- there was "newness" and "uniqueness" present in these artforms suddenly, so the hipster adopted them ironically.
In order to keep the surface new and shiny, they started playing with the trivial aspects of the band, like playing riffs backward, using "weird song structures" that were really just a string of musically similar riffs with radically different rhythms, and screwing around with vocals, production, instrumentation and all that. What you got out of that situation was metal-flavored rock, and it took new forms: metalcore, shoegaze black metal, mathcore, "technical modern death metal," and all of that crap.
Underlying it was the same stuff Fugazi was doing back in 1989, just done better, and it's still just an aesthetic variant of regular old rock music. It's not a surge toward a higher degree of organization like the first Incantation or Morbid Angel albums.
If you hear people talking about hipster metal, this is what they're describing: the tendency of hipsters (in parallel to big corporations and big media) take a generic thing, stick some illogical combination of elements on top of it, call it "new" and pass it off as a trend. Interestingly the first thing hipsters prey on is themselves. They take a borning unexceptional person, put them in weird clothes with weird behaviors and "unique" tastes in music, claim they're an artist and sell it to the rest of us as something "hip." Hipster = hip + shyster.
Hipster metal is metal that has been assimilated by the mainstream. Indie rock was underground in the early 1980s, but now REM and Bono are as accepted as The Beatles. Hipster metal sounds metal-ish, but doesn’t have the essence of metal -- a spirit that's in direct conflict with the indie spirit. They want individualism, an ethic of convenience and trends, a world of love and trust and tolerance; metal wants war, denial of the individual, great deeds that last for all time, and reasons to fight to the death. Hipster metal exists so that hipsters can like metal without leaving their comfort zone of indie rock. This is why hipster metal is, if you peel back the layers, metal-flavored indie rock.
The damage to the genre they're preying upon is immense as confusion reigns, with most of the new fans -- being sheep or just inexperienced -- getting misled and starting to actually seek out the hollow crap, because that's the impression they got of the genre when they first saw it.
For those who love anything, whether it be metal or literature or even vuvuzela shredding, hipsters are the death of that loved thing, and that's why we fight them. Not "rage" against them, which is internet parlance for any indulgence in impotent anger, but fight them by outing them, pointing out that their bands suck, and to really hit them hard, using the line "But didn't Velvet Underground do that in 1974?"
Comments
You are a dumb, righteous idiot and no one cares about your opinion. Go back to dragging your knuckles.
who are you to decide what is the essence and ideology of metal? i'm pretty sure that the guys who first started playing death and black metal didn't thought about "denial of the individual, great deeds that last for all time". i on the other hand think that metal is all about individualism and not giving a f**k about this world or anybody else's standards. you are not different than the hipsters you talk about: elitistic, pseudo-intellectual f**k who tries to project his own ideology ("denial of the individual, great deeds that last for all time") to something he likes. f**k you.
dick- go read any old Morbid Angel, Profanatica, Necrovore, or Mayhem interview.
Dick, how DARE you project your beliefs on metal! You're obviously RACITS!!1! against any opinion that you don't share. I hope you burn in hell with Hitler and George W. Bush.
@ Bucket:
So you don't care, yet you posted in it. Sounds like you, well, you know, cared.
>__>
<__<
@ The other fool: Good job, you can't actually *prove that anything he said was wrong* and aren't doing much from giving a **** about this author's standards. Oh and yes, the classic "YOU ARE BOTH THE SAME" argument, usually followed up by...nothing, as the creator of the argument is rarely able to actually provide compelling reasons as to why they're the same.
Oh wait, look, he did try to provide evidence! Let's see if it holds up!
"elitistic, pseudo-intellectual f**k who tries to project his own ideology ("denial of the individual, great deeds that last for all time") to something he likes."
Yes, the author has *gasp* standards!
He recognizes that there is win and there is fail!
God, he is such a fascist tyrant!
And holy moley, he actually has something to stand up for! There's something wrong with that? Strange, I thought metal was you know, supposed to be about people standing up for their beliefs?
Verdict: Ad-hominem and very paper-thin arguments hidden up by HURR RAEG.
Ignore.
this is just so writen by the biggest hipster in the world.
--__--
I don't understand two things.
Avenged Sevenfold epitomizes "hipster" metal in my eyes and isn't mentioned ever. They have used the metal standards and style to create a terrible band to make money as quickly as possible.
Why is metal the only genre where challenging its limits merits a problem? I guess this applies to hip-hop as well.
I think even hipsters look down on A7X deep within the metal community; they're perhaps the biggest metal-related joke as of yet.
Nobody's complaining about "challenging its limits" - dumbing something down into the music it's supposed to be getting away from tends not to be really at all that challenging.
One, two princes kneel before you
That what I said now
Princes, princes who adore you
Just go ahead now
One has diamonds in his pockets
That's some bread, now
This one said he wants to buy you rockets
Ain't in his head, now
This one he got a princely racket
That's what I said now
Got some Big Seal upon his jacket
Ain't in his head now
You marry him, your father will condone you
How 'bout that now
You marry me, your father will disown you
He'll eat his hat, now
Marry him, marry me
I'm the one that loved you baby can't you see?
Ain't got no future or family tree
But I know what a prince and lover ought to be
I know what a prince and lover ought be
"and to really hit them hard, using the line "But didn't Velvet Underground do that in 1974?"
do what? be since long split-up? making solo records?
I think there are some good but undeniably "hipster" bands out there that have contributed worthy material which was subsequently cock-leeched out of proportion, I don't need to mention names like Velvet Cacoon or Alcest, but those are examples that I think epitomize some of the best and worst of this "pseudo-genrefication" that's so prevalent.... Fact is it's not going away so just take the good with the bad and do try to eschew the awful ones into shameful extinction... meh
Public denouncement over the internet though, usually just creates more "buzz" and hype and has a counter-productive effect.... So fuck it, just kick these dick-snots in their scrawny crotches whenever you see them lurking around some crossover metal band's show....and steal their beers :}
I think someone is a little bitter that hipster metal, that finds its' roots in the underground scene that is whatever you want to call it, is getting above ground and people like it.
i love hipsters coz they have massive schlongs.....
@ Demian: Well if you think "Oh hey, black metal with more boring mainstream rock music in it. Cool, we're going backwards" is a good thing, sure. These bands might have some good ideas but the problem is, they don't come together terribly well and you can simply find better ones in the *actual* underground bands.
@Diabeetus: Excellent display of a strawman argument.
This is the most moronic thing I've ever read. Seriously, all these elitist wannabe who are pissed of because they don't like the bands that are popular and think they can try and vilify them with bull terms and propaganda. You people are worse then Republicans. None of these bands have "indie" spirit, it's metal in the new age and that's how it is. Like how in the kcuf are Sunn O)) and older Boris Critic friendly to Indie people? IT'S DRONE METAL, IT'S EVIL F'ing DOOM RIFFS SLOWED DOWN TEN FOLD! How is that even REMOTELY in the comfort zone of Arcade Fire or Wilco!? Indie Critics HATE IT! There's absolutely no connection to Indie or any Hipster friendly ideologies in any of these bands. Please, just shut up and never talk about Metal again. You know absolutely nothing about it and our ranks are weakened by idiocy and internal bulllcrap such as this.
THERE.
IS.
NO.
SUCH.
THING.
AS.
HIPSTER
METAL!!!!!!
/CAPS
"This is the most moronic thing I've ever read. Seriously, all these elitist wannabe who are pissed of because they don't like the bands that are popular and think they can try and vilify them with bull terms and propaganda. "
Translation: I can't actually make a coherent response to what you've proposed so I'll just basically ad-hominem them and I might as well be saying "U R ELITIST GAY'.
"You people are worse then Republicans."
Yes, disliking a certain form of music puts us in the same line as George W. Bush.
"None of these bands have "indie" spirit, it's metal in the new age and that's how it is. Like how in the kcuf are Sunn O)) and older Boris Critic friendly to Indie people? IT'S DRONE METAL, IT'S EVIL F'ing DOOM RIFFS SLOWED DOWN TEN FOLD! "
Or in this case, dumbed down "HURR DISTORTION AND SLOOOOWWWWW" crap that assume that simply because it has an aesthetic it has a content. Nevermind that bands like Unholy and Disembowelment, who were incredibly slow, were actually able to develop their ideas over a long period of time and only used slowness as aesthetic rather than content.
"How is that even REMOTELY in the comfort zone of Arcade Fire or Wilco!? Indie Critics HATE IT! "
Hence why these bands are routinely supported by various indie labels/supporters/reviews such as Pitchfork and Steve Albini.
"There's absolutely no connection to Indie or any Hipster friendly ideologies in any of these bands. Please, just shut up and never talk about Metal again. You know absolutely nothing about it and our ranks are weakened by idiocy and internal bulllcrap such as this."
And so, the whining knee-jerk reaction metal-poster strikes again and provides little more than well, knee-jerk reactions and "BUT IT NOT MAINSTREAM IT JUST REALLY WELL KNOWN AND UH, JUST REALLY WELL KNOWN" arguments.
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