Maturation is inevitable. The time for fun and games just being fun and games is over. This is the time where all of the Jerry Rubins get rich and all of the Abbie Hoffmans don’t care. This is the complicated era in which you shine a spotlight on the soul of your heroes and learn their true motivations. Things are about to get really strange. Mirroring a sentiment we stated on April 23rd of this year, Dov Charney, the fashion forward impresario behind American Apparel, declared “hipsterdom is over.” Let’s take a second to reflect at some of the curious happenings in the post-mortem, as these will be interesting days ahead.
Mad Decent Records, the leading arbiters of cool, are already stocking their post-hipster war chest, as now, looking like hungry carpetbaggers, their nationwide Mad Decent Block Party tour is bringing out big numbers of hipsters from not just Philly, but LA, Chicago and NYC too, hungry to associate with the pinnacle of “underground” cool. Mad Decent being down with Diesel jeans for the tour is certainly terrific, but is a key note to observe as the label, much like American Apparel declaring “preppy” the new “hipster,” the subtle switch of the label from undergroung kingpin to art house favorite is like watching Blondie go from punk to pop overnight. If the Maluca, Bosco Delrey and Popo releases are a harbinger to anything for the label’s future, they will succeed in the change of tides.
Let’s pause to remember one of the most savage and entertaining stories in our cultural shift of 2010 was learning that MIA is married to the child of one of the richest men in the world, lives in a mansion, does photo shoots draped in gold, and yes, eats french fries dipped in truffle oil. All of these trappings of wealth sure make singing songs about revolutionary politics appear to be hollow and insincere. When Lynn Hirschberg exposed MIA’s bleeding heart was bleeding Kool-Aid instead of plasma, she became the first victim of the backlash. There definitely needs to be a certain attention paid by first generation hipster stars looking to make the pop crossover to that tale. In becoming a pop star, in many ways instead of being a pop icon with a tremendous underground fanbase to fall back on, she’s become just another “unique” pop star, at the bottom of the food chain, but with nothing to truly turn back towards for help. In many ways by alienating who and what she needed to fuel her mainstream success, her career and hot buzz has absolutely stalled.
Another key indicator of the next generation is DC’s U Street Music Hall. It’s the best “underground” venue in the country by default. Nothing really can compare to a venue that has capacity similar to other cities’ leading underground spots having a premium on sound, cleanliness, big crowds and professionalism. It will be interesting to see what other spots nationwide develop in the post U Hall era. Underground music was never supposed to be heard on systems like this in the middle of downtown in a city in America save cosmopolitan locales like NYC or LA. In America, you have to travel with express purpose to the outskirts of cities, under bridges, in warehouses, abandoned buildings and bizarre rooms stocked with enough speakers to overpower a room and wake the dead to appreciate dance music. U Hall is on a street corner. There’s an obvious and wonderful difference. One of the many reasons in my mind why music at the fringes of electronic dance music had such a stronghold in Europe and was appreciated, but to a far less significant degree in the US, was due to clubs not being able to showcase the music in such a manner that it inspired mainstream people to appreciated the timbre, color and beauty of the sound. On a regular system, electro, drum and bass, dubstep and techno sound like noise and distraction. On a system that can handle these compositions, you can find the rhythms and appreciate them.
The next iteration of underground culture will be a curious time, indeed. As well, watching what happens as hipsters get rich, die trying or stop caring and decide to inform the next underground generation will be intriguing to say the least. Curious times make for curious actions.