subgroups

A seriously interesting article on the 'Sociology of the Hipster'. The article breaks down the hipster hierarchy into three distinct socioeconomic groups: liberal arts college grad hipster, trust fund hipster and my personal favourite the couch-surfing, old-clothes wearing hipster. No one wants to be called a hipster, but I love reading pseudo-intellectual NYT articles about hipsters, I don't know what that makes me; let's not talk about it.

'Both groups, meanwhile, look down on the couch-­surfing, old-clothes-wearing hipsters who seem most authentic but are also often the most socially precarious — the lower-middle-class young, moving up through style, but with no backstop of parental culture or family capital. They are the bartenders and boutique clerks who wait on their well-to-do peers and wealthy tourists. Only on the basis of their cool clothes can they be “superior”: hipster knowledge compensates for economic immobility.'

Read more.
Also, some recommended listening.