Tropeography

If I gave you thirty seconds to write down every stale stereotype associated with the Hipster, you would either fill up an ancient scroll, work yourself up into a rage or refuse to engage in such cringe (sounds like an undercover hipster to me...). Few tropes invite such derision, envy, and irritation as the Hipster- but how much do we really know about this character?

In this two parter, we will travel back in time to discuss the origins of this elusive individual, parse out how much of this creature is real and how much is a media fabrication, follow the truly bizarre evolution of the character throughout the 20th and 21st centuries and touch down in modern times to see what shenanigans the Hipster's been up to in recent years. Thanks for listening and see ya in two weeks with Part II!

Tropeography Substack: https://substack.com/@tropeography

Episode Chapters:

(00:00:00) Intro

(00:04:30) The Hepcat and His Jive Dictionary

(00:09:07) NOLA Riverboats and the Harlem Renaissance

(00:10:50) Swing and the the Modern Day Recording Industry

(00:17:01) WWII, Broken Promises and the Birth of Bebop

(00:19:51) Portrait of (the Original) Hipster

(00:29:53) Hipster Fashions (The Bebop Uniform)

(00:34:01) The Parallel Beatnik Archetype

(00:39:37) We Gotta Talk About the Jeans

(00:45:33) Flowers to Miss Lana Del Rey

(00:46:59) Rebel Without a Cause and the Invention of the American Teenager

(00:55:30) Norman Mailer and the First White Hipster Archetype

(01:07:38) The Cry of Jazz and the Inextricability of Medium and Message

(01:17:55) Notes on Forthcoming Part Two and Conclusion

Attributions:

• Funky Chunk by Kevin MacLeod | https://incompetech.com/
• Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/
• Creative Commons CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/