Just what is "hipster" in music today?

The term "hipster metal" has been floating around for a few years now. Newer sludge and stoner rock/metal bands have been getting a "hipster" label slapped on them for reasons that most music fans aren't sure of.
Some people seem to think that if a band dabbles in to experimental or "avant-garde" territory, then they have gone "hipster."

The problem is, hipster has become the new emo. The term has become the fashionable new insult!

Traditionally, identifying a legitimate hipster is quite simple. The hipster look this writer understands are the pretentious urban kids in skin-tight jeans, v-neck shirts, shutter shades with cheesy mustaches (obviously in males) who are drinking PBRs. The term has expanded to embody bearded gentlemen with long hair in flannel shirts smoking "all-natural" cigarettes. This sounds similar to male lumberjacks, no? So the term is incredibly loose and open-ended in it's definition.

Naturally, the term has behaved as an umbrella and brought music in to the fray. Some of these legitimate hipsters discovered sludge and black metal and then the bands themselves started to get labeled as "hipster." Bands like Oakland, California's Saviours, or the source of this rant, the psychedelic-tinged sludge metal act Kylesa are names that are commonly associated with "hipster music." Even bands like the seminal Norwegian black metal band Darkthrone are being associated with the hipster music scene. This is a band who more than likely has no idea what a hipster even is.

If people who are truly hipsters are listening to these bands, sometimes the individuals are just trying to stay on the cutting-edge of alternative and underground culture. Also, irony plays a role. Imagine a stereotypical hipster wearing a Burzum shirt simply for irony; because he doesn't actually like that kind of music at all. Soon, that band would get that label thrown on them simply by association. In defense of these individuals, there are people who are labeled hipster that truly enjoy these extreme metal acts.

The bottom line is that labeling has gotten of music has gotten out of hand. People are so obsessed with labels that they have forgotten that music is music and people are people. According to this way of thinking, if a band experiments with different music elements, they are trying to be trendy and therefore become a hipster band. To most fans of music, labels mean nothing. If the music is good, then that is all that matters. It doesn't matter what crowd of people may listen to the music. In all honesty, it is unfair to the musicians who want nothing to do with our labels or our scenes when we make accusations towards them. A word like hipster has gone from a description to an insulting slang term.

To quote Laura Pleasants, guitarist and vocalist of Kylesa, from the article "...[hipster metal]'s kind of a lame term. I don't know what the f*** hipsters do. They listen to dance music; I don't think a lot of them listen to metal. It's a dumb comment and I would not classify us as hipster metal."

Laura Pleasants' comments are certainly understandable when unnecessary insults are being thrown at them. We are all guilty of labeling, there's no denying it. There is fear associated with the unknown. With this in mind, labeling music is understandable. However, the practice quickly gets out of hand. This has become painfully obvious when new and meaningless labels are made up out of desperation.

You can read the original link here:
Kylesa a "Hipster Metal" band?