A hipster is anyone who wears skinny jeans, a fitted flannel shirt (as opposed to the loose-fitting grunge flannel from the 90's), black framed glasses and thinks he isn't a hipster.

That sort of term doesn't have a static definition. English doesn't work that way.

This thread got shut down on SSC for being City vs City. That was never my intention, so I apologize to any administrator or moderator for posting this on SSP as well. It was just a way to discuss another facet of a city, hipster culture.

LOL, "hipsters." So 2009. Anyways, IMO, the most "hipster" cities/areas in the country are Portland, Brooklyn, and the areas that form a crescent around Dodger Stadium in LA (I call it the "Dodger Belt"). Outside of America, Berlin and London are the two big ones.

Hipsterism is flattening out. The peaks arent as...Williamsburgy circa 2002, the smaller cities (I'll use my own) have become more hipster, even though it's not a hipster magnet. But I mean we have the pin ball bars, and a dedicated hipster street and Australian meat pies, and shit. We didn't 5 years ago.

I think that's the biggest trend of the past 5 years (smaller cities taking a bigger slice of hipsterdom, even if it's still small), but it is obscured in OMG WHERE THE NEXT HIPSTER CITY.

Nashville might be the interesting new interior city of it.

Really? Because, on RPDR, she has talked repeatedly about being a pariah in the city's gay scene.

It's true that she has been ignored by the primary gay scene, but that gives her more cred as being the embodiment of new Pittsburgh. From my perspective as a gay man here, the mainstream gay crowd really has nothing to do with what is driving the new Pittsburgh. They can actually be pretty insular at times, keeping to themselves, and they show a strange aversion to the arts community. The weirdo arts community, at least. They rarely venture to any of the transitional East End neighborhoods where most of the cool stuff is happening (and where Sharon's home bar is in Lawrenceville). The people actually doing the heavy lifting in Pittsburgh are the ones in the alternative scenes, and that's where Sharon's big following comes from. You will see Sharon booked at the largest art fundraiser party in the city, but not at our pride fest. It's kind of a shame, but there are distinctly different queer scenes here anyway so it's not a huge deal. Especially because the alternative queer scene here has grown enormously over the past few years and now has it's own weight.

Fascinating. Thanks for the explanation!

From where I've been, I wouldn't rank them, especially not for the big diverse cities. It would be a lesson in futility. I would put them into different categories however....

Sheer numbers/different neighborhoods: LA, Bay Area, NYC, Chicago, Toronto, Montreal

Smaller, but significant: Boston, DC, New Orleans, Vancouver

High percentage of population: Seattle, Portland, Austin

Emerging: Philly, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Baltimore

Hipsters are nothing more than fashion nerds.

I don't think it is flattening out - I think it is getting more saturated, avid and more graphic. When I watch "our" hipsters in Vancouver it is pretty clear that they are getting bored with this fad so they are discovering new ways how to look even more "hip" (using the word hip in this case is somehow not even effective), but in the eyes of a normal person they are just getting more and more ridiculous.

I think that by the time someone defines "hipster" or where they hang out - it's already over.

In my experience traveling around America I find some of the smaller towns and cities have more visible and authentic hipster scenes. Take Lawrence, Kansas for example. Ive never seen a higher percentage of hipsters per capita than in any other city. I was there in the summer of 2010 though, kinda the peak of hipsterism, maybe its changed there but I doubt it. Little Rock, Arkansas also has a pretty visible hipster scene, more so than Houston for example.

Who the hell is Sharon Needles?

That sounds more like a "hip" yuppie to me...

ahem.

yeah, turkey ;)

"Hip" + "YUPPY" = Hippy???:tup: