Wow, this is an NSG thread with legitimate replies. Colour me shocked.
I am conflicted about the whole hipster thing. I am not a hipster, not at all, in fact I probably defy categorization aside from 1. academic and 2. skier. So take that for what it's worth re: where this is coming from. However I do own a buffalo check flannel and enjoy listening to a lot of stuff that hipsters also enjoy, and have done since before they started making their mark a few years back.
I think the major issue I have with hipsters is the same thing as with the last trend, or the next: I can't stand a mob mentality. Mobs are stupid and undiscerning, they all do what everyone else is doing and even in the abstract that makes no sense. It's like a giant gag, "You're following me? I was following you!" The unimaginative nature of the world of trends is just incredibly unappealing and unattractive (see: girls wearing tights tucked into their boots).
The other thing is my main friction with the whole thing involves clothing and the fact that hipsters have trendified an entire silhouette, which is now more or less off limits if you don't want to be painted with the same brush. Same with the music. Nobody who actually IS doing their own thing likes a mob gravitating towards them, it's sort of dehumanizing to have a bunch of humanoids making you less and less discernible from a mannequin in an H&M window, like your identity is presumably shaped by others. That and the pretense involved; I've had enough of my brother telling me I don't know how to listen to Sufjan Stevens despite the fact that I have an extensive background in music and an arts degree. I get it. You think you're more artsy and understand things on a deeper level than other people because you belong to a social movement. Excuse me while I gag.
But that's the thing... it doesn't look bad and the music isn't bad. In fact compared to earlier trends, even viewed from the outside, this one's kind of got some things going for it. Sure, just as with every mob, it'll get more and more extreme with people trying harder and harder to exhibit those hipsterish traits and seem more underground than everyone around them, particularly as more and more people join the mob. That's an underlying problem with having a mass consciousness predicated on being different. But the underlying... ethos is the word I guess I want, is not bad. Of Montreal makes some fucking amazing music, Sigur Ros (can't keep up with whether they count as hipster) is one of my favourite bands and Vampire Weekend is pretty good if somewhat self-parodical... I could go on. Clothes that fit a little too tight are preferable to the baggy mess of faded denim, cheap hoody and timberland boots that was popular in the 90s. Facial hair deserved a comeback. And, well, despite what I said before, at least girls in tights are fun to look at. If people are trying to come off as emotionally deeper and more intellectually profound than everyone else, even if it's often superficial, misguided and ridiculously pretentious, sometimes it actually WILL have some real depth and understanding supporting it, and at least there's some taste here, even if it's not always consistent. So it's a lot better than being a frat boy with a tight A&F tee and true religions high fiving your spiky-haired bros because you just felt up some half-silicon skank on the dance floor at AuBar.
What I'm saying is, we could do a lot worse than hipsters, and we have. And we probably will again. So cut them a little bit of slack because given the odds, you're not going to like whatever trend comes next any better than you like this one.