In the 50s and 60s, there are five people at the centre working very hard, miserably trying to write a book and around them there are 95 people more or less having fun,“ Greif explains. "In the hipster culture the people at that centre aren’t necessarily producing art, they’re actually working in advertising, marketing and product placement. These were once embarrassing jobs. Now it’s meaningful in this world to say that you sell sneakers, at a high level. Why do people hate hipsters?
I’ve just finished Zero History and I’m still coming to terms with how I feel about it. Being about advertising and fashion, it is of course a commentary about the need for capitalism to co-opt every new thing.The brilliance of Zero History is not in its storyline, which feels a little formulaic, or in its characters, which feel bland. It’s in its identification of the changing relationship between subcultures, consumption, fashion and advertising, and its refusal to fall into a simplistic sell-out / stay true dichotomy.
Other commentators have noted the difficulty to create a subculture in the age of the internet - subcultures get co-opted incredibly rapidly. Or, increasingly, collaborate in their co-optation from the beginning. I suspect the backlash against hipsters was not really a response to it being an empty, meaningless subculture. Most subcultures at their core are more about shared tastes and boundary policing than any deep meaning, and they all have their base in shared consumption. That consumption may be ritualised (buy nothing day, retro fashion), fetishised (fairtrade, veganism, freeganism) or politicised (DIY) or ironic (take your pick), but a subculture can’t exist without shared consumption patterns. Rather, the backlash against hipsters is likely motivated by the fact it is/was a global subculture taking place in public view, arousing all of the usual passions and responses against things that are run by young people.
As a new generation comes of age, it’s likely that their subcultures will figure out ways to resist co-optation even while interacting online. 4chan may be viewed as an exercise in protecting a subculture that exists online. By forcing participants to understand a complex set of acceptable behaviours (call and response, memes), initiations (raids, DDOS) and repelling outsiders (porn, gore), 4chan have, for the time being, created an online subculture that’s resisted being sold out and dissipated.
The central plot point of Zero History is about how subcultures may avoid selling out in a post-geographical world. The designer of the Gabriel Hounds clothing is a closely guarded secret — clothes are sold in small batches and they are sold at pop-up events that are invitation only. This creates scarcity in a post-scarcity world (or at least, exclusivity in a post-exclusivity world). This, naturally, drives the master-coolhunter Bigend insane, driving him to employ someone closer to subculture status to find the designer. Hollis Henry - cult musician, music shop owner, journalist - epitomises obscurity cool. Her band was a cult band, her music shop sold records and her magazine was never actually published. She forms the bridge between the advertising world and the new subculture, and she is thoroughly conflicted about this role. It’s a conflict many creatives in advertising feel, with a foot in both worlds.
By the time Hollis Henry finds the creator of the Gabriel Hounds, the creator has already decided it’s time to go public. Once advertisers have found you, there’s a limited time for you to cash in before it gets done for you - so she does it on her own terms. As hipsters and the generations that follow become more comfortable with this, the more we’ll see niche market producers and subcultural figures selling out on their own terms.
