A few weeks ago, I was sitting in the same old leather chair that I am as I write this, listening to the sound of Robin Pecknold’s voice of the band Fleet Foxes melt through the speakers of my computer and into my ears. This often being part of my evening ritual, my father was not surprised to find me here. When he took a closer listen to this evening’s music, he was quick to call me a hipster. Being slightly offended, I wrote it off as his frustration of not being able to find this music before I did because we share a similar affinity for music. We also share a similar distaste for the word hipster and its negative connotations.

 Hipsters. Every year the city in which I call home is flooded with them for three days for a festival called ACL.

As if occupying the place of my roots for three days wasn’t enough, some of them don’t leave. I don’t think I would mind their presence as much if they didn’t act the way they do, but humans are creatures of habit. They come here with their radical new ideas, lay claim to all the good music before it was “cool,” and make sure everyone knows it. I think the only thing I appreciate about them is their sense of fashion.

Their young, new and radical ideas mainly concerning politics don’t bother me that much because they can be stifled by the more well-read, but there is still the issue of being cool before it was cool. You always know if you are near a hipster and if you don’t, they will tell you. Usually the topic of music will come up and they will mention how they used to like a song before everyone else did. This though is so irrational because good music doesn’t stop being good once it reaches the masses. One shouldn’t disown a song once it becomes popular, they should celebrate its success and the fact that instead of 10 people enjoying it, 10 million are.

Some people might listen to the music I enjoy and call me a hipster but I’m not trying to be a hipster. It’s the ones that are trying that should be called hipsters. All I want to do is be who I am, apart from the crowd or not, it doesn’t matter.