Lounging on the arms of pleasant conversation in my neighbor’s suite, I sat back and listened. Murmurs of small talk awkwardly wafted around the corners of the living room to meet the passionate breath of deep philosophical exchange in the center. Then, from across the room, with such a fabricated disdain I hear, “Passion Pit is so out! I used to like them, but now I just can’t anymore; everyone else likes them.” Frustrated, while guiltily empathetic, I thought, “What a hipster,” but instead attempted the undoubtedly fruitless counter, “Why don’t you just form your musical taste on what you actually like, rather than on what everyone else likes?” I never did hear her reply, but I certainly was faced with a disturbing internal paradox—I understood the emotional proclivity to value the lesser known, but I couldn't deny the irrationality of rejecting one’s own interests for the sake of a contrived individuality. Ironically enough, this compulsion—to unconditionally reject the mainstream in hopes of obtaining uniqueness—is a popular trend many find themselves conforming to. While figures of hipsterdom past may have been characterized by their genuinely progressive cultural attitudes, so-called hipsters of today have habitually become the shells of their originating predecessors, merely contriving the countercultural façade. Those perceived to be hipsters in modern culture misrepresent the very movement they aim to imitate...