The trend spotted by the NY Times in 2007 has finally gone mainstream
Remember back when the NY Times published the now (in)famous "blipster" article? Folks in Black rock circles took it as a pejorative, partially because the tone of Jessica Pressler's article was kinda like, "OMG! Black people like indie rock!". Fast forward to a few days ago, and this is how writer Dayo Olopade, in focusing on the fashion aspect, describes things:
Problem is that the writer misses the larger point by overemphasizing fashion in his analysis. Moreover, while he references "indie music", many of his prominent music examples tend to be hip hop ones (hipster rap, courtesy of Lupe Fiasco and Kanye), so it feels like the implication is that skaters and rappers got together and spawned this trend. Maybe that's true. From a certain perspective. But you and I know that there was a lot of rock influencing this trend.
The upside of this article is that it shows that this black hipster trend has gone mainstream. And because TheRoot.com provided a platform to discuss this, even more people will learn about it, as evidenced by some of the feedback on Twitter. What we're seeing is the way that trends move across the landscape. As I wrote in a comment to the piece:
Moving this idea of Black rock forward–and I mean far beyond its current enclaves in NYC, ATL and other cities–requires that many more people start talking and writing about it. Together, those impressions will add up and we'll get to the point when Black rock and Afro-punk are no longer strange concepts.
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