American Hipster is a web series created by three Seattlites (typical), focusing on trendmaking h-words thoughout this beautiful nation of ours. The Seattle edition just wrapped up, and here are a couple of the episodes, one focusing on One Reel's Chris Porter and Kayte Olsufka (now the marketing manager at Neumos), and another on Cap Hill nightlife don diva Linda Derschang. Music, nightlife. Boom.
More stuff after the deal.
Today, Seattle becomes the most recent city featured on American Hipster, a YouTube channel started by three Seattle natives (David Fine, Peter Furia and Beau Lewis) that documents the lives of so-called ‘hipster’ trendsetters throughout the country. The channel’s central series, American Hipster Presents, is a collection of earnest portraits of creative people talking about and demonstrating their passions.
In each city, video profiles—each about seven minutes long—are created in five categories: food, art, music, style and social life. The subjects in Seattle are: Rachel Marshall of Rachel’s Ginger Beer; Steph Kesey and Erin Pollock, the wax artists behind Melting Bodies; Chris Porter and Kayte Olsufka, the two-person team responsible for booking the musical acts at Bumbershoot; reclaimed furniture and fixture manufacturer Michael Marian; and trendsetting bar and restaurant owner Linda Derschang.
The American Hipster YouTube channel is part of a bigger strategy by Google, YouTube’s parent company, to change the way in which entertainment content is developed and delivered. For more and more consumers, hyper-targeted content delivered over the internet is becoming an entertainment alternative to cable and network television.
YouTube is investing heavily in this new approach to content generation, having allocated signficant funds to support more than 160 original channels. In addition to new media companies like Seedwell that are hoping to break out and make a name for themselves, the original programming initiative has also recruited some big name participants, such as Jay-Z, Madonna, Stan Lee, Tony Hawk, and Shaquille O’Neal.
So what exactly is a hipster? According to Peter Furia, co-founder at Seedwell, the San Francisco-based digital creative studio behind American Hipster, it’s more than just the cardigan-, skinny jean-, and beanie-wearing 20 somethings rolling around Williamsburg and Portland on their fixies.
“We acknowledge that hipster has become a loaded—even pejorative—term, but we think that beyond the negative connotations and imagery, there is something there,” said Furia. “Namely groups of like-minded, creative and passionate people who are becoming tastemakers in many different segments of society.”
I can't help but want to jerkoff motion/fart noise to all of this (Google stagegies, new media) but these are pretty good. Get to know your so-called hipsters, Seattle.
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