Oh Hey There

So the first question for sociolinguists is the following-How is the band performing ‘hipster style’? Here’s a breakdown of how some sociolinguists’ proposed theories and models might suggest there is a ‘hipster style’.

Habitus (Bourdieu) - The band is replicating a manner of dress that is found throughout the website “Look at This Fucking Hipster”. Particularly, the man in sparkly leggings is an indicator of the ‘hipster’ style, as dressing in a less traditionally masculine way is a practice among the community.

Ethnography of Communication (Hymes) - To have a recognizable style, speech acts must be performed within the community. By definition a band performs, thus what the band is doing in the video is a performance of style.

Audience Design (Bell) - Style shifts in response to audience. The flat intonation of the band members is important here, as it seems to project an icy coolness to the audience. Do you think the band members speak in robotic monotone 24/7? No way. They are thus adjusting their style to fit their audience.

Enregisterment (Agha) - Once a large enough number of people perform the same speech and stylistic acts for other communities to become aware of this, and for the community themselves to see this performance as salient to their identity, the style is enregistered. This band’s video is posted on a site about hipsters, indicating that this style has become enregistered, and therefore, recognizable when performed.

Semiotics Combined With Language Variation (Eckert) - Style is not just speech-dress, gestures, symbols, other elements of semiotics play a key role. Again, the clothing conveys a very unique yet reproduced and reproduceable aesthetic. This suggests a style. The objects seen in the video also serve to semiotically convey the style. For instance, holding a longneck (signifying cheap) beer in the left hand is important for male hipster style.