a music critic trend toward taking popstars like Beyonce or Taylor Swift seriously as artists

On the cultural production front it also kind of got bodied by streaming, which aligned all the financial incentives to ensure that the only thing that could make it big was the most inoffensive, focus-grouped, "be as safe as possible" movies & music.

"Imperative" is good. "Safety, inclusion and positivity" are, overtly, neoliberal categories. "Woke" is, among a few other things, a mystification of neoliberalism.

Hipsterism required effort. Sustained work at becoming more expert at something difficult. It was also white. The race commies hate it

"hipsterism" itself derived from "indie," which was much sleazier and bore little resemblance to what came later

When pitchfork gave the new animal collective album a 6 and Kanye a 10 I knew it was over

But I don't think difficult and complex art is inherently anti-woke. I think the real driver of poptimism was that its predecessor, "rockism," was seen as white-male coded, whereas poptimism largely celebrated women and black artists.

Hipsterism was the vanguard of woke. Once everything was sufficiently upscaled & aesthetically comfy it became fashionable and easy to espouse luxury beliefs. A fertile bed indeed

As Foxygen sang, “the door to consciousness isn’t open anymore.” Non-mainstream indie/alt/other had indeed reached a culdesac.

I remember late 90's, early 2000's hipsters being snobs with a penchant for ironic detachment. Definitely a bit annoying at times, but way better than what we're dealing with now.

I love that 2010 hipsterism is being reclaimed

The hipsters were also pop. Don't tell them i said that because they're militarized now.

Down with Stomp Clap Hey

Also part of the ongoing trend of what I once thought was an overcorrection, music faculties, fans, critics, and the industry at large are revising history, suggesting that black people have 'invented' all popular music, often contradicting their own arguments in the process.

The critics at Spin in the 90s taught me the value of music that at first repelled me. No criticism in the later aughts or ‘10s was ever able to teach me to feel love or reverence for music that already sounded fine but boring. Miss you, 90s Spin.

They’re both bad.