# Hipster / college dorm culture before the internet **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 26, 2010, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hipster-college-dorm-culture-before-the-internet/565431 "2010-12-26T15:36:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![LC\_Strawhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e19adc/32.png) [@LC\_Strawhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LC_Strawhouse)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2010, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hipster-college-dorm-culture-before-the-internet/565431/1 "2010-12-26T15:36:13Z")
Was wondering if anyone can relate to this. Before the internet, college hipsters seemed to have a small set of very narrow and predictable interests in those few years before they put on a tie and joined a big company. My point of reference is the late 1980s in upstate New York and nearby areas, male students. Before I went to college, I spent a lot of time visiting these places to help older brothers of friends move in and out of dorm rooms, and the same stuff kept turning up over and over: VHS copies of This is Spinal Tap, Blade Runner, [Faces of Death](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faces_of_Death) and random David Lynch and Bruce Lee movies. Reading material - Kerouac, Vonnegut, William S. Burroughs, The Last Days of Christ the Vampire (or similar “blasphemy”), anything about “existentialism” or legalizing soft drugs. Noam Chomsky, Ayn Rand, Abbie Hoffman. Anything about central american rebel groups and Irish nationalism (especially if one wasn’t ethnic themselves). Ironic Curious George souvenirs. Music - Negativeland, Sonic Youth and Fugazi (I still don’t know a single song of those bands but they were everywhere), Frank Zappa, random records by The Doors, Rush, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin. Bonus points for a bad quality live tape from an obscure place. Does this ring a bell for anyone? Was it very different for female students? ---
**Author:** ![Arjuna34](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Arjuna34](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arjuna34)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2010, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hipster-college-dorm-culture-before-the-internet/565431/2 "2010-12-26T16:31:20Z")
Not sure I’d count my group as “hipster”, but this rings a bell for my male, late 1980s, Virginia dorm: > [@](#): > > VHS copies of This is Spinal Tap, Blade Runner, [Faces of Death](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faces_of_Death) and random David Lynch and Bruce Lee movies. Yes, exactly this. Also, a copy of The Wall, and Apocalypse Now. > [@](#): > > Reading material - Kerouac, Vonnegut, William S. Burroughs, The Last Days of Christ the Vampire (or similar “blasphemy”), anything about “existentialism” or legalizing soft drugs. Noam Chomsky, Ayn Rand, Abbie Hoffman. Anything about central american rebel groups and Irish nationalism (especially if one wasn’t ethnic themselves). Ironic Curious George souvenirs. Don’t forget the Necronomicon, and books by Ursula Le Guin. Bonus points for Carlos Castaneda or Gabriel García Márquez. > [@](#): > > Music - Negativeland, Sonic Youth and Fugazi (I still don’t know a single song of those bands but they were everywhere), Frank Zappa, random records by The Doors, Rush, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin. Bonus points for a bad quality live tape from an obscure place. Don’t forget live Grateful Dead bootlegs. Also, I don’t think we were the first to have an entire wall of Absolut vodka ads, in addition to the requisite bikini babe posters. I don’t recall any female dorm rooms or suites looking anything like this. ---
**Author:** ![LC\_Strawhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e19adc/32.png) [@LC\_Strawhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LC_Strawhouse)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2010, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hipster-college-dorm-culture-before-the-internet/565431/3 "2010-12-26T18:34:37Z")
Ah yes **Arjuna34** I also remember all those others you mentioned. Funny how those relatively few things spread like wildfire. Another thing I forgot was the books of Harlan Ellison and Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. Not too sure if anyone really bothered to sit and read these books or if they were mostly for show. I kind of remember that the female students back then would have been big fans of Anne Rice and Patrick Swayze but maybe I’m wrong. And I don’t know what a hipster even is, to tell the truth. I just thought it was anyone who doesn’t wear a tie or a uniform. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2010, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hipster-college-dorm-culture-before-the-internet/565431/4 "2010-12-26T19:05:17Z")
“Hipsters?” With _that_ list of interests? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2010, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hipster-college-dorm-culture-before-the-internet/565431/5 "2010-12-26T21:29:12Z")
MC Escher and Salvador Dali prints were huge. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2010, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hipster-college-dorm-culture-before-the-internet/565431/6 "2010-12-26T21:51:45Z")
> [@LC\_Strawhouse](#): > > And I don’t know what a hipster even is, to tell the truth. I just thought it was anyone who doesn’t wear a tie or a uniform. 🆒 No, no; those are beatniks. Hipsters wear ties and jackets precisely because it is so uncool to do so, only they wear them with irony. Stranger Stranger ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2010, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hipster-college-dorm-culture-before-the-internet/565431/7 "2010-12-26T23:32:48Z")
What’s an ironic Curious George souvenir? Where would you travel to that you would bring back a souvenir in the form of Curious George memorabilia? ---
**Author:** ![Kyrie\_Eleison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kyrie_eleison/32/7682_2.png) [@Kyrie\_Eleison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyrie_Eleison)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hipster-college-dorm-culture-before-the-internet/565431/8 "2010-12-27T00:26:05Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > What’s an ironic Curious George souvenir? Where would you travel to that you would bring back a souvenir in the form of Curious George memorabilia? I had a T-shirt with [this image](http://dt.prohosting.com/70s/nopc/cg-pipe.jpg) on it. I traveled to the mall and back, I think. I had no idea I was a hipster. The “before the Internet” part of the OP is ironic. The Internet certainly existed in the late 80s, and in my experience, the guys that the OP is describing are the ones who were actively using it. And then exploiting it by starting ISPs, going on to develop the whole WWW thing, and bringing it to the masses. Some still don’t wear ties. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hipster-college-dorm-culture-before-the-internet/565431/9 "2010-12-27T03:06:28Z")
I was ten years earlier. Music was **Tommy** and **Woodstock** , and for movies it was Humphrey Bogart and Alfred Hitchcock. ---
**Author:** ![Arjuna34](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Arjuna34](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arjuna34)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hipster-college-dorm-culture-before-the-internet/565431/10 "2010-12-27T03:18:00Z")
> [@Kyrie\_Eleison](#): > > The “before the Internet” part of the OP is ironic. The Internet certainly existed in the late 80s, and in my experience, the guys that the OP is describing are the ones who were actively using it. And then exploiting it by starting ISPs, going on to develop the whole WWW thing, and bringing it to the masses. Some still don’t wear ties. That’s true - my suite had most of the things listed so far, and we were using email (even BITNET), online chat, playing MUDs, FTPing files (later gopher and Archie), etc. Also, in addition to Escher, throw in some Mandlebrot plots. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hipster-college-dorm-culture-before-the-internet/565431/11 "2010-12-27T03:20:52Z")
> [@Kyrie\_Eleison](#): > > I had a T-shirt with [this image](http://dt.prohosting.com/70s/nopc/cg-pipe.jpg) on it. I traveled to the mall and back, I think. I had no idea I was a hipster. Oh yeah…there’s one where he’s stoned on ether, too. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hipster-college-dorm-culture-before-the-internet/565431/12 "2010-12-27T03:25:36Z")
Mr. Bill posters in the glare of cheap torch lamps GNR Skull and Tophat Ceramic Bongs and homemade beer bongs made with radiator tubing or garden hose, duct tape, and large gas or oil funnels. Kegs of Geneesee Cream Ale (because it was cheap). ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hipster-college-dorm-culture-before-the-internet/565431/13 "2010-12-27T03:35:29Z")
REM and Black Flag and Edie Brickell and the Pixies and Siouxsie and the Banshees and The Cult and The Misfits and later Danzig. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hipster-college-dorm-culture-before-the-internet/565431/14 "2010-12-27T03:35:55Z")
That list of things is related to nerds, dorks, geeks, and other socially shunned types, not hipsters. Hipsters listened to world music, wore woolen things made in Peru, contantly protested things on the quad, and had questionable hygiene practices. That also played frisbee, went hooking a lot, and were associated with heavy marijuana use. They were often members of the Dmocratic Socialist party and they carried signs that said things like "All women are potential rape victims - all men are potential rapists. They had posters of Bob Marley and tried to copy his hairstyle. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hipster-college-dorm-culture-before-the-internet/565431/15 "2010-12-27T03:48:08Z")
That sounds like a hippie, not a hipster, which is more of a marriage of a hippie and geek. ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee7513/32.png) [@Darth\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Panda)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hipster-college-dorm-culture-before-the-internet/565431/16 "2010-12-27T03:50:25Z")
I was in college in upstate NY in the mid-90s and I, and friends, had several items on your list - David Lynch, Faces of Death, Fugazi, Sonic Youth, Doors, Floyd, Zep, Vonnegut, Rand and Chompsky (yes, yes, I know). Internet was faily minimal for me when I first started in 95, but became prolific afterwards. Prior to college it was all BBSs for me, and then I think I did a year with no internet except at library, then some minimal dial up for another year, and after that it got good (starting about 97). Anyway, I wouldn’t consider myself a hipster, then or now, by any stretch of the imagination. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hipster-college-dorm-culture-before-the-internet/565431/17 "2010-12-27T04:15:13Z")
Violent Femmes were huge at that time… a phenomenon in the college scene. Their first album was released in '82 and went platinum ten years later… That must be a pretty unusual feat? ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hipster-college-dorm-culture-before-the-internet/565431/18 "2010-12-27T04:20:52Z")
> [@Hades](#): > > That sounds like a hippie, not a hipster, which is more of a marriage of a hippie and geek. In the '80s there was no intermarriage between hippies and geeks. Hipsters were hippies, but with more modern tastes in music. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hipster-college-dorm-culture-before-the-internet/565431/19 "2010-12-27T04:30:48Z")
I never heard hipsters ever used as a genre other than by people over 50… There was no such thing as a “hipster” back then… it almost seems derogatory and something my Grandpa would use. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hipster-college-dorm-culture-before-the-internet/565431/20 "2010-12-27T05:46:17Z")
> [@acsenray](#): > > In the '80s there was no intermarriage between hippies and geeks. Hipsters were hippies, but with more modern tastes in music. I realize hipsters weren’t a subculture of the eighties, but hipsters and hippies don’t really have much in common beyond scruffiness and soft drug use, and you’re describing a very stereotypical hippie. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hipster-college-dorm-culture-before-the-internet/565431.md?page=2)