One thing that we’ve never understood here at Melancholy Mollusk is the constant indian theme in hipster dressware. Are indian garments chillwave? Maybe it’s the indian lifestyle that’s giving good vibes? Maybe hipsters are ironically wearing it because indians are lamestream? Let’s give a few examples of indian hipster bros/broettes before I explain.
Well, there are multiple reasons, but let’s dive into the word “Indian” itself first.
When America was first founded, the Puritan settlers from Britain stumbled upon a people that they had never encountered before in their lives. Their clothes, lifestyle, and music were all different from the society they had recently severed themselves from. The settlers called them the “Indies’,” because they settlers actually believed that they had landed on the West Indies until they later discovered which continent they were actually on. The term “Indies” stuck around for centuries until it was later elongated to Indians to be politically and grammatically correct.
After multiple attempts to assimilate their societies, the settlers found that the Indies valued their way of life, dress, and music more than anything on the planet. Neither gold nor valuable new worldly knowledge would persuade them to give up their life of living off of the land. Instead, they chose to keep their culture sacred, and shun anyone who dared to give off harsh vibes, or to try to convert them to what the settlers considered to be mainstream society.
Years went on, and the mainstream society grew and grew, until one day the Indies were overpowered, and forced off of their sacred lands. Although they resisted, there was little hope for the Indies; they had little leverage on the American government and the American way of life. So, defeated, the Indies’ culture subsided; their way of living destroyed. Until the hipster movement, that is.
“Indie” music, believe it or not, is actually an attempt to bring about the chillwave nature of early native american society. Chillwave (or YILH-KOLH in Navajo) actually describes their way of life. They had clothes that resembled this YILH-KOLH, music that was YILH-KOLH, and even a YILH-KOLH society. They made sure that the rest of the world understood that they were different, and demanded respect for that. This new “indie” music captures the principles of YILH-KOLH, and thus represents a yearning for the return to an earlier society. This has been hinted at by the band Neon Indian, who is definitely a key supporter of the YILH-KOLH movement.
Take for example his hit song, Deadbeat Summer.
“hear the endless hiss
as it rolls into the starlit abyss
all my dreams reminisce
never thought this time it’d be like this”
This is definitely Alan Palomo commiserating with the fallen culture of the indians, as he never thought that the exploitation of their society could have gone this far. He also sends a warning to his listeners that history could repeat itself, so keep the indie culture alive to rep the lost society before them.
Hipsters are those most closely associated with indie culture. They show it too. They have their own unique culture which they wish to preserve from the mainstream. They wear different clothes, listen to different music. In a way, they give off the same chill vibes as the indians before them.
In an attempt to personify and bring back the Native Americans, hipsters have started to wear Indian attire in support of their lost culture; both to rep their previous way of YILH-KOLH, and to show that the hipster culture is much like that of the Indian culture.
Oh. And the Indians sooo knew about America way before you did. Coincidence? I think not.
Love,
Upholder of Doctorates.
P.S. Keep it YILH-KOLH
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