Just when you thought you’d heard enough about scruffy indie rock hipsters to last a lifetime (what with their ironic interest in rap and all)—New York magazine went and published an entire feature on them, in which the vintage-clothing-clad-Death-Cab-For-Cutie-loving scenesters are made out to represent an entire generation. NY’s Adam Sternbergh dubs these people “Grups,” after some Star Trek episode in which Captain Kirk lands on a planet where all the adults have died and the children are in charge.
The point seems to be that there are loads of grownups these days that haven’t actually grown up. Which is one hell of a point.
But Sternbergh doesn’t seem to get why. He defines Grups as 35 to 40 year-olds that insist on acting/dressing/living like they’re 22. According to him, this state of perpetual youth is about consuming youth market products—iPods, $600 distressed jeans, rare sneakers. And it’s about youthful freedom—the freedom to follow ‘passions’, the freedom to give your corporate boss the finger and go freelance (and thus go snowboarding in the middle of the week), and the freedom to shrug off the constraints of society by dressing your toddler in a scruffy indie rock band’s signature baby tee.
The disappearance of the generation gap is obvious to anyone with eyes, and it’s well worth talking about. But Sternbergh’s take on it is a bunch of nonsense.
Why? Cause there’s a whole lot of grown folks out there whose lives don’t look very adult, not because of stuff they have—but because of stuff they don’t have.
We’ll call these people Broke. Like their Grup counterparts, Brokes’ lives tend to resemble 22 year-olds. But not in a good way.
Brokes live with roommates, sleep on futons, juggle several McJobs, and strive to build careers in other industries after hours. They max out credit cards, ignore student loan payments (if they got to go to college in the first place), and borrow money from friends and family when they can’t make ends meet.
Whereas 35 year-old Grups can be seen at Starbucks on a weekday afternoon, yapping incessantly on their razor-thin cell phones, 35 year-old Brokes can be seen at that same Starbucks making cappuccinos.
(As an aside, male Brokes have an extremely hard time getting laid. Female Brokes, not so much. Men tend to be more forgiving about their conquests having no car, dingy sneakers, and limited cash flow.)
Most Brokes I know (let’s be honest, freelance writers are almost always Brokes) yearn for everything about adulthood that Grups scorn—namely regular working hours, job security, the ability to buy clothes in actual stores (as opposed to shabby-ass second-hand shops). Square stuff like that.
Needless to say, Brokes—whose poverty-chic Grups are imitating in the first place—don’t find their ‘youthful’ state of being the height of fucking cool. They aren’t hyped on the fact that they don’t have grown-up lifestyles. And they sure as hell aren’t snowboarding in the middle of the week.
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April 25th, 2006
at 12:33 pm
Puerto-Black says:
Very Well written. Keep up the good work. But the ? I ask u is which “Broke” is going to be more common in years to come.
Reply
April 25th, 2006
at 12:51 pm
M says:
co-sign. excellent
Reply
April 25th, 2006
at 1:56 pm
Chance Abrams says:
Thank you for writing this piece.
Reply
April 25th, 2006
at 3:11 pm
GOD says:
bol is broke
Reply
April 25th, 2006
at 6:03 pm
Bol says:
It’s true. If I had more money, I’d be having sex more often.
Just wait…
Reply
April 25th, 2006
at 9:48 pm
J. Singh says:
Your piece is quite funny, but I don’t really agree with your assumptions about the stereotypes. I think our notions of what is to be “grown” have changed, the fasion has changed, etc. To me, really being grown is not jumping into petty identify politics which (whether you are “Broke” or “Grub”), essentially boil down to consumerism, I buy nikes, “I’m a baller”, I buy converse, “I’m a hipster”.
And music (maybe I’m picking the wrong place to rant: on a music genre fan site), is the worst of the lot. Not to defend the Grubs, they piss me off too, but if they want to listen to hip-hop, play it an a banjo while farting on a snare drum, more power to “them.” It seems the only way we talk about people now is based on the shit they buy and hang on themsleves / their lives. And we think we know everything about them from there on out.
It’s a bit dehumanising, no? I mean, I hated having a boss, and now consult, listen to hip-hop and to the Talking Heads, I’m broke, grew up broke and I wear $2 “distressed” jeans.
Which one do I fit into?
Reply
April 26th, 2006
at 3:08 am
GOD says:
get out of here homosexual
Reply
April 26th, 2006
at 11:51 am
Che says:
Bol pays for sex? ..why am I not surprised?
Reply
April 26th, 2006
at 4:34 pm
jimi says:
massive. big ups, girlfriend. this is fire.
Reply
April 27th, 2006
at 1:10 pm
will says:
yes some “grups” may have money, whereas “brokes”,by definition, have none. however, the underlying motivation for both groups appears to be the same. Freelance writers that are brokes can go and get editorial assistant jobs at a few of the thousand newspapers in this country, however, you guys chose not to because you want “passion” and “control” of your lives. everyone cannot be lumped into the “broke” category. you always had broke people, black and white that lived like they were 20 even though they were in their 50s. that is not a new phenomenon. the reason this is getting pub now is because many of these people have college diplomas, and are still refusing to “grow up” so to speak. in that respect it doesn’t matter if you call them “grups” or “brokes”, it’s just the fact that you have people with the ability and qualifications to have jobs that 15 years ago they would have jumped at, but now are forcefully turning away. if you are a freelance “broke” with a diploma, you can become a sell-out editorial assitant at any of the thousands of newspapers around the country. this would put you on the road to “success.” however, you chose to be a “broke” freelancer. it is that type of choice that the new york article was discussing. as a whole, these choices were not made years ago.
Reply
April 30th, 2006
at 7:09 pm
noitsnot says:
its called alcoholism
Reply
May 22nd, 2006
at 2:28 pm
» Parents just don’t understand - XXL says:
[...] A while back, I wrote that the generation gap is disappearing, as evidenced by the fact that a lot of grown folks don’t look/act/live like grownups. But it looks like I may have spoke too soon. As it turns out, the generation gap within hip-hop is becoming more and more pronounced—in spite of the fact that loads of 40-year-old dudes are running around in the same kicks as their 14-year-old sons. [...]
Reply
May 22nd, 2006
at 2:40 pm
mod says:
unbelievably good shit. fuck hipsters.
Reply
June 6th, 2006
at 1:26 pm
11KAP says:
CAN’T YOU TELL AMERICA IS ON A DOWNWARD SPIRAL? YOU WON’T SEE ME ACTING 20 WHEN I AM 40. CHILL WITH THAT NONSENSE.
Reply
August 8th, 2006
at 10:09 pm
Kelly Miller says:
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Reply
September 15th, 2006
at 10:47 am
» Eat or die - XXL says:
[...] Plus, I read Jimmy Izrael’s interview with author (and Okayplayer cofounder) Angela Nissel a few weeks back and I picked up her book The Broke Diaries from the library. [4] Nissel reveals all the gory details of day-to-day poverty and manages to transform them into comedy. Without romanticizing being poor. (Only a bunch of people who have never been strapped a day in their lives would think there’s anything remotely cool about it. Indie rock hipsters: there’s nothing sexy about being broke, you dummies. Which is why everyone in hip-hop that’s broke fronts like they’re not.) [5] [...]
Reply
September 16th, 2006
at 1:28 pm
DJ Main Event says:
realest shit you ever wrote… being 19 and broke sucks… coming with a plan to elevate though.
Reply
January 4th, 2007
at 11:26 am
TheBestout! says:
BORN BROKE,DIE BROKE.
Reply
January 4th, 2007
at 11:45 am
DA DEVIL says:
SEEMS LIKE THIS COMPARISON IS REALLY ABOUT RACE NOT AGE. HUM.. SHOULD HAVE PUT MORE INTO THE BREAK DOWN. NICE READ THOUGH.
Reply
January 4th, 2007
at 2:19 pm
Avenger says:
This was interesting but I don’t agree. Like J singh said what we consider grown up simply changed as did our perception of the nuclear family. We are going through massive social evolution and since we live through the process we want recognize it until our decade passes and the side effects are occuring. What does it mean to be broke in america most people I know don’t fit either description they have a 40,000 a year job and can barely make ends meet and so they are broke. Cat’s who can start a business and be successful should go for it what is this life if we spend it in the wage slave world of cube land.
Reply
March 4th, 2007
at 7:14 pm
John Haley says:
Not to defend the Grubs, they piss me off too, but if they want to listen to hip-hop, play it an a banjo while farting on a snare drum, more power to “them.”
Reply