Po Tidholm: The Worst Part of the Hipster Era Was Everyone Talking About Brooklyn

The era of 'hipster music,' roughly spanning 2000 to 2014, is revisited with a critical eye, highlighting its perceived calculated nature and the tiresome proliferation of certain sounds and trends. The author recalls the initial struggle to appreciate artists associated with the 'freak folk' genre, such as CocoRosie and Devendra Banhart, and later the influx of bands like Bon Iver and Vampire Weekend, some of whom genuinely captured a zeitgeist while others merely expressed it.

The most grating aspect, according to the commentary, was the pervasive discussion of Brooklyn, which the author felt diminished Stockholm's collective self-confidence that had been strong in the 90s. This cultural shift was accompanied by a noticeable change in music production, with a move away from traditional elements like the hi-hat towards percussion, leading to the emergence of what the author terms the 'stomp clap hey' subgenre.

Bands like Mumford & Sons, Of Monsters and Men, and The Head and The Heart are singled out for popularizing a stompy folk-pop sound that, in the author's view, alarmingly merged with EDM, foreshadowing some of the less palatable moments in electronic dance music. This period is characterized as a dark chapter in music history, with the music itself often proving ephemeral and overly tied to its specific time, making it difficult to appreciate in retrospect.