Reading through July’s issue of Rolling Stone, which I read from cover to cover, I arrived at a feature story about Justin Bieber and sighed heavily and said, “gosh, he’s much too trendy for my taste.”

At that moment I realized—though I denied it for months afterward—that I was hipster.

The magazine fell from my hands, and I sat in bed for hours, mouth wide open, trying to figure out what had just run through my mind.

I thought, “but I don’t wear vintage plaid shirts or bulky black rimmed glasses without lenses, or walk around yelling ‘death to the mainstream.’”

But is being a hipster really all that bad?

Sometimes people picture them as the droll kids sitting on the edge of a couch, PBR in hand, judging you for your taste in music, because to them it leans toward the popular and uninspired.

But I’ve never actually come across a hipster who does that, only people who try to assume a certain image.

In fact, hipsters who dress like some oddity and walk around head held high may not even exist, those might just be posers.

No, hipsters don’t have to fit a certain image.

The one rumor I believe is true is that hipsters base their collection of music on what they like, not what seems to be popular at the time, which is what mainly angers people about them.

Well, can you blame hipsters for being enraged when the music they’ve been going crazy over for months finally gets attention?

Remember Gotye’s “Somebody I Used to Know?”

Yeah, I listened to that song nonstop months before it cracked the Billboard charts, when my friends described the song as awkward and off-putting.

And when the song finally hit the airwaves, it seemed to play everywhere.

I remember becoming angry not because Gotye’s song finally earned the recognition it deserved, but because it took so long for everyone else to appreciate his talent.

People may not have even known who he was until radio stations played him.

The hipster, in my opinion, forms a vital part in our understanding of what is good and what is bad, even if the art they enjoy is unpopular.

Oftentimes, people seem to go for what appears to be trendy without ever leaving room for other artists who have just as much to offer, maybe even a little more than Katy Perry and Beyoncé (who I also happen to love).

Hipsters, in a way, act as minorities, imparting foreign knowledge about art and culture that is often ignored.

What is to be said about us when we only listen to what music companies promote heavily?

Well, it means we’re getting lazy, we’re forgetting that the Internet provides us with the tools to search for all artists, not just the really famous ones.

We’re settling.

Though there are some people actively seeking out new artists, but what good is that if they never share their love for their work?

If you only listen to an obscure artist when you’re all alone because others may deem it as lame, listen to it in public, sing out loud.

Don’t be ashamed of what others will think, because chances are they may like it too.

For those who are turned off by unpopular artists like Hot Chip, Lana Del Rey and Sharon Van Etten, I challenge you to look for artists you’ve never heard of and listen intently.

You might like what you hear if you let down your guard and just listen.

Jaime Lopez can be reached at 581-2812 or jlopez2@eiu.edu.