That said, and leaving aside my general dislike of the language of “recuperation,” the idea of hipsterism as “pre-recuperated” does kind of sound right. I wonder why this is the case, though? The YBA’s will-to-recuperation gave them some pretty obvious rewards (fame, money); I don’t see any obvious such mechanism in the case of hipsters.

…although I share your disdain for Adbusters, I think one should stress that there have been oppositional elements to subcultures. Often overstated by Birmingham school types, perhaps – but to deny it altogether seems to play into the hands of a certain pomo ‘nothing has ever happened, ever’ logic. Sure, mid-80s B-Boys took money from Adidas, Mods fetishised Italian labels and casuals collected trainers, but all had elements in them which eventually resulted in, oh, Public Enemy or the Sex Pistols, or rave, all of which I would wager induced actual terror in the hearts of our enemies, even if they were of course quickly recuperated. Hipsterdom (vague and amorphous as it is) is to a degree unprecedented in that – like the ‘Young British Art’ of the early 90s which represented perhaps its earliest manifestation – it comes already pre-recuperated.

A friend of mine is starting research on an economic analysis of the UK hardcore (punk) scene, and it’ll be interesting to see how alternative, if at all, the economics of the subculture are.