Oh Hipsters, Where Art Thou?

It was decidedly not cool to be seen at The Dixie Hummingbirds show at Great American Music Hall on Sunday. There was no line of artfully dressed kids with asymmetrical haircuts waiting for the chance to score extras from the puffed-up ticketholders at will call. There were no 21-year-olds from Santa Cruz lamenting their inability to get on TicketWeb before the show sold out. And though KUSF did offer a pair of tickets to the show during their Friday afternoon Garage Sale, it is unclear whether anyone had actually shown up to claim them.

In fact, the sidewalk was eerily empty and the venue not much different. Among the six dozen or so people that attended the show were about ten or twelve people under 50. The audience was predominantly white, largely male, and of retirement age.

Paul and I encountered the same scenario back in October of 2002 when we witnessed Solomon Burke's mindblowing performance at Great American along with probably the same 70 or so people. Sunday's show was nearly as memorable, as Paul conveyed much more eloquently than I could hope to on his blog yesterday.

Why was this show, one of the best I've seen this year, not on the hipster music lover's radar? As Paul notes, he was the only Sonicliving user to express interest in the show. On further inspection, only two people have expressed interest in the Dixie Hummingbirds among the site's thousands of users -- myself and someone named Luke. In contrast, The Shins have 592 fans on the site, Postal Service 512 and Interpol 472.

If hipsters pride themselves on having a broad palette when it comes to musical tastes, why do they sport such an egregious blind spot when it comes to genres like Soul, Gospel and Jazz?

The hypotheses are wide-ranging. It has been postulated in some circles, and not without some anecdotal evidence, that despite appearing to take cues from black culture, your run-of-the-mill hipster is really at odds with, confused by, and even afraid of black culture. I can't think of many experiences I have had that would put the lie to this idea, but then again, the hipster does exhibit at least a passing interest in hip-hop, though hipster tastes tend to run away from the more earnest artists and toward the self-conscious and ironic acts in the genre like Handsome Boy Modeling School and Lady Sovereign. And the audiences at these shows skew white, middle-to-upper-middle class.

Another hypothesis has it that Jazz, Gospel and Soul are more or less nostalgic and relatively static genres at this point. Some will obviously disagree here. Feel free to jump in, Paul. But that hasn't stopped hipsters listening to rock 'n roll, supporting 70s revival bands -- of which crowd Wolfmother are the current darling -- or buying new releases from past-their-prime acts like New York Dolls and Pere Ubu.

So how does one explain the fact that hipsters will cram into the Hollywood Bowl to see Brian Wilson perform 'Smile', but nary a one shows up to see gospel and soul living legends of the caliber described above?

Is it because the shows and bands in question have not been sanctioned by the all-important tastemakers? Or is it rather that hipsters share an all-consuming fear of being caught at the wrong show? While they ridicule the masses for taking what is spoon-fed to them by corporate-owned radio and big advertising, hipsters blaze a new path by taking their cues from a few select websites and blogs, as well as...uh...certain radio stations. But different stations, different magazines. Some even not owned by corporations. So, if you're keeping track, the cachet lies in some Statement of Ownership document on file with in the basement of the SEC. Disney doesn't dictate my musical tastes! New Times Media does!

But my high horse has begun to saunter off the trail.

Truth is, it was nice not to have to fight the crowds to see a great show last Sunday, but it is a bit depressing for the state of the American musical landscape that our compatriots in Europe are still better and more thorough at sifting through our music and finding the gems than we are. You can bet that The Dixie Hummingbirds, and certainly Solomon Burke, have a built-in audience over there. It's sad to think that acts like this have to earn their living flying back and forth to The Netherlands.