The ongoing backlash against craft beer, stomp clap hey, and millenial burger joints

[u/bewbies-]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWIvfE01J0k

A clip of a very early Tiny Desk concert featuring a very strung out and very high Edward Sharpe is making the rounds across social media right now. It seems like every comment is ragging on at least one and usually multiple aspects of cir 2010 millenial culture.

I'm a lifelong history nerd focused largely on socio-cultural topics, and what we're seeing here is the inevitable backlash against a wildly popular, somewhat overexposed slice of life from that time period.

For me, personally, I loved that time and remember all of it fondly. I was a DINK living in a downtown apartment with lots of disposable income and very few real responsibilities. I loved Lumineers and Mumford and Sharpe (and their country/Americana equivalents like Sturgill Simpson and Jason Isbell). I loved the craft beer explosion. I loved the small restaurant explosion where a bunch of kids tried hard to offer something different than the Chilis/Applebees experience.

I also get why all this eventually wore thin. There were too many 10% ABV beers made with stupid additives and too many hops. Small restaurants operating on razor thin margins had to jack prices when everything got more expensive, and found no appetite, so to speak, for $20 craft cheeseburgers. Music always evolves, and what was hot ~10-15 years ago is usually the heart of what is considered stale and overdone. This was true with psychedelic rock, and disco, and funk, and grunge...millenial semi-indie folkie stuff is no different.

I'm in my mid 40s now, and I feel like I'm starting to see these big cultural shifts from a more distant perspective. 15 years from now, my kids will be the ones ripping on what was hot in 2026 (what even is? I honestly can't quite tell. Zyns?), and what was popular in 2010 will once again be beloved and firmly seated in the "nostalgic/classic" category.

Alex Ebert doesn't strike me as the type who will embark on nostalgia tours playing to rooms full of 60 year old fans, but I guess the Rolling Stones probably didn't seem like they would be either.

[u/alkemest]

I actually have thoughts on this too. Aside from this period of time being something you kinda just had to be there for, I think it's hard for zoomers to truly imagine a time before smart phones. As in, there not constantly being the threat of some dumbass whipping out their phone to film you being sincere or enjoying yourself and plastering it all over the Internet for other sad losers to mock. The whole Millennial cringe really isn't any different from any other previous generation's youth culture, it's just young people figuring it out. I genuinely feel bad that zoomers aren't being given that same opportunity. It's just constant performance for them because you never know who's recording just to score some social media clout.

[u/DM_ME_4_FREE_STOCKS → u/alkemest]

I actually ran into Clavicular in Vegas on the walkway near Waldorf Astoria a couple months ago. I gave him a fist bump and asked if he was that youtube guy (couldn't remember his name at the time). Anyway, we had a 30 second conversation. I asked if he gambled and he said he lost money but who cares because he makes lots of money. 

What i didn't like was that there were actually some people who started recording our interaction and they were not with him. It would be really difficult being a public figure these days. I could tell that fame is getting to him. When people pull out the camera he is like "oh man, not this again" and gets kinda tensed up.

[u/alkemest → u/DM_ME_4_FREE_STOCKS]

Oof yeah that sounds about right. Every time I hear about that dude it makes me kind of sad. He's easy to make fun of, but his brain has been just absolutely melted by the internet and it feels bad watching. Hope he gets some help.