The 21st-century hipster is a subculture (sometimes called hipsterism) that is defined by claims to authenticity and uniqueness, but actually lacks authenticity and conforms to a collective style. The subculture embodies a particular ethic of consumption that seeks to commodify the idea of rebellion or counterculture. Fashion is one of the major markers of hipster identity. Members of the subculture typically do not self-identify as hipsters, and the word hipster is often used as a pejorative for someone who is pretentious or overly concerned with appearing trendy.

The subculture is often associated with indie and alternative music. In the United States and Canada, it is mostly associated with perceived upper-middle-class white young adults who gentrify urban areas.

The term hipster in its present usage first appeared in the 1990s and became widely used in the late 2000s and early 2010s, being derived from the earlier hipster movements of the 1940s. Hipster culture had become a "global phenomenon" during the early-mid 2010s, before declining from the mainstream by 2016–2017.

In early 2000, both The New York Times and Time Out New York (TONY) ran profiles of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, referring to "bohemians" and "arty East Village types," respectively. By 2003, when The Hipster Handbook was published by Williamsburg resident Robert Lanham, the term hipster (originally referring to the 1940s subculture) had come into widespread use in relation to Williamsburg and similar neighborhoods. The Hipster Handbook described hipsters as young people with "mop-top haircuts, swinging retro pocketbooks, talking on cell phones, smoking European cigarettes... strutting in platform shoes with a biography of Che Guevara sticking out of their bags." Lanham further describes hipsters: "You graduated from a liberal arts school whose football team hasn't won a game since the Reagan administration[,]" and "you have one Republican friend who you always describe as being your 'one Republican friend.'" Mark Greif dates the initial phase of the revival of the term hipster to refer to this subculture from 1999 to 2003. While hipsters usually come from affluent white families, they can come from a multitude of backgrounds. A running theme of hipsters is having parents who are supporters of former President Ronald Reagan.

A similar phenomenon occurred in the United Kingdom, with young, comparatively affluent workers in the media and digital industries moving into traditionally working class areas of London such as Hoxton, Spitalfields, and, particularly, Shoreditch with the subsequent gentrification of these areas. The subculture was parodied in the magazine Shoreditch Twat (1999) and the television sitcom Nathan Barley (2005). The series, about a self-described "self-facilitating media node," led to the term Nathan Barleys being used pejoratively in London for the subculture it parodied.

In 2008, Utne Reader magazine writer Jake Mohan described "hipster rap" as "consisting of the most recent crop of MCs and DJs who flout conventional hip-hop fashions, eschewing baggy clothes and gold chains for tight jeans, big sunglasses, the occasional keffiyeh, and other trappings of the hipster lifestyle." He notes that the "old-school hip-hop website Unkut, and Jersey City rapper Mazzi" have criticized mainstream rappers whom they deem to be posers "for copping the metrosexual appearances of hipster fashion." Prefix Mag writer Ethan Stanislawski argues that there are racial elements to the rise of hipster rap. He claims that there "have been a slew of angry retorts to the rise of hipster rap," which he says can be summed up as "white kids want the funky otherness of hip-hop...without all the scary black people."

A 2009 Time magazine article described hipsters as follows: "take your grandmother's sweater and Bob Dylan's Wayfarers, add jean shorts, Converse All-Stars and a can of Pabst and bam — hipster."

Hipsters are the friends who sneer when you cop to liking Coldplay. They're the people who wear t-shirts silk-screened with quotes from movies you've never heard of and the only ones in America who still think Pabst Blue Ribbon is a good beer. They sport cowboy hats and berets and think Kanye West stole their sunglasses. Everything about them is exactingly constructed to give off the vibe that they just don't care.