Design and Entertainment
Visuals, visuals, visuals! Steampunk is a subgenre in fiction, sure, but outwardly, it's a movement taking the visual world by storm. It has become an aesthetic, and fashionistas are definitely making their mark by pulling back into Victorian verse and modernizing the styles with vibrant and/or muted colors, with petticoats in a brown-ish, bronze-ish lace, hats with timepieces imbued upon the felt sides, and with skirts--short or long--with several layers and/or asymmetric cuts. There are goggles on heads, goggles on hats, and reinvented rayguns that look like they blow steam rather than electricity. Even steampunk artwork has its distinct style, along with other types of artistry that I have not even mentioned yet.
In all honesty, steampunk is fun to look at. So it's hardly a surprise that most people tend to view it as an aesthetic subculture as opposed to a subgenre, and most people tend to adore the style rather than read about the political, historical, and intellectual backdrop that it is quite known for. Today, when most steampunkers think steampunk, they're thinking about the next corset or airship design, or how they can dress up their guitars to make it look more steampunk than rock.
Below, I'm mostly going to share just a few things people do to get steam-creative. So, what better way than to go through visual examples, yeah? Yes, beware, this is where I get less wordy and more graphics-video-heavy.
In all honesty, steampunk is fun to look at. So it's hardly a surprise that most people tend to view it as an aesthetic subculture as opposed to a subgenre, and most people tend to adore the style rather than read about the political, historical, and intellectual backdrop that it is quite known for. Today, when most steampunkers think steampunk, they're thinking about the next corset or airship design, or how they can dress up their guitars to make it look more steampunk than rock.
Below, I'm mostly going to share just a few things people do to get steam-creative. So, what better way than to go through visual examples, yeah? Yes, beware, this is where I get less wordy and more graphics-video-heavy.
Music
Steampunk music is interesting, in that there never seems to be a consensus of what encompasses it. They are closer to the more alternative types of music out in modern times, but some of them have a spinning of an old tune to a new beat, as it were. Abney Park, one of the more popular steampunk bands, have opted to add a bit of Victorian flair in their music and lyrics. Some others choose to mix and match Celtic and rock, or folksy tunes with electric. Panic! At the Disco are also known to touch upon the steampunk aesthetic occasionally, though most usually dismiss their music as more pop/rock and mainstream. Still, you cannot deny in the example below that their music video is at least brimming with steampunk elements!
The song itself is the focus of the steampunk video above. It is--you guessed it--about airship pirates.
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The music video brings together a more Gothic/vampiric steampunk than anything else. Interesting stuff.
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Food
Admittedly, food is probably one of my favorite new ways of showing steampunkery and creativity. Here, people get creative, from cake decorating to cutting their cookies into gear shapes, to molding chocolate into time pieces, to even putting in a bit of absinthe into their cupcakes!
Dress and Jewelry
Seriously, these are just examples of the various steampunk fashion you can find floating around today. And these are just corsets and timepieces, too!
Digitalization
If you haven't already realized, I've been putting up mentions of pop culture movies and animation in my extra credit. Well, here I'm going to throw in a few more (and heck, it might help you with the extra credit for homework 5!).
This movie is slightly odd, considering the events of the Musketeers pre-dates steampunk Victorian London...but it's meant to be mostly fun, and certainly a different depiction from the original Dumas story.
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Many claim that steampunk had hardly been mainstreamed, up until the popular ABC TV show Castle aired a steampunk episode, which seemed to have brought this society into the public eye.
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Fiction Today
The books today encompass a wide variety of steampunk types. You can have the grittier, more adult-oriented set, the young adult set, the children set, and thensome. There could be elements of fantasy, or science fiction, or horror. It could take place during a portion of history, or it could be completely in the future, where everything is speculative, or it could take place in a different universe. Anyway, here are just a few more titles if you're curious to see what works there are currently out for steampunk. (Note: I've read all of these books, so am comfortable recommending them. I do have a longer list of steampunk books to read, but at the risk of me not liking them, I'll keep from recommending them for now.)
Now onto the Assignment!