There’s a culture called Steampunk that is dedicated to a revamp of the Victorian age. Typically filled with massive steam powered mechanics and extravagant dirigibles, this classic age is mixed up with fantasy. The Steampunk genre includes not only clothing, but music, art, and literature.

Steampunk has become a major hit in the fashion industry. Various designers are beginning to incorporate cogs, and gears, classic steampunk designs, into there clothing lines, and fashion shows. Typically, however, steampunk fashion can be seen as a growing trend within the cosplay scene. Groups of friends get together, wearing stylized, and often modified, Victorian style clothing, portraying themselves as pirates, explorers, adventurers, or even mild mannered socialites. Outfits include decorated coats, and top hats, goggles, and sometimes ray guns! This particular type of fashion caters greatly to the ‘Do-It-Yourself’ community, where most the accessories carried by the cosplayers, are painted, and created entirely on there own. Ray guns are masterfully designed by mixing Nerf guns with standard household accessories. The bravest and the bold of this community actually fabricate these items themselves out of wood, and metal.

Sometimes there’s a lot of steampunk influence found in music. There is no definitive steampunk genre, only pre-existing genres with steampunk influence, which include electronic, rock, and hip hop, among others. In steampunk rock you can heard dark and heavy beats reminiscint of industrial music, along with a gretty guitar. Sometimes even a hint of folk. Abney Park, self proclaimed steampunk band, were once an industrial band. Not only is their music influenced by steampunk, but their stage personas, clothing, and even instruments are steampunk modified. There’s also a few hip hop artists out there like Dr. Steel. Steampunk hip hop incorporates lyrics that depict the life of a mad scientist, or a post apocalyptic world, but always have a deep up beat bass. The beats are often heavy hitting.

Steampunk has been picked up by the art culture surprisingly fast. You can easily find paintings of dirigibles and other flying machines traversing grey skies above vast, desolate landscapes. Such art can be found online, at your local art shows, and in galleries. While the purpose and perspective of such paintings is unlike anything else, the art styles can be very similar to other styles you have seen. While being dark and dreary, the artwork often depicts a violent sea, a dungeon-like-lab, or a deadend world, sometimes Frankenstein-esque. It is easy to point out anything steampunk inspired because the style is particularly unique compared to others.

There has been a breakthrough in literature within the steampunk culture. H.G. Wells is said to have birthed this trend, along with Jules Verne. The base of the modern steampunk community is based on their inventions, worlds, and knowledge that they depict in their works. First there’s the brass time machine in “The Time Machine”, and then the massive submarine in “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea,” which were both considered futuristic. Presently, we would refer to them as retro, regardless of the fact that time machines don’t actually exist. However, both machines seem out of place in such time periods. These ideas have been the driving force for many steampunk fans, and the basis of steampunk. Now you have no reason to wonder “what is steampunk?”

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