Is anyone else over Steampunk?

[trekkiedane]

I've never cared much for Steampunk. The style comes across as too dreary to me. I have the same problem with cyberpunk.

You might have missed the train there: that drearyness was the whole point of cyberpunk.

I haven't heard of Dieselpunk. I wonder if there's a name for that colorful 50s/60s/Jetsons/Star Trek aesthetic. That would probably be my favorite.

Pop art is one possibility, but how about Vonnegut-punk as it's seen in Harrison Bergeron; I just love that bad-taste thing with floral patterned fabrics & wallpapers and furniture made out of bamboo and -yes!- Jetsons-shaped appliances -The fifties were a great era (if you didn't have to live in them).

 

[Kelthaz]

I've never cared much for Steampunk. The style comes across as too dreary to me. I have the same problem with cyberpunk.

You might have missed the train there: that drearyness was the whole point of cyberpunk.

Right. And that is the reason I dislike it.

 

[trekkiedane]

I've never cared much for Steampunk. The style comes across as too dreary to me. I have the same problem with cyberpunk.

You might have missed the train there: that drearyness was the whole point of cyberpunk.

Right. And that is the reason I dislike it.

Cool, now we know.

 

[PKTrekGirl]

I never cared much for Steampunk. For me, there was always something vaguely creepy about it. Can't even put a finger on it...but it just wasn't something I wanted to be around.

Plus, I think the Hipsters are a bunch of silly kids who are not even aware of the fact that their stated objective of being original and unique is lost when they all gang up in a clique of supposedly 'unique' people who are all exactly like them - dress like them, listen to the same crappy music, and babble the same exact criticisms of other people's music...like it was a frakkin script spoken by people with no real opinion of their own. All of them attempting to be one of the kool kidz by subscribing to the same exactly idea of what it means to be unique (???)...but only in form - not in substance.

For people who pride themselves on their uniqueness...they all seem suspiciously like cloned sheep to me.

 

[Kestra]

I doubt that all hipsters are really that identical. I'm not sure I know anyone who would qualify as one, though.

 

[thestrangequark]

I never cared much for Steampunk. For me, there was always something vaguely creepy about it. Can't even put a finger on it...but it just wasn't something I wanted to be around.

Plus, I think the Hipsters are a bunch of silly kids who are not even aware of the fact that their stated objective of being original and unique is lost when they all gang up in a clique of supposedly 'unique' people who are all exactly like them - dress like them, listen to the same crappy music, and babble the same exact criticisms of other people's music...like it was a frakkin script spoken by people with no real opinion of their own. All of them attempting to be one of the kool kidz by subscribing to the same exactly idea of what it means to be unique (???)...but only in form - not in substance.

For people who pride themselves on their uniqueness...they all seem suspiciously like cloned sheep to me.

Living where I do, in Williamsburg/Bushwick area of Brooklyn, I am surrounded by hipsters...I mean, my neighborhood is famed as their Mecca...I can't say I've ever seen any steampunk hipsters, though. I've never even thought of these two trends having anything to do with one another.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

What is horrifying to me is that I've had friends who have turned into hipsters before my eyes. Like they were just vaguely alternative people and then BOOM they were hipsters. Suddenly if anything is remotely mainstream they are superior to it, won't even listen/look at it. I thought this kind of thing only happened when you were a teenager (friends transform into subculture) but apparently not.

 

[PKTrekGirl]

What is horrifying to me is that I've had friends who have turned into hipsters before my eyes. Like they were just vaguely alternative people and then BOOM they were hipsters. Suddenly if anything is remotely mainstream they are superior to it, won't even listen/look at it. I thought this kind of thing only happened when you were a teenager (friends transform into subculture) but apparently not.

But see, that's the thing - they turn 'disliking mainstream'...into their own 'mainstream'.

It's more of an anti-mainstream thing than it is a pro-<insert anything else> thing...and in making it about that, they set up a pretty big tent....thus generating their own version of 'mainstream'.

I should point out that I have not always associated Steampunk with Hipsters. Not until fairly recently, anyway. Steampunk used to be squarely in the realm of geeks. At least that is where it was 4-5 years ago, when I first became aware of it.

If it's been co-opted by the Hipsters...well, it appears that they can't even be original with THAT much. And once again, I say that for a group so bent on being seen as original, they are not very...original.

Maybe it's just cus I'm older...but I find the whole Hipster thing kind of comical. Because these kids don't even remotely understand the sacrifices the truly hip have to make - not because they are seeking to be SEEN as original..but because they truly ARE eccentric and original. Oftentimes at huge personal expense - to their careers, their relationships, etc. because their eccentricities make them different. And most people don't like people who are different.

People who are truly hip are not hip because they TRY to be hip. In fact, the very act of TRYING to be hip actually eliminates the possibility of success! No...hip people are hip because they can't be anything else but what they are.

 

[RJDiogenes]

I haven't heard of Dieselpunk. I wonder if there's a name for that colorful 50s/60s/Jetsons/Star Trek aesthetic. That would probably be my favorite.

That would be Atompunk or Raygun Gothic.

Ah, yes, that looks about right. Thank you.

I haven't heard of Dieselpunk. I wonder if there's a name for that colorful 50s/60s/Jetsons/Star Trek aesthetic. That would probably be my favorite.

Pop art is one possibility, but how about Vonnegut-punk as it's seen in Harrison Bergeron; I just love that bad-taste thing with floral patterned fabrics & wallpapers and furniture made out of bamboo and -yes!- Jetsons-shaped appliances -The fifties were a great era (if you didn't have to live in them).

Like any era, it's best when stylized down to its essence.

For people who pride themselves on their uniqueness...they all seem suspiciously like cloned sheep to me.

You're describing the tragically hip of any generation.

 

[PKTrekGirl]

For people who pride themselves on their uniqueness...they all seem suspiciously like cloned sheep to me.

You're describing the tragically hip of any generation.

True enough.

I have only observed this hipster thing from afar. I see it as mainly college-age kids...and I am LONG past those days. However, I suspect that I probably have more interaction with hipsters than a lot of people my age, just because of music. You bump into a LOT of hipsters when you are into new music and make an effort to follow it, discover new bands, etc. But once again...I try to keep it at a distance, when possible.

However, I am much more familiar with what happened with another 'anti' trend: Grunge.

The people who started what later became known as 'grunge' did so in the mid to late 80's - NOT when Nirvana put out Nevermind. By the time Nirvana put out Nevermind, what later became known as grunge was old news to the people who actually set it in motion. The people who really WERE what we think of as 'grunge' never called themselves that...because by the time it had a name, they had already moved on. It only got a name when Madison Avenue globbed onto flannel and Doc Martens as a way to make it into something they could SELL.

And the people who really WERE what we now refer to as grunge were so far away, ideologically, from the people who SOLD grunge to the masses in the early 90's that they could not have been more different. The people who really 'lived' what we now refer to as grunge were not remotely interested in 'selling' anything. Flannel wasn't a 'fashion statement' to them - it was simply a way to keep warm on the cheap in cold, damp Seattle via buying flannel at the Army/Navy surplus. That's it. To them, Nordstrom selling $100 flannel shirts was about as far away from their intent in first donning them as you can possibly imagine.

The moral of the story: in every generation, most people are sheep. And the TRULY hip people - the ones who set these trends - set them not in order to set a trend...but because it is who they really are and they have no choice but to just be that. They set these trends by going in an unpopular direction - a direction that gets them mocked and ridiculed and thrown out of restaurants. A direction that makes them very misunderstood - even by the very people who, 3 or 4 years later, are trying so hard to be just like them.

There is a price attached to being truly hip. And these kids are NOT the ones who paid it. Ergo, to me, they are just posers, for the most part.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

btw PKtrekgirl all the hipsters I know personally are in their 30's. It is just bizarre.

 

[trekkiedane]

I never cared much for Steampunk. For me, there was always something vaguely creepy about it. Can't even put a finger on it...but it just wasn't something I wanted to be around.

Maybe You've been reading a bit too much Tardi as a kid?

Look what I found:

 

[{ Emilia }]

However, I am much more familiar with what happened with another 'anti' trend: Grunge.

I know it's not the first time you went on a grunge-related monologue but I can't help but notice that your post sounds a lot like those "real" hipsters who claim they "were hipsters before it was cool".

Useful quotes to remember if you want to exhibit this attitude:

- I listened to grunge music before it was called grunge!

- Dunno, I liked their first self-published EP but everything after I couldn't get into.

- How did you burn yourself?
- I drank coffee before it was cool.

- I liked this before everybody else knew about it. Damn kiddies are just sheep. I liked it because it was good. They like it because they're sheep.

Yeah, riiiight.

It's funny how those things turn uncool only right AFTER the person in question discovered them. Everybody else is "late to the party" and just sheep.

Spreading the word is a sin.

ETA: I like Steampunk even though it's cool now.

 

[RJDiogenes]

What the Hell is a Hipster anyway? It sounds like somebody confused a Hippie with T Rex.

The moral of the story: in every generation, most people are sheep. And the TRULY hip people - the ones who set these trends - set them not in order to set a trend...but because it is who they really are and they have no choice but to just be that. They set these trends by going in an unpopular direction - a direction that gets them mocked and ridiculed and thrown out of restaurants. A direction that makes them very misunderstood - even by the very people who, 3 or 4 years later, are trying so hard to be just like them.

There is a price attached to being truly hip. And these kids are NOT the ones who paid it. Ergo, to me, they are just posers, for the most part.

Very true. Reminds of the bit in Gibson's All Tomorrow's Parties where the bridge culture developed as a response to "Madison Avenue" (so to speak), plucking and marketing trends before they were ripe-- thereby stagnating natural cultural evolution.

It also reminds of when I was a kid and college kids used to steal milk crates from behind supermarkets and use them as furniture because it didn't cost them anything. Years later, I saw plastic milk cartons being marketed and sold as modular dorm furniture.

 

[Kestra]

Emilia, I love that you kept that as your signature!