Gizmodo: "Steampunk is dead"

Well, as long as THAT STORE is at the mall, goth will be just fine. (appologies, Ethan, couldn't resist)

Say... Why don't we all throw in together and open our own chain - "Steam Topic" or "Steampunkzombie and Switch"

Steampunkzombie and Valvle, rather...

VALVE, even!

What about Evil Overlord and Taylor?

Steamlord's!!!

u know what else is dead? this thread... but i wanted to get my thoughts on aether paper before i forget it

In reading the comments on the Giz article a while back, a lot of people were agreeing that its dead and that they're tired of seeing people slapping brass and gears on everything... I think people who say that are the people who had an initial interest (ooo shiny) but got their curiosity filled, and decided they really didn't care.
Like when Lord of the Rings, or Pirates of the Caribbean came out, everything was medieval and "talk like a pirate day" was huge... and there was a sudden interest in renaissance faires, but just cause it died down, doesnt mean that the people who were at Renn faires long before the newbs came along are part of something dead. but hey, some good came of it. Some people stuck to it. like me!
Like with steam punk. The people who have been sticking with it are proving themselves to be the true steampunk enthusiasts.

I'd pretty much agree with the above.
The fact that they've declared it dead just means some people who were pleasantly amused by it for a while move on. Whereas everyone else just ambles along with it & enjoys the ride!

A conversation overheard outside St. Georges hospital 27 Sept. 2008 wrote:

A; have you heard steampunk is dead?

B;Steampunk is dead? -show me the post mortem report

A;I'm afraid I can't the deceased jumped out the window & ran off before the coroner got a chance to see them!

B; By Jove -there must be some life in the old boy yet!

& hence the conclusion I've drawn

All this being dead is getting too mainstream for me.
Bring back the days when we were alive and no one knew about steampunk

To all these fascionistas (the correct spelling) I would say "I'll tell you when I'm dead."

Dr. Q.
Not dead, and loving it.

Dead? More like died and gone to heaven!

If you want me, I'll be at the pool, on the Lido Deck of the Vile Bodies dirigible, floating about on my new lounger:



"Oh, Pool Steward, could you be a darling and fetch me a Pimm's?"

Well, Steampunk seems to be an offshoot of Goth, so sure Steampunk may be dead. But Gizmodo is lame. Which is worse?

It just means Gizmodo became bored with it. If mainstream fashionista interest has died off that might be a good thing. I can imagine the lame abomination Dell might have come up with had they tried to make a steampunk-esque computer for the masses or had some of the major fashion houses decided to use it for their next season.

Sometimes mainstream commerce fails horribly at trying to embrace subcultures.

Oh, look! Brass Goggles is still alive, even if it's in a refugee camp. Hello, old friends! I vanished from the forum for a long time because I found myself too addicted and I needed to get some writing done. I'm glad to see upon my return that people are still declaring steampunk dead. Everything's functioning properly, then. It's good to be back!

To quote: Ideas are Bulletproof. These kind of declarations of doom always bring a ironic smile to my face. I for one will likely never understand those who say steampunk got too "mainstream". To me that feels like saying: "I'm too special and important compared to you common fad rabble, so I will distance my eminence from your gaze". This sounds really mean and insulting, but it is how I saw the matter. Well...let's hope they will once again feel the calling of steam pistons and return to this friendly and accommodating fold.

I am not concerned with whether steampunk is alive or dead. I saw a quote somewhere in this thread about the fact that "fashion is now, style is forever". It rings true to me. I have never been one to do what is fashionable. I have my own personal style and on a rare occasion, the mainstream fashions cross paths with my style. Also, on a rare occasion, I will see something in the current fad that I like and will incorporate it into my style. That is how I came to steampunk. If it remains mainstream, that is fine with me. It just means that there will be more mass produced junk that can be taken apart to get brassy parts for a mod. If it is no longer the fad, that is fine as well. I like being unique. I am me regardless of the current fads. I am a preacher (yes, the "Rev." title on my nick is real) who loves the Victorian style and who loves seeing it incorporated into modern life, especially when it is done by a craftsman instead of a machine line in some factory.
My point is, who cares if society thinks steampunk is dead? We didn't need their permission to love it before it was a fad, and we won't need it after the fad is over.

Rev. Redmond A. Farrier

hush everyone and lie still, perhaps they will think we are dead and move on.

then we can get back to brass tacks down in the lab!

they just didn't get it anyways. don't they realize that photoshopped steampunk is a contradiction of terms? "diametrically opposed" doesn't even begin to cover the abomination caused by combining those two terms.

let them wander off, less lost and rudderless masses to trip over, the better. leave them behind for the krakens to clean up.

rudder amidships! steady as we go! there's a good lad! just mind the pressure and keep the main bearings oiled!

If I can be honest here...I didn't even know steampunk existed until a few days ago. Perhaps this is a testament to the backwater part of the world I live in, but I haven't seen steampunk-inspired gadgets, clothing, or jewelry anywhere at all. I can't think of many really mainstream movies or TV that blatantly represented the steampunk style, and I haven't heard people talking about it that much. I mean, it's all well and good to compare it to goth, but goth was positively HUGE (and still is), and permeated all aspects of our culture for a really long time. You couldn't escape it. On the contrary, I had to come looking for steampunk. In other words, it seems that, other than in devout pockets of the world wide web such as this one, steampunk never actually existed in any really grand way.

So how can something be "dead" if it was never truly "alive"?

ya, i guess its not really out there in the real world as much as a full-blown fad would be. A lot of it has been passed around the internet, and unless you pass by the right sites, its still very easy to glance by. its not like its unpopular, just not widely known of.

There are a lot of steampunks out there that do not know that they are in fact steampunk. They just think that they have an affinity for Victorian styling, gadgetry, and antiques. They simply have not had anyone approach them and tell them that their style is called "steampunk". That, I believe, is the main reason that this style is so huge, yet so hidden. Fad watchers and those who confuse style with fashion can easily become confused and call something dead because it is no longer the fad.
Steampunk is not dead, it has in fact grown. Before it was a fad, there was a core group of people with the steampunk style. When it became the fad, we gained many curious onlookers, many who tried the fad out. Many of these people after getting a taste of it, moved on to the next fad. There were others though, who sampled the style and found it matched them quite well. So they incorporated it into their own style. In the grand scheme of things, even if the fad is dead, there are more true steampunks now than there were before it became the latest fad.

Rev. Redmond A. Farrier