~about some thoughts on Steampunk Music~

Source: http://brassandfrags.blogspot.de/2011/02/gift-to-everyone.html

I think this is an important thing so I’ll do this one in two languages again. For the German version please scroll down (and click "Read more")

Für die deutsche Verion bitte nach untenscrollen (und "Read more" klicken). Ich empfehle aber die Englische Version ;) 

(And for those understanding both: German and English, I recommend the English version, I think it’s more understandable, then the German translation >_<‘)

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During the past few weeks I heard from several people, the sentence „I don’t like Steampunk music.” That made me think about the term “steampunk music” and I recognized for myself: There is no such thing like steampunk music!

The term itself indicates that Steampunk is also a genre of music, which it isn’t (in my eyes). There might be steampunk bands, nobody would disagree on that! For example bands like Abney Park or Steam Powered Giraffe.

 

The important thing on those bands is the steampunk aesthetic, they look like steampunk. But even within the few bands that there are at the moment, they interpret that steampunk very individual (which is the key element of steampunk in my opinion: individuality) and that not only by their look but also by their music genres.

What they might have in common is that they make steampunk-THEMED music, with texts dealing with steampunk themes. But that doesn’t make a whole genre.

Just think of the themes “love” or “grief” which nearly every music genre covers but they are still their own genres.

Just within some few examples (scroll down) you can see that Steampunk Music doesn’t exist! There might be Steampunk Bands or Steampunk-themed music, but no Steampunk Music! 

Maybe those people saying they don’t like steampunk music only don’t know very much steampunk bands, so they think that all the steampunk music out there is like Abney Park or like SPG (which was true for one of the people I heard that sentence from)… but then they could just say, they don’t like AP (or SPG)…

I have to admit, that I don’t know many Steampunk Bands either (most of them are very small, mostly German ones), but the few that I know sound really different. I’ll give you some examples, so you can see (or hear) what I mean: 

Abney Park (USA):

Aeronautica (D):

BB Black Dog (UK):

Steam Powered Giraffe (USA):

Strange Artifact (JP):

Victor Sierra (F):

Violet (D):

So yeah, in my opinion Steampunk Music does not exist! A style that has such a wide range of creativity and individualism just can’t have only one music genre! I admit, that I think some genres work better for Steampunk then others do but there is no way that only one kind of music can express the Steampunk feeling!

Btw: I once heard somebody say that Steampunk Music would be, if the music would be produced with steam power, but to be honest, I’d just call that Steam-powered music…

So, what do you think? Does Steampunk Music exist, what is it for you? Do you know more Steampunk Bands I should know? 
Please let me know your opinion in the comments, I’m really curious about what fellow Steampunks think about this.

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