Have you ever wondered why steampunk gets used so much in media? No? Have you ever wondered what steampunk is? Probably? Well, you’re in luck because your old pal Jason is about to answer those questions, or die trying.

darksouls1 / Pixabay

So let’s start with the burning question: How does steampunk affect current media. By media, I mean movies, tv, current trends, video games..etc…..

What is Steampunk?

But first, let me explain a bit about what steampunk is.

In my confusing words, steampunk is if modern technology had evolved in the Victorian Era. Expect to see a lot of steam powered machines and lots of exposed mechanics. Also, for some reason, there’s a heavy emphasis on the colours brown, copper, and maybe, sometimes, if you’re lucky, gold. So lots of metallic colours as well.

Steampunk In Media

Steampunk gets its fair share of usage in media, especially in movies and video games.

I think that steampunk acts like kind of an outlet for companies to use their imaginations to create huge, hulking machines and can also act as a way of making historical games more interesting. Steampunk technically takes place in the past, but ironically (I guess), steampunk isn’t set in the past all the time. Sometimes, it’ll be set in the future for some reason, which is what you’d expect from huge metallic machines powered by gears and steam.

Some examples of steampunk in movies and TV include:

Animated movies, such as Steamboy (2004), War of the Worlds (2012) and the short film Mr. Hublot (2013)

There’s also a fair share of steampunk TV shows including Going Postal (2010) and Sanctuary (2008).

However many movies and TV shows there are about steampunk, there’s also a bounty of video games for steampunk fans. Some of the more well known titles include the World Renowned Bioshock Series, Dishonored (2012), Final Fantasy (1994), The Chaos Engine (1998), and The Order: 1886 (2015).

Even music has been hit by the train known as steampunk (bad analogy). A variety of genres, such as rock or jazz have been affected by Steampunk. Bands such as Abney Park (1997), The Synthetic Dream Foundation (2006), Unextraordinary Gentleman (2004), And my personal favourite, Steam Powered Giraffe (2008) have been doing well as the steampunk genre has been holding up somewhat steady numbers since its birth.

After doing some studying on the plots and gameplay of the media (some of the nest studying I’ve ever done), I still stick to my main ideas. The ideas exhibited in the media I studied showed tons of juicy, steampunk themes. I think that the huge Neo-Victorian cities and massive, steam powered mechs and weapons.

Conclusion

I guess Steampunk is pretty much it’s own category in media. Even a simple google search on steampunk will reveal steampunk’s heavy impact on modern and past media. If you’re a steampunk fan, you’d be glad to know (if you didn’t know already) that steampunk is here to stay.