It’s time for more music videos with speculative stuff*. This time, I’m dedicating it to steampunk taking over the world! The ones I’ve selected range from classic steampunk to modern. It’ll make sense once you see the videos (hopefully).
‘Eye of the Storm’ – Lovett
Music Genre: Alternative / Rock
Video Genre: Fantasy Steampunk
About the Band: Lovett is an independent band, fronted by Ben Lovett. Ben also works as a film score composer.
About the Video: A mysterious man goes on a journey in his steampunk airship. The cinematic feel is most likely due to how it was created: Ben had friends in the film industry, who worked on the project for free.
The mix of computer animation and live action creates a unique effect. Also, a dragon! Well worth watching.
YouTube Links:
Eye of the Storm
The Making of the Video
‘Westward Backwards’ – [ME]
Music Genre: Alternative
Video Genre: Steampunk
About the Band: [ME] (also listed as ME) is a new band.
About the Video: A classic steampunk tale of a mad scientist. No steampunk collection is complete without a mad scientist. The video has a jerky style, which gives the impression of old film.
YouTube Links:
‘Airship Pirate’ – Abney Park
Music Genre: Pop / Sea Shanty
Video Genre: Steampunk Subculture
About the Band: Abney Park is a steampunk band, featuring steampunky lyrics and steampunk subculture costumes. These are the sort of people you’d find wandering around steampunk conventions.
About the Video: This one doesn’t tell a story. It’s a performance video with the band singing in a club. Yay for airship pirates!
YouTube Links:
‘Doncamatic’ – Gorillaz featuring Daley
Music Genre: Pop
Video Genre: Modern Steampunkish
About the Band/Singer: Gorillaz are a band known for only appearing as cartoons. Daley is a British singer.
About the Video: Daley pilots a submarine through dangerous waters. He receives transmissions of the Gorillaz singing, shown on a screen in his sub.
Modernised steampunk is one of those debatable things. There aren’t gears and steam here, but there is a focus on manual controls, do-it-yourself construction and a brass submarine. As far as I’m concerned, it has a steampunky vibe to it… and even if you disagree, it’s still a fun video.
YouTube Links:
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* The first post like this was back in 2008 (you can read it here: Music Mondays). I called it Music Mondays then, but Mashable has a feature called that apparently. And I didn’t post on Monday anyway. So now, it’s just music videos. Humbug on other people loving alliterations too!