Turn Me Steampunk

I've not really got into the scene officially, but I go absolutely gaga over visuals like this...

I've always been into Victorian style. In fact, much of my wedding was inspired by Victorian style, and I looked to a lot of steampunk weddings for inspiration (yes, there are a slew of them. Check out offbeatbride.com):

Oh yeah. We looked awesome.

But with as much as I loved the steampunk style, I didn't think anything of it outside the aesthetics of mixing Victorian style with Sci-fi. But when a certain Nicki Minaj put out this rockin' steampunk-inspired video... for some reason that was just enough more to get me to look closer into this fascinating subgenre.

"Turn Me On" by David Guette feat. Nicki Minaj

It got me to thinking... "well, I do love Nicki Minaj, but this music doesn't fit the style. Is there steampunk music?" Sure enough, there is.

"Back and Forth" by Dr Steel

Needless to say, with Dr Steel, Humanwine, and Rasputina and my previous love for bands like the Decemberists and Dresden Dolls, the transformation continues forward for me (let me clarify: I know that Decemberists and Dresden Dolls are not steampunk, I'm just saying they sound and look similar). All the bands have their own twist on how a steampunk sounds, which makes sense considering that steampunk originated from not the aesthetics, not the music, but from literature.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this all stems from kids in the eighties falling in love with the forefathers of Sci-fi, H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, and Mary Shelley. It takes the concepts of where the authors of the time believed technology was heading and creates an alternative universe with it. The list of steampunk literature is too long to list here (aka I'm not done doing my research, do the research yourself!!). The one they keep pointing to is The Difference Machine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling. Having already read my fair share of H.G. Wells, this book is definitely the next on my list.

So much to discover about steampunk! What kind of scenes have you ever felt yourself drawn to (or found you were practically in already)? What do you know about steampunk? Share with me, share! I'm eager to learn more.