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Seriously.
Emile whatsherface has song titled "Gothic Lolita" (not to mention that her recent stuff just isn't good in my opinion), Doctor Steele's music is pretty good but he's really riding his success and I'm kind of over how into himself he is.
I didn't think Voltaire was pretentious until I saw a video of a live show, but that looked less pretentious and more "I HATE THIS CROWD" because I hate themes in large groups of people.
I appreciate that it's a steam-punk club, but good God.



I'm also more of a garage band fan anyways (The Strokes ftw)

I think its because most "steampunk" bands are really goth bands that wear brown leather and brass instead of black leather and chrome, and goth bands are usually pretentious.

I still don't get the pretentiousness. I'm listening to "Gothic Lolita" right and it doesn't sound pretentious. Are you referring to the people themselves.

Well, I personally don't like Emilie
Autumn or Voltaire. Dr. Steel... his
music is rather playful, and I don't
mind him. The only "Steampunk"
band I'm really into is Abney Park.
And they don't sound pretentious at
all. Believe me, I'd be the first person
to drop a band if they started that s**t.
I don't like pretentiousness, it's a pet
peeve of mine.

It's not pretentious.

I honestly have yet to find a band I could completely call steampunk. I mean, Abney park's lyrics go well for steampunk as well as the orchestral, but their vocals sound out-landish and even 80s-ish.

Dr. Steel has something nice going on, with the swing/metal/rap happening, but despite what he says, he doesn't seem all that steampunk from what I've seen of his shows & his rubbery lab-coat throws me off.

I'm still waiting on a purely defined genre, and I have in mind what I'm looking for, but still have yet to find someone with enough talent and sponsorshipped funding to let me hear their work.

And I dare not say dear Emile has steampunk qualities, but rather just lolita/gothic.

I've found that most Goth bands, Punk bands, and Rappers automatically come with a sort of pretentious arrogance. It's this sort of "we're goth/punk/rappers so that means that we're better than you by default!" I never really sense this in common rock bands or pop groups, or by extension, country or techno. A lot of the more famous or infamous rock bands and bands/musicians not in the 3 genres above are pretentious, too, but it's mostly the famous ones like Metallica or something. And when I say "pretentious" it's usually in the sense that these bands make themselves out to be better, more talented, more famous, and more unique than other bands, or even better than their fans.

Whether their music is good or not, Abney Park flaunts their steampunk image everywhere, as it is their only real claim to semi-fame (how often do you hear "Abney Park plays the best music ever!" instead of "Abney Park is an awesome steampunk band!"?). I wouldn't say Dr. Steel is pretentious, except maybe in the sense that the character he portrays is self-absorbed like most mad scientist characters are. It only makes sense that a mad scientist would sing about himself and his inventions. But again, sort of like Abney Park, Dr. Steel isn't so much well-known for his music but for his massive cult-like following of fans. I also like Dr. Steel more than Abney Park, so I'm probably biased in this aspect.

I don't know much about Voltaire but he doesn't seem much different from other Goth-related musicians or bands, and thus he has that default Goth air of prententiousness. That's my only real first impression of him, though.


Also, I think this is a good time to differentiate Steampunk from BrownGoth. I officially declare "BrownGoth" the appropriate term for a primarily Gothic (and Gothic Lolita) theme with a modified color scheme so as to present itself as imitation steampunk. xp

You've got a good point there. Especially Dr. Steel, though. His entire musical career is based off of this "mad scientist taking over the world and turning into a utopia toy land" gimmick, which I absolutely love, haha!

On the other hand, you have a lot of musicians and bands who simply take themselves TOO seriously. This is how I feel about a lot of goth/punk/rap musicians, as if their music is the be all, end all of not only their genre but of all music ever made. There's also a point were harmless pretentiousness and mild arrogance turn into fiery hatred and hauteur, which happens most often with rappers who may very well, quite literally, just kill off the competition. And that whole business between Mushroomhead and Slipknot (which gets weird because they're both rap metal bands...).


Anyway, that's one of the things I really do like about Abney Park. So what if they're a Steampunk Ex-Goth band, they don't take all that too seriously, even though they fully indulge in their little Steampunk world they've created. It has yet to go to their heads, and I hope it never does.