What is the difference between goth and steampunk

Steampunk fashion often involves a mix of American Western and Victorian-inspired clothing accompanied by elements of machinery or other technology. Steampunk embraces the spirit of the Industrial Revolution and celebrates the potential of human intellect.

Thus, steampunks are especially fond of creating things with their own hands, often making elements of their outfits themselves. Apart from fashion, another recognizable aspect of both the goth and steampunk scene is their music. The goth subculture can be said to have grown directly out of its music, as the word first began to be used to describe performers of—and later the fans of—gothic rock. Though other music genres have come to be associated with the goth subculture—including industrial, EBM, and even gothic metal—its origin specifically in the gothic rock scene is still essential to the definition of goth.

The steampunk music scene, however, is a bit more nebulous, perhaps due to the fact that the music seems to have grown out of the existing subculture rather than the other way around. So, though music holds a central place in both scenes, what that music sounds like and the relationship between the music and the subculture is quite different.

I identify primarily as a goth and less as a steampunk. Despite this, I frequently enjoy participating in steampunk events and engaging with steampunk communities. Why is that? I find that although many of my personal aesthetics differ from those generally embraced by steampunk, goth and steampunk have a lot of common ground. One of my favorite things about both scenes is that they tend to be especially intellectual communities. Goths and steampunks are generally well read and often highly educated whether formally or self-taught.

I attribute this shared trait mainly to the fact that both subcultures draw significant inspiration from literature. In summary, though, both subcultures take inspiration from the literature of the Victorian era. Goth borrows its name and much of its aesthetic from the Gothic literary movement.

The style is the Cyber Goth of the Victorian Era; a futuristic, bronze cog-filled world of futuristic inventions and adventures with flares of mechanical genius and Victorian fashions. People of this type generally enjoy science fiction and Victorian literature, mish-mashing the two together into a type of fantasy that attracts them to roleplaying events.

The Steampunk fashion is gaining popularity every day, as people turn ordinary phone cases and handheld game consoles into Victorian sci-fi wonders filled with cogs, wires and bronze metal.

This type's music involved typical Victorian Goth music like Rasputina, and musicians such as Emilie Autumn. The usual dress of a Steampunk Goth is trousers, jackets, boots, top hats, cravars, large dresses, suspenders, gloves or grieves, corsets, and big skirts, all decorated with cogs, wires, copper and bronze items, cog jewelry, and possibly cosplay weapons such as a Victorian-futuristic gun, like a musket with sci-fi attachments.

Makeup can be minimal or elegant and smokey like a Romantic or Victorian Goth. But this is far from the case. Twice a year each year, a curious event occurs in a small seaside town — Whitby Goth Weekend. Originally organised as a goth gathering in , the festival is now one of the larger events in the European goth calendar.

The festival, the most recent of which occurred in the first weekend of November, no longer attracts only goths — many steampunk enthusiasts, among others, have started to attend, too. So what does this say about subculture today? Goth emerged in the late s, and is often associated with the popularity of The Sisters of Mercy although the lead singer, Andrew Eldritch, rejects any association , as well as The Damned, Bauhaus, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and The March Violets.

The music is diverse, but is often characterised by a heavy drum beat on a drum machine , rock guitars, low register male vocals, and as a counterpoint, a high register female voice.

For many, goth is a lifestyle choice. Goth is characterised most famously by the notion of a dark aesthetic, so that sartorial choice is often influenced by a melancholic sensibility black clothes, piercings, tattoos. While the foundations of Whitby Goth Weekend relate to a very specific subcultural and musical affiliation, in recent years this has somewhat diversified. Whitby now attracts many attendees who might not identify as goths.

They celebrate the spectacle of fashion and the photographic opportunities. This has prompted much chagrin from some attendees, who see it as a detraction from the subculture itself.

But the festival, as much as the subculture, does not stand still.