Cassettes Musical Explorer Society: Fixed gear... steampunk.

This article by Momus about fixed gear bikes I think captures some spirit of what I think is "steampunk". Steampunk is more than a throwback cosplay consisting of RPG and theatre nerds putting on turn of the century clothing and pretending they are characters in Chrono Trigger. It's very much now... and it's looking back and carefully choosing the well-crafted things in the past from clothing, gears, music, tradition and reinventing/re-adopting them for now.

I think Steampunk CAN "blow up" in the mainstream and like anything that is eaten by major media there will be a split of "fashion steampunks" (whom as of now I would like to name "steamos") and steampunks that are into the whole concept beyond the clothing. It can be seen as a version of the whole disconnect between the DIY Dischord-inspired punk-ethic to the Good Charlotte "punk" of mainstream media culture.

But I digress... here is the excerpt from Momus' article that spoke to me... the whole article is also linked afterwards:

"Limitation is what gives something flavour. Nobody wants a bassoon that can also sound like a guitar, although for a while synth makers gave us digital sampling synths which were supposed to be able to make any sound known to man. It turned out, though, that people wanted synths that sounded like synths -- analog synths, the ones that didn't sound like anything else. Well, fixie bikes are like that. They're like Lomo cameras, digital synths, vinyl record players. Their limitations -- the things they can't do -- are a crucial part of their lo-fi charm. It's amazing how few marketers and manufacturers understand the value of limitation. People don't want you to be able to -- or claim to be able to -- do it all. They want you to be able to do one thing, and have a flavour.

This, by the way, is also why postmodernism is failing. Nobody wants a culture which eats and quotes all others. That culture, that society, will turn out to have no flavour of its own. Nobody will be able to remember what it was about, and nobody will be able to revive it."

[ Link to Momus Article on fixed gear ]

Milo Says:
May 29th, 2008 at 12:41 AM Reading this prompts me to repost what I wrote on a page about the approaching death of the Polaroid instacamera. (I admit the first line was flagrantly ripped from Stephen's keyboard... what can I say, it was catchy!) "Life is analogue. There is no joy in taking a billion perfect digital photographs with your perfect digital cameras. Polaroids are lovable because they are like us. Imperfect. There is no feeling in limitless perfection."

Fixed gear... steampunk.

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