I’m sure that a few people read this comic only off an RSS reader, and will think I’m anti-dubstep.

As noted yesterday, I’m not. I like more than a few such bands. But trying to explain to my older friends what dubstep is equals very odd expressions and a lack of comprehension.

To me, dubstep is the perfect amalgamation of techno and industrial music genres. When it’s done right. When it’s not, it just sucks. But when it’s done right?

Here’s an example:

Blackburner is an example of “non-standard dubstep,” in that they have a much more goth/industrial feel to them, and get more melodic than the majority of acts out there. Unlike most of the others out there, they make music that has more than just a sampled movie or song bite and wobble bass dropped all over the place.

Whereas Dupstep is a genre of music, Steampunk is more of a subculture. Some like to claim that it cropped up on its own, and tend to get dickish about it if you claim otherwise *cough-RobertBrownOfAbneyPark-cough*. Those of us living in reality can more accurately tell you that Steampunk is what happens when Goths find H.G. Wells books and the color brown. It is a complete offshoot of Goth. Just as Industrial takes the Goth Punk feel to a sci-fi, dystopian future*, Steampunk goes the other way and takes it back to the past.

http://youtu.be/PL557wdOvoA

*Note: In NO WAY am I saying that Industrial is, was, or ever will be an “offshoot” of Goth. The two genres evolved separately, and converged to some degree.

This is topical, in a way: As of the day this comic posted, we are at Comic Con San Diego, or as some people call it, San Diego Comic Con, at our regular booth of #1230. We are splitting the booth this year with Gearhearts Steampunk Glamour Revue, a magazine full of scantily clad steampunk chicks, fiction, art, and other such. You know who we are, but Gearhearts is a publication run by several very close friends, with great content. I have it on good authority that they’re bringing mucho steampunk merch, as well as the final remaining copies of their first 4 or 5 issues, I forget exactly. Come by and see us!