Brief Guide to Some of the Punk Genres

Kevin Hammack

The punk genres are diverse, each with distinct characteristics. So, what makes a punk genre? The punk genres are generally known for taking a technology or a setting either from our past or one that could be in the future and elevating it to fantastical levels. Many times, the elements of rebellion, social isolation plus fighting government or similar groups are prevalent in many of the genres. Often stories of the punk genres still take place on Earth in alternate histories. These genres often overlap, meaning a single story might have two or more punk genres in the same story.

1. Cyberpunk

Probably the oldest of the punk genres, cyberpunk focuses on the near future with rapid technological advancements and change. It is most commonly a dystopian story about government and megacorporations, man and machine slowly melding into one, the loss of humanity, and so much more. From street gangs fighting each other in neon-bathed streets with more chrome (cybernetics) than flesh, to two megacorporation’s fighting a continent-wide proxy war with their private armies.

2. Biopunk

While a lesser-known punk genre, biopunk takes the technology of genetic manipulation to the extreme. Man-made chimeric monsters created in a lab by combining the genetics of animals together, altering the human genome to go beyond human (transhuman).

3. Dieselpunk

Takes the technology found in the 1920s to early 1940s and elevates it to the next level. Large machines made of steel, massive clouds of black billowing smog from the engines of machines. Dieselpunk is all about industry, it’s all about war.

4. Oceanpunk

Oceanpunk is as one would expect all about the ocean. In this punk genre, the ocean takes the main stage. Most stories that make use of oceanpunk setting have very little land if any at all due to the oceans rising or something along those lines. Common things in this genre are floating cities, nomadic fleets of ships, and in some cases cities underwater. There can also be times when it takes a focus on pirates, in which it goes into a subgenre of oceanpunk called piratepunk.

5. Aetherpunk

Aetherpunk is a rather interesting one, as instead of taking technology to the extreme, it adds magic. Aether is just another word for magic in this sense. Aetherpunk is the magic punk genre, be it magic flying ships, aether-powered guns, also paired up with one of the many other punk genres. Aetherpunk is the least historical in nature and rarely takes place on Earth. Aetherpunk is one of the most versatile with cyberpunk being right under it.

An example of a cyberpunk work is that of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, the novel by Philip K. Dick, which is one of the reasons that cyberpunk became mainstream. The novel focuses on a post-apocalyptic Earth involving androids and how the androids seem to slowly become human.

An example of a work that uses both diesel and biopunk is the Leviathan trilogy written by Scott Westerfeld. As it takes place in an alternate World War one where the allies use genetic creations based off of their worlds; Charles Darwins research, biopunk. While the central powers use large diesel-powered armored suits, dieselpunk.

When it comes to an example oceanpunk is the anime Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet which takes place in the far future where the sea levels have risen to the point that there is no more land left and for the humans left on Earth, and they no longer remember the time before the oceans rising and live on giant ships that drift through the ocean world.

Due to the amount of variety, Aetherpunk can have here are two examples of Aetherpunk. The first is Netflix’s Arcane series, and the second is Disney’s Atlantis: The Lost Empire. Both of these are aetherpunk, Arcane with Hextech and Atlantis has advanced tech powered by magic crystals.