Saturday, December 15, 2012

A Look Back At How Cyberpunk Evolved Part 1

(I'm reposting from Tumblr (hence why it's kind of short and in parts), but I said you'd get some loving today, I meant it. I have decided to look at cyberpunk as a fashion. There's going to be an interesting conclusion to all this I think. Of course, comment, please, I'd love to hear some opinions on this.)


First… let’s define cyberpunk as a style/fashion.
No one can actually really agree on this. The very early 80’s is when the word was born, and thus the basic concepts.
The 90’s were pretty influential on defining the cyberpunk fashion. In the 80’s movies like Mad Max and Tank Girl in the 90’s as well as the grunge movement, kind of took the style of cyberpunk to a more post apocalyptic feel.
Then millennium came along with movies like the Matrix and influenced the style into more of a fight the machine style.
Though the Matrix could be looked on as anti establishment, but instead of government control, machines rule the world, and the fight is against the machine.
But really, in the beginning, the concept was a very dirty future where computers and humans came together.
The Matrix is a movie that in my opinion doesn’t fit cyberpunk at all. Cyberpunk was about integrating technology into the human world and learning to work with it, The Matrix was about getting rid of technology that’s ruling our lives.
Cyberpunk is more like the detective novels from the 40’s, the Matrix isn’t. They both, however, are anti establishment.
Those who follow the cyberpunk that authors like William Gibson brought to us in the early 80’s have a grittier point of view. Cyberpunks move around a bit in society, but cyberpunks tend to scrape for a living and don’t have the latest fashion.

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