Another component of “punk” is the do-it-yourself ethic, and I believe it’s that aspect that a lot of steampunkers mean when they use the term - or, at least, that’s what Steampunk magazine says.
BTW, has everyone checked out the WETA rayguns here
Ah, they’re 1880’s style “Death Rays”. 
Eh, the only time the term bothers me is when it’s applied inappropriately—like the more than a few times Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow was called “steampunk.” Aagh. Look, works in that style—Sky Captain; Tale Spin; Crimson Skies…even The Rocketeer—they maybe not have a catchy subgenre term for themselves, yet (thought I’ve heard “Dieselpunk” occasionally applied, loosely.), but they have entirely too little coal stokers and way too many zoot suits to be called “steampunk.”
Well, now that that’s off my chest, I can’t help but wondering…would there be a market for a “Steampunk Festival,” in the vain of the classic Renaissance Fest? I mean, just the vendor possibilities are intriguing enough by themselves, but think of the exhibits you could feature: steam powered robots, and vehicles, musical acts, cane fighting exhibitions…you name it!
You could hold it in autumn, so there’d be less danger from all the open flame—The American Coal Counil and Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik could sponsor! 
I will be glad when this thread is buried, because I keep misreading it as “Oooh! Steamspunk Stuff!” and its kinda grossing me out…
Is the movie Steamboy any good? It is mentioned in the wiki link, and I saw the trailer for it on the Cowboy Bebop movie DVD.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot Radium League!
Well, I enjoyed it, although I’m not a huge anime fan…
“Dieselpunk?” That’s just sad. **Sky Captain ** and **The Rocketeer ** deliberately seek to echo the upbeat, plucky style of adventure stories in the 1930s. They’re not attempting any sort of revisionist tone; there is no “punk” there at all. No catchy subgenre term? I dunno, what about '30s retro? Golden Age serial style? Pulp adventure? Something that isn’t completely inaccurate? I don’t even think the Rocketeer’s jetpack ran on diesel anyway.
Wait, let me guess: any SF film like The Iron Giant, that’s set in the 1950s, that would be “atompunk,” right? A story about the alchemist Paracelsus would be, what, “woodpunk?” “horsepunk?” They had waterwheels back then, didn’t they? How about “hydropunk?” If the story were set in medieval Holland, it could be “windpunk!” It’s all starting to make sense now.
Huh-hu-hu. Hey Beavis! He said “horsepunk”. Huh-hu-hu.
He-he-he-he. HORSEPUNK! YEAH! He-he-he-he.
As a matter of fact, I’ve heard the term “Clockpunk” used for unpowered medieval-type stuff. Of course, we’re probablly straying from the whole “punk” ethos, but still, I think it’s certainly handy to describe the style of the genre.
Yeah, but you could replace the suffix “-punk” with another random term such as “-fish” and it would be just as descriptive. Granted, many such examples of the “steamfish” or “clockfish” styles don’t actually involve fish, but many don’t involve punks either. It seems to me that they’re about equally accurate.
Whatever the setting may be, if it cannot plausibly incorporate a major secondary character with a bright green mohawk and an “Anarchy” tattoo, then it does not merit the descriptor “-punk.” If our hypothetical green-tonsured fellow elects to upgrade himself with cybernetic implants, then we have “cyberpunk.” If the green mohawk grows that way because of cellular alteration, then “biopunk.” And so on.
Now, there was no such fellow in Blade Runner– but there could have been, and he wouldn’t have stood out much at all. Hence, Blade Runner qualifies as “cyberpunk.” Logan’s Run or Westworld would not qualify, insofar as their milieu displays no such inclination toward punkishness. Similarly, the TV show The Six Million Dollar Man exhibited an inarguable “cyber-” component, yet was informed by precious little “-punk” aesthetic. The Max Headroom Show, on the other hand, meets both requirements nicely.
Obviously, the “green-mohawked-pseudo-anarchist” filter disqualifies most so-called “steampunk” works right out of the gate. We may stretch a principle somewhat to accomodate specific characters, such as the roller-skating ne’er-do-wells of The Difference Engine, who might reasonably be expected to vent angry revolutionary slogans. But-- and this is just as important-- they would also have to be willing to dye their hair green for no good reason.
I don’t mean to sound dogmatic about this, but I’m obviously in the right here and everyone should bow down to me.
Punk.
Hey, that’s english linguistics for you. We don’t have to have an insitute compiling a Dictionnaire de l’Académie Anglais, at the tradeoff of our language’s evolution sometimes not making any darned sense.
(P.S.: Dogmatic, schmogmatic…ya just got spunk, kid. Real moxie—you dig? 
)
Except that it wouldn’t be as descriptive, because no one would know what you’re talking about. Admit it, when someone says “steampunk,” you know exactly what they mean, and if you were already familiar with the term cyberpunk, you didn’t need much of an explanation to figure it, either. Remember, the term “punk” didn’t originate with The Sex Pistols. There’s a clear etymology from the 17th century right down to “steampunk” and associated terms. Originally, it meant prostitute. Over the years, it morphed to refer specifically to male prostitutes, than to any young man who was the sexual partner of an older man, then to any sort of unsavory or criminal young man, and only then, to your green mohawked icon. Cyberpunk move the term beyond that young man, to the idea of disenfranchised, anti-authoritarian youths who adopt cutting edge technology as a way of subverting the dominant social paradigm. Thus, we have steampunk, dieselpunk, clockpunk, and so forth: cyberpunk stories, where the cutting edge of technology is still in the pre-transistor stage.
If you’re going to be a language purist, then that anarchist with a green mohawk isn’t a punk unless he has sex with older men for money. That’s the problem with being a language purist: every word is a corruption of an older word.
Neal Stephenson’s Baroque Cycle, set in a decidedly non-sci-fi 17th century Europe, includes at one point a group of Whig cavalry made up of hotheaded young aristocrats who have shaved their heads in imitation of certain tribes of American “savages,” who during a political crisis in London take to the streets to intimidate the opposition. So, that would be what? Restoration punk? At any rate, any story set after contact with the Americas could reasonably have be-mohawked hooligans. Even if they’re not actually in the novel, they plausibly could be in the novel. So, steampunk turns out to be an apt term after all, even by your arbitrary standards.
Apparently, young men who partook in faction-fights in Byzantium (forming semi-official gangs based on the colours of their favorite chariot-racing teams - the “Blues” and the “Greens”) took to wearing their hair in a distinctive “Hunnish style” - allegedly a strip down the centre of the head. Byzantpunk? 
It appears in the anonymous poem “Tom O’Bedlam” (c. 1600):
And another old memory drops into place. Brother Dusty-Feet, an Elizabethan story by Rosemary Sutcliff, features a “Tom o’Bedlam” as a minor character. He is last seen reciting the last verse of the poem mentioned above, which I can almost remember word-for-word 30+ years since last reading the book.
I think we’re actually saying much the same thing here. I hadn’t meant to suggest that ‘steampunk’ as a term was NEVER justified, only that it is egregiously misapplied to a much wider variety of Steam-age SF that does not, in fact, merit the term. You’d realize this if you would only bow down before me.
You appear to be arguing my general point for me. ‘Steampunk,’ etc. may indeed be useful as a catchall term to describe settings in which disenfranchised, anti-authoritarian youths adopt cutting edge technology as a way of subverting the dominant social paradigm. However, much that is described as ‘steampunk’ DOESN’T feature disenfranchised anti-authoritarian youths using technology as a way of subverting the dominant social paradigm. Therefore, such settings are not genuinely “steampunk.” Your own definition agrees with me. Bow down.
I sense that you don’t appreciate the magnitude of the problem here. Consider: if all Victorian SF must be considered ‘steampunk’ regardless of its actual ‘punk’ content, and all SF about future technology must be considered ‘cyberpunk’ (again, independently of any intrinsic ‘punk’ characteristics), then it must follow, as the night the day, that all SF must be considered ‘punk’ by virtue of being set in an era which might hypothetically contain punks. There is no non-punk SF. The term becomes meaningless as a descriptor.
And if this is true of SF, there’s no reason why it shouldn’t be true of music as well. Therefore: every musician in contemporary history is a punk musician. Elvis? Punk rocker. Louis Armstrong? Punk. Dion and the Belmonts? Punk. Yanni? Britney Spears? Zamfir, Master of the Pan Flute? Punk musicians all.
Is that what you really want,** Miller**? Do you really want to live in a world where Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young are considered a hugely successful punk group? Bow down.
You’re arguing my point again. Yes, if Neil Stephenson’s story includes characters with punkish characteristics, then this is a reasonable argument toward classifying it as “Restoration punk” or whatever. Contrariwise, if other stories don’t meet those criteria, then they don’t get to use that term. I don’t agree that green-mohawked hooligans are equally likely to appear in all settings, and indeed your description of Stephenson’s story seems to indicate that he invested a fair amount of thought in justifying their presence. Here we have anti-authoritarian youths attempting to circumvent the established social paradigm, while simultaneously dressing funny. It doesn’t meet all your above criteria: there is no cutting-edge technology aspect. But at least it’s thematically related to the punk idiom.
In conclusion, SF which does not prominently feature a loudly dressed anti-authoritarian youth culture does not merit the “-punk” descriptor, whether it be “cyberpunk,” “steampunk,” “clockpunk” or any other permutation; and anyone using the term in this careless manner should be set on fire. Not as a punishment, you understand; purely for educational purposes.
Leslie Fish wrote a paen to Scotty, The Engineer’s Hymn patterned after Kipling’s poem of the same name, and it retains a lot of its steamish roots (yon connecting rod). Lovely song.
I give you Celt-punk
Terrifel, you haven’t addressed my point about the “do-it-yourself” ethic of Punk. And FTR, I wouldn’t call genuine Victorian fiction “steampunk”. Not enough brass goggles…