I’m more than a little amused at people freaking out, and expecting me to freak out, over Bieber’s “steampunk” themed Christmas video.

Yes, the music is crap. Yes, there’s very little steampunk to the video; yes, it’s one more example of the “paste a cogwheel to it and call it steampunk” trend. (Maybe we should start calling that “steampop” instead.) In fact, it’s a profoundly weird choice, with a song that has a message completely unrelated and arguably even somewhat opposed to the spirit of steampunk, set to an appropriately depressing factory environment where Biebs and his dancers perform in fantastic worker-steampunk outfits; a missed opportunity to focus on the right things and sing about something more relevant.

However: why is that a bad thing? And why is that my problem?

I don’t own steampunk, and I take more offence at people who act like they do than at wannabes, including, yes, Mr. Bieber, who, while certainly not a shining beacon of culture, seems to give his audience what they want, and even have his heart in the right place in a few aspects.

Steampunk is largely about doing things our way, about valuing style and putting passion into things we do. It’s certainly not about being “underground” hipster-style, about hating the mainstream, and going around saying “I was wearing brass goggles before it was cool”. True steampunks despise the mainstream because it’s soulless, mass-produced, impersonal, and not just because it’s the mainstream; and therefore, should be happy about any dent made in this massive planet-wide cultural iceberg of zombification.

As a movement, should we have grown beyond the “ownism” of “this is my style and you can’t have it”? Shouldn’t we celebrate the impact we seem to be having on people? Yes, certainly our whole message won’t get through to most; that’s the nature of things. But every little bit counts, and if millions get that little bit, doesn’t that mean a precious few will look further (after all, this is the age of the hyperlink, the beauty of the baud, where the Steampunk Magazine and Gatehouse Gazette are a google search away) and get the rest of the message as well?

And this is one thing I learnt long ago: fads come and go, but if a good thing becomes a fad, a few people remain behind when it passes. And sometimes, these people become valuable members of the whole. (And, if I can allow myself to be cynical, the fad stage also helps prune out the hipsters among us.) It happened with punk, when I was still a kid, and it happened with goth when I was a teen, it’s happening right now with super-heroes, and let’s not forget, this isn’t the first time steampunk becomes a fad. So: we’ll live. Probably better than before.

Now quit your bitching, I say, by Jove!