The Genesis Of #Seapunk

One week ago, The New York Times dipped its toes into the rising micro-genre known as #seapunk, and said that “like LOLcats and pedobear, [#seapunk] is an inside Web joke that feeds off its own ridiculousness.”

Somehow we felt there was more to the story, so we hit up Coral Records Internazionale to get the straight dope on how seapunk made it from a hashtag to the storied pages of the Old Gray Lady. We didn’t get much of a response, so we hit up the Twitter personae who created the term itself and asked them to tell us what the hell was going on. Two days later we had this incredible manifesto in our inbox.

We present to you @LILINTERNET and @LILGOVERNMENT’s “Seapunk Washes Up” in its entirety, not just because it’s too good to edit, but because these high seas run deep, ’naw mean?

SEAPUNK WASHES UP: THE UNTOLD STORY BEHIND THE MICRONICHE

As documented by @LILGOVERNMENT and @LILINTERNET

Written by @LILGOVERNMENT

“Fads swept the youth of the Sprawl at the speed of light; entire subcultures could rise overnight, thrive for a dozen weeks, and then vanish utterly.” -William Gibson, Neuromancer

When the idea of #seapunk was born in a dream, neither @LILINTERNET nor myself predicted the #splash heard ’round the world. With varying degrees of amusement, amazement, and eventually eye-rolling distaste, we watched a tongue-in-cheekstyle/philosophy that defined our summer become a press tsunami. #Seapunk grew into a genre, a record label, a visual language, and a subculture, a ship steered on a very strange course by new and self-appointed captains. We have remained quiet through multiple, oddly aggressive attempts to rewrite history by those we thought were in on the joke, but our seas remain silent no longer.

Seapunk today is the ex-girlfriend we thought we knew, but then she cut her hair, dyed it turquoise, started listening to different music and untagged all her old Facebook photos. And while we don’t so much relate to her anymore (what were we thinking?), we can’t deny experiencing unprecedented levels of entertainment watching the process take place. Allow us to share the lulz with you.

We bring you the true tale of #seapunk, an accidental meme that became a scene, via an empirical timeline created through our own and others’ memories, as well as a little help from the internet. While writing the story in the third person is the ultimate dickbag move, it does make for the best retelling.

Dive in! Just not too deep… shallow waters ahead.

Read about Seapunk’s inception over at Noisey.