To understand wasteland punk, we must first understand what "Apocalypse" is. Revelation, the last chapter of the New Testament, predicts the destruction of the human world in a great catastrophe. "Wasteland" describes the world after the fulfillment of the Apocalypse, while wasteland punk uses an exaggerated and artistic method to outline the living state of human beings after the destruction of the world.

Wasteland punk was born in the 1960s and 1970s. In the context of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, all human beings are living in the shadow of nuclear war. A world-wide nuclear war that may break out at any time forces people to think about the world after civilization is destroyed. How will human beings survive after the world is destroyed? This problem gave birth to the concept of wasteland culture, and wasteland punk also came into being in the continuous creation of artists.

Strictly speaking, the alternate worldview that wasteland punk relies on is based on the destruction of modern civilization. Such destruction may be caused by nuclear weapons, but it is not limited to nuclear war. With the increasingly serious environmental problems since the 1980s, the world view of wasteland punk has also extended from a simple nuclear winter to a wider ecological disaster - for example, after global warming, the world has become a large desert; for example, the super virus brings The plague and zombies; another example is that after the earth's resources are completely depleted, human beings have to return to the primitive era. In a word, all the disasters that may destroy modern civilization and the way of human survival in disasters can constitute the source of material for wasteland punk.

The visual symbols of wasteland punk are usually related to disaster and death, such as the ruins of the city after the nuclear explosion, the sewers where human beings are dying, the sweltering desert wasteland, the towns occupied by zombies, the air and rivers that are seriously polluted and so on. And because modern civilization was destroyed, the existing order was destroyed, most of the human beings in the wasteland lived in hardships, and gangsters and bandits became the de facto rulers, so wasteland punk must visually emphasize poverty, chaos and poverty. Violence.

Under normal settings, due to the destruction of civilization, the human technology tree in the wasteland punk world is broken and incomplete. Humans may have advanced computers, but they cannot build a qualified internal combustion engine, and can only use antique steam engines as power. Therefore, wasteland punk is often mixed with steampunk and cyberpunk to form a unique visual style.

 Steampunk focuses on expressing the worship of science and yearning for utopia. Cyberpunk emphasizes the criticism of capitalism and reflection on science and technology, while wasteland punk pays more attention to the game and struggle of human nature under extreme living conditions. How human beings barely survive in the apocalyptic era, how to rebuild civilization, and how to make choices under the pressure of morality and survival, these are the topics that wasteland punks are keen to discuss.

The representative works of wasteland punk are "Fallout", "Subway" and "Mad Max". These three games (including movies) are typical nuclear war wasteland, which basically shaped our concept of "wasteland punk" cognition.

   "Fallout"

"Mad Max"

"Subway: Departure"

The movie "Future Water World" is about global warming. After the sea level rises, all land is submerged. Humans can only live on water, so it is considered an ecological wasteland.

"Future Water World", a very fun movie with a very interesting setting, but unfortunately the plot is too old-fashioned

As for Borderlands, humans arrive on an unexplored planet, searching for wealth and building civilization in a wilderness. This setting has no nuclear bombs or natural disasters, but it is no different from the traditional wasteland punk in terms of visual style, so it can be regarded as a unique wasteland punk.

"Borderlands" is also a classic wasteland punk, even more punk than many wasteland punks