I Love Wrock and Roll!

There are many positives to being apart of the Harry Potter fandom. Personally, I have made life long friends, formed unbreakable bonds with family (heyyy Bayana), enjoyed the creativity of fellow fans through fan-created art and fiction. I have even played Quidditch in college a few times! However, one of the biggest perks is Wizard Rock or Wrock. If you listen to our podcast #WizardTeam you have heard me enthusiastically shout out Wizard rock before so I thought it was time to explain to you why I love to wrock out when I nerd out.

Now when I say Wizard Rock, I’m not talking about the Weird Sisters, who performed at the Yule Ball in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Wizard Rock is a sub-genre of music made by some of the biggest fans in the fandom who have become stars in their own right. Bands created and formed over the shared love of the series have created songs about themes and characters in the series. Besides all of the songs having subject matter pulled straight from the books and from the culture that sprang up around the books, these bands and musicians have some of the best names you could imagine. The band popularly credited with creating the genre is named Harry and The Potters, and there are also names like the Ministry of Magic, Draco and the Malfoys, The Parselmouths, MC Kreacher, Tonks and the Aurors, The Whomping Willows, Roonil Wazlib, etc, etc.

There are differing levels of talent and throughout the years some of these bands have come and gone. They’ve been featured in a documentary, collaborated on albums and even had a music festival called Wrockstock for a few years.  While this genre may have passed its prime, there are still artists making music and referencing some of my favorite characters and moments from the Wizarding world. While there has been a lot of news coming from the Wizarding world recently, there were a few years between the release of the last book and the announcement of Pottermore and the Fantastic Beasts movies where there were fears that the fandom would die out because of lack of new content. We would always have the books but would we always be as invested in this world as we were when we lined up at midnight for book and movie releases?

Wizard Rock served as a reminder to me that whenever I was feeling disconnected from this world and from fellow fans, I could listen to some of my favorite Wizard Rock and know that somewhere out there there were other people who loved Harry Potter just as much as I did, so much so they felt compelled to sing songs about the Boy Who Lived.

FYI – Hank wrote this song in 2014 before the announcements of Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them and The Cursed Child. What I’m saying is Hank Green definitely has the gift of Divination. Don’t believe me?