Geek rock (also known as nerd rock or dork rock) is a musical subgenre derived from

pop rock Pop rock (also typeset as pop/rock) is a fusion genre with an emphasis on professional songwriting and recording craft, and less emphasis on attitude than rock music. Originating in the late 1950s as an alternative to normal rock and roll, ear ...

and

alternative rock Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...

within the

nerd music Nerd music (or geek music) is the overall category of music collecting the musical genres that grew from nerd culture; different styles that share the same common ground. Origins The earliest example was filk music, from the 1950s onwards, pl ...

group. It is a sister genre to the chiptune-influenced rock subgenre

Nintendocore Nintendocore is a broadly defined style of music that most commonly fuses chiptune and video game music with hardcore punk and/or heavy metal music, heavy metal. The genre is sometimes considered a direct subgenre of post-hardcore and a fusion g ...

and related to other branches of nerd music such as hip hop's

nerdcore Nerdcore is a genre of hip hop music characterized by subject matter considered of interest to nerds and geeks. Self-described nerdcore musician MC Frontalot has the earliest known recorded use of the term (to describe this genre) in the 2 ...

and

contemporary folk Contemporary folk music refers to a wide variety of genres that emerged in the mid 20th century and afterwards which were associated with traditional folk music. Starting in the mid-20th century a new form of popular folk music evolved from tradit ...

nerd-folk Nerd music (or geek music) is the overall category of music collecting the musical genres that grew from nerd culture; different styles that share the same common ground. Origins The earliest example was filk music, from the 1950s onwards, pl ...

. Geek rock is characterised by the standard instruments of rock music often combined with electronic and unusual instruments; references to geek culture and specialised, yet often mundane, interests; and an element of humour. Specific subgenres of geek rock range from those related to elements of geek culture, such as the

Harry Potter ''Harry Potter'' is a series of seven fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels chronicle the lives of a young wizard, Harry Potter, and his friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, all of whom are students a ...

–based

wizard rock Wizard rock (or Wrock) is a type of novelty rock music themed around the '' Harry Potter'' franchise. The music was largely prevalent in the United States in the early 2000s. Wizard rock initially started in Massachusetts with Harry and the Pot ...

, and those related to elements of rock music, such as the punk rock variant called nerd punk.

Characteristics

Geek rock is characterised by strong use of both

electronic instruments An electronic musical instrument or electrophone is a musical instrument that produces sound using electronic circuitry. Such an instrument sounds by outputting an electrical, electronic or digital audio signal that ultimately is plugged into a ...

and more atypical musical instruments, such as accordions or

ukulele The ukulele ( ; from haw, ukulele , approximately ), also called Uke, is a member of the lute family of instruments of Portuguese origin and popularized in Hawaii. It generally employs four nylon strings. The tone and volume of the instrumen ...

s. Lyrically, the genre is generally characterised by subject matter that covers topics such as geek media

pop culture Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop!, a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Albums * ''Pop'' ...

(including science fiction, comic books and video games), academia, technology and related topics. Kyle Stevens, co-founder of Kirby Krackle (along with

Jim Demonakos Jim Demonakos (born 1977) is an American director, graphic novelist, musician and event organizer noted for his work in comic books, conventions, and documentary films. He is most often noted as the founder of Emerald City Comic Con and co-found ...

), expands this to include any passionate interest, saying in a 2013 interview: "To us now, what we consider or genre of 'nerd' or 'geek' rock means anything we are really passionate about, whether that be traditionally geeky subject matter or a song about how we’re really into tacos. In essence, they’re love songs directed to whatever we’re really passionate about." Irony,

self-deprecation Self-deprecation is the act of reprimanding oneself by belittling, undervaluing, disparaging oneself, or being excessively modest. It can be used as a way to make complaints, express modesty, invoke optimal reactions or add humour. It may also be u ...

and

humour Humour (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English) or humor (American English) is the tendency of experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement. The term derives from the humorism, humoral medicine of the ancient Gre ...

are major elements. While mainstream rock music tends to be aspirational, representing things the average male audience member wants or wants to be, geek rock celebrates the mundane, common things that its audience members would find familiar.

History

The first band to describe themselves as "geek rock" is believed to be

Nerf Herder Nerf Herder is an American rock band from Santa Barbara, California, formed in 1994 by Parry Gripp (vocals, guitar), Charlie Dennis (bass) and Steve Sherlock (drums). They describe themselves as a " geek rock" band, and are known for simplis ...

. The success of

They Might Be Giants They Might Be Giants (often abbreviated as TMBG) is an American alternative rock band formed in 1982 by John Flansburgh and John Linnell. During TMBG's early years, Flansburgh and Linnell frequently performed as a duo, often accompanied by a dr ...

' 1990 album ''

Flood A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrol ...

'' may have begun making geek culture and geek rock more mainstream. ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' has referred to They Might Be Giants as "Nerd-Rock Kings". Similarly,

"Weird Al" Yankovic Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic ( ; born October 23, 1959) is an American singer, musician, songwriter, record producer, actor and author. He is best known for creating comedy songs that make light of pop culture and often parody specifi ...

has been called the king of nerd rock. The label "proto-geek rock" covers both similar musicians performing before the term was established and those that were adopted by geek culture but were not strictly part of it themselves. Alex DiBlasi contends that

Frank Zappa Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American musician, composer, and bandleader. His work is characterized by nonconformity, free-form improvisation, sound experiments, musical virtuosity and satire of A ...

is the archetypical geek rocker and antecedent of geek rock. Earlier

filk music Filk music is a musical culture, genre, and community tied to science fiction, fantasy, and horror fandom and a type of fan labor. The genre has existed since the early 1950s and been played primarily since the mid-1970s. Etymology and defi ...

was based around fans performing at

science fiction convention Science fiction conventions are gatherings of fans of the speculative fiction genre, science fiction. Historically, science fiction conventions had focused primarily on literature, but the purview of many extends to such other avenues of expr ...

s. Geek rock, however, is not necessarily connected to conventions in the same way and, while often still connected to fandom, is more adjacent to the fan community than an out-growth of it. Geek rock musicians are professional rather than amateur and band members need not be fans themselves. For example, Chicago '' Doctor Who''-based band

Time Crash "Time Crash" is a mini-episode of the British science fiction television series '' Doctor Who''. It was broadcast on 16 November 2007, as part of the BBC One telethon for the children's charity Children in Need. Written by Steven Moffat, it st ...

was started by ''Doctor Who'' fan Ronen Kohn but the band's drummer, Andy Rice, had not seen the TV series until some time after the band started. This was made possible by equipment becoming more affordable and the growth of the internet. The term "nerd rock" was previously used as the title of a 1977 sketch on the American sketch comedy series ''

Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock. Michaels currently serve ...

'', named by writer Anne Beatts after

Elvis Costello Declan Patrick MacManus OBE (born 25 August 1954), known professionally as Elvis Costello, is an English singer-songwriter and record producer. He has won multiple awards in his career, including a Grammy Award in 2020, and has twice been nom ...

appeared as the musical guest star. She is on record as thinking, while watching his performance, "this isn't punk rock; this is nerd rock." The sketch was the first in their "

The Nerds "The Nerds" is a series of sketches on American sketch comedy series ''Saturday Night Live.'' The protagonists of the sketch are Lisa Loopner (played by Gilda Radner) and Todd DiLaMuca (played by Bill Murray), whose repartée with one another ...

" series following the same "nerd" characters. Geek rock, and related genres, have grown large enough to support music festivals such as

Rock Comic Con Rock Comic Con is a touring nerd music music festival, festival created by Jon Price, Jeff LaGreca and Jeff LaGreca, all members of the band H2Awesome!, in 2010. It was originally held to complement that year's New York Comic Con but has been hel ...

Derivative forms

Some subgenres and derivative forms of geek rock are focused around specific parts of geek culture and fandoms. Others are based on

subgenres Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...

of rock music.

Nerd punk

Nerd punk is a fusion of

and punk rock. It shares the characteristics of geek rock with the fast-paced songs, hard-edged melodies and singing styles of punk. Bands include The Descendents and

Thundering Asteroids! Thundering Asteroids! is an American four-person, female-fronted nerd punk band from Portland, Oregon, United States. The band was formed in 2009, released an EP in 2011 and studio albums in 2012 and 2014. Their genre of music is often inspir ...

Twi-rock

Twi-rock (or twirock) developed from

Twilight Twilight is light produced by sunlight scattering in the upper atmosphere, when the Sun is below the horizon, which illuminates the lower atmosphere and the Earth's surface. The word twilight can also refer to the periods of time when this ...

fandom with bands such as the Bella Cullen Project. While initially successful, and entering into a rivalry with wizard rock, the twi-rock genre turned out to be short lived.

Time Lord rock

Time Lord rock (or trock) was developed by British band Chameleon Circuit in 2008. It was directly inspired by the existence of wizard rock. Time Lord rock was initially dominated by British and Australian bands but the genre has spread to the United States with groups such as

, Legs Nose Robinson and singer Allegra Rosenberg.

Wizard rock

Wizard rock Wizard rock (or Wrock) is a type of novelty rock music themed around the '' Harry Potter'' franchise. The music was largely prevalent in the United States in the early 2000s. Wizard rock initially started in Massachusetts with Harry and the Pot ...

(or wrock) developed from

fandom in the United States with Harry and the Potters in the early 2000s. The subgenre has since expanded internationally with hundreds of bands and established its own music festival, called

Wrockstock Wrockstock was a yearly music festival featuring wizard rock, music inspired by the world of Harry Potter.

List of geek rock bands and solo artists