Könsrock (Swedish for ''Genitalia rock'') is a

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

music genre A music genre is a conventional category that identifies some pieces of music as belonging to a shared tradition or set of conventions. It is to be distinguished from ''musical form'' and musical style, although in practice these terms are some ...

characterized by

off-color humor Off-color humor (also known as vulgar humor, crude humor, or shock humor) is humor that deals with topics that may be considered to be in poor taste or vulgar. Many comedic genres (including jokes, prose, poems, black comedy, blue comedy, insult c ...

, dealing with subjects such as

handicapped Disability is the experience of any condition that makes it more difficult for a person to do certain activities or have equitable access within a given society. Disabilities may be cognitive, developmental, intellectual, mental, physical, se ...

people, disorders and diseases,

homosexuality Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to peop ...

, and

Nazism Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...

, often with strong elements of

toilet humor Toilet humour, or potty or scatological humour (compare scatology), is a type of off-colour humour dealing with defecation, diarrhea, constipation, urination and flatulence, and to a lesser extent vomiting and other bodily functions. It sees subs ...

Characteristics

Könsrock is commonly produced using the same line-up as punk rock, often including post-punk influences with drum machines, keyboards, and other electronic devices. Some bands use heavily distorted instrument similar to extreme punk, and some use a more experimental sound deliberately made to sound unpleasant. The lyrics are usually offensive and deal with topics such as

people,

pedophilia Pedophilia ( alternatively spelt paedophilia) is a psychiatric disorder in which an adult or older adolescent experiences a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children. Although girls typically begin the process of puberty a ...

, bodily functions,

drugs A drug is any chemical substance that causes a change in an organism's physiology or psychology when consumed. Drugs are typically distinguished from food and substances that provide nutritional support. Consumption of drugs can be via inhalat ...

, and violence. Könsrock has been popular in schools in Sweden and has on some occasions caused public outrage.

History

Two important earlier influences to könsrock were

Johnny Bode Johnny Bode (6 January 1912 in Falköping, Sweden – 25 July 1983 in Malmö, Sweden) was a Swedish singer, composer and '' enfant terrible''. After his debut at seventeen years old, Bode recorded hundreds of songs on the gramophone, many of ...

, who released three records in the '60s and '70s with songs with explicit sexual lyrics, and

Eddie Meduza Errol Leonard Norstedt (17 June 1948–17 January 2002), better known by his stage name Eddie Meduza, was a Swedish composer and musician working mainly in the rockabilly genre. Music career Themes and behaviour Many of Meduza's songs are abou ...

, also known for songs with off-color and often sexual lyrics. As neither worked in a punk rock style, they are not considered part of the könsrock genre proper. Onkel Kånkel and his Kånkelbär, formed in 1979, are often considered to have created the genre.

Tunnan och Moroten

In 1994 Tunnan och Moroten (The Trashcan and The Carrot) began making music together. Early songs were released as Amiga modules, but since the late 1990s, they have incorporated guitar and drums. In the late 1990s, songs in MP3 format began circulating on the internet, and ''Bajs i bastun'' was released in 1998, becoming one of their most famous songs. There are now eight albums. On the later releases,

synth A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and f ...

, bass, electric guitar, and drums are used, together with influences from

chip music Chiptune, also known as chip music or 8-bit music, is a style of synthesizer, synthesized electronic music made using the programmable sound generator (PSG) sound chips or synthesizers in vintage arcade game, arcade machines, computers and vi ...

References

Footnotes and sources

some newspaper articles about Onkel Kånkel and könsrock
(in Swedish)
a reportage about könsrock in swedish radio
(in Swedish) {{DEFAULTSORT:Konsrock Punk rock genres Swedish styles of music