"Rock Star" is a song by American

funk rock Funk rock is a fusion genre that mixes elements of funk and rock. James Brown and others declared that Little Richard and his mid-1950s road band, The Upsetters, were the first to put the funk in the rock and roll beat, with a biographer sta ...

band

N*E*R*D N.E.R.D. (stylized as N⋆E⋆R⋆D and N.E.R.D, a backronym of No-one Ever Really Dies) is an American hip hop and rock band, formed in Virginia Beach, Virginia, in 1999. Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo were signed by Teddy Riley to Virgin Reco ...

. It was released as the second single from their debut studio album '' In Search of...'' (2001). The song, the second single off the album, performed better in the United Kingdom than their previous single " Lapdance", peaking at number 15. It also became the group's first single to chart in Australia. The song acted as a "second first single" of sorts, as it followed the group's debut " Lapdance", but was the first single to be released from the second, more streamlined version of ''In Search Of...'' rerecorded courtesy of

Spymob Spymob is an American alternative rock band from Minneapolis, Minnesota. Best known for their appearance on the 2003 Star Trak Entertainment compilation ''The Neptunes present Clones'', with the song "Half Steering...", they also provided backing ...

rather than

The Neptunes The Neptunes are an American songwriting and production duo composed of Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo, formed in Virginia Beach, Virginia, in 1992. Williams often provides additional vocals on records and appears in the duo's music videos, ...

' trademark synths and electronic drum programming.

Music video

The song has a promotional music video directed by

Hype Williams Harold Williams (born August 1, 1970) is an American music video director, film director, film producer, and screenwriter. Early life Williams was born in Queens, New York. He is of mixed African-American and Honduran descent. He attended Adel ...

. It is technically unreleased, and unofficial, and was never broadcast on any music video stations, or networks; and it essentially became shelved, and was lost for quite some time. However, the video was remarkably later uploaded to the bands Sony Music/Vevo page. The video features the members of N.E.R.D. as High School students, in gym class, with their militant gym teacher, played by actor

Randy Quaid Randy Randall Rudy Quaid (born October 1, 1950) is an American actor known for his roles in both serious drama and light comedy. He was nominated for an Academy Award, BAFTA Award and a Golden Globe Award for his role in ''The Last Detail'' i ...

. N.E.R.D., later starts performing "Rock Star", as the gym teacher, and other students dance along to the song. A

Capuchin monkey The capuchin monkeys () are New World monkeys of the subfamily Cebinae. They are readily identified as the " organ grinder" monkey, and have been used in many movies and television shows. The range of capuchin monkeys includes some tropical fores ...

then eventually runs into the gym, and starts havoc. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qh9WuPzOjlI

Usage in other media

The song is featured in the films '' The Guard'', '' Bringing Down the House'' and ''

Blue Crush ''Blue Crush'' is a 2002 sports film directed by John Stockwell and based on Susan Orlean's 1998 ''Outside'' magazine article "Life's Swell". It stars Kate Bosworth, Michelle Rodriguez, Sanoe Lake and Mika Boorem. The film tells the story of t ...

''. The

Jason Nevins Jason Nevins (born December 15, 1972) is an American songwriter, record producer and remixer, who is most widely known for his pop and dance productions, including his multi-platinum, multi-million selling production of " It's Like That" by Ameri ...

remix of the song has been featured in numerous video games such as ''

Burnout Dominator ''Burnout Dominator'' is a racing video game developed by EA UK and published by Electronic Arts for PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable. It retains the core gameplay of the series, as players race at top speeds through dozens of World Tour ev ...

'', ''

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'', and ''

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'' as well as movie trailers for '' The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift'' and the 2004 film ''

Taxi A taxi, also known as a taxicab or simply a cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of their choice ...

'', and was featured in an Apple

iPod The iPod is a discontinued series of portable media players and multi-purpose mobile devices designed and marketed by Apple Inc. The first version was released on October 23, 2001, about months after the Macintosh version of iTunes ...

advert. The Jason Nevins Club Blaster Edit has appeared in ''

SSX 3 ''SSX 3'' is a snowboarding video game developed by EA Vancouver and published by Electronic Arts under the EA Sports BIG label. The game was originally released on October 20, 2003, for the GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Xbox. It was later ported ...

''. An edited version of it was also used as the theme song for NFL's 2002 game ''NFL Fever'', with

Pharrell Williams Pharrell Lanscilo Williams (; born April 5, 1973) is an American record producer, rapper, singer, and songwriter. Alongside close colleague Chad Hugo, he formed the hip hop and R&B production duo the Neptunes in the early 1990s, with whom he ...

' vocal part replaced with the title game words. The song also appears in the music video game ''

Band Hero ''Band Hero'' is a spinoff video game as part of the ''Guitar Hero series'' of music rhythm games, released by Activision on November 3, 2009, for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii and Nintendo DS consoles. The game is structu ...

''. The original version appears in the video games '' Mat Hoffman Pro BMX 2'', '' SX Superstar'', and '' True Crime: Streets of LA''. A portion of "Rock Star" also appears in an episode (season 3, episode 4: "Zoso") of the television series ''

Californication Californication may refer to: *Californication (word), an expression that refers to the influx of Californians into various western states in the U.S. * ''Californication'' (album), a 1999 album by the Red Hot Chili Peppers ** "Californication" (son ...

'', as well as an episode of Northern Irish comedy ''

Pulling Moves ''Pulling Moves'' is a Northern Irish television series set in Lenadoon, West Belfast. It follows the exploits of four friends: Wardrobe (Simon Delaney), Ta ( Ciarán McMenamin), Shay (Ciaran Nolan) and Darragh (Kevin Elliot). The series first ...

''. It placed at number 46 in the

Triple J Hottest 100, 2002 The 2002 Triple J Hottest 100, announced on 26 January 2003, was the tenth such countdown of the most popular songs of the year, according to listeners of the Australian radio station Triple J. As in previous years, a CD featuring 39 (not neces ...

in Australia, which is the world's largest annual music poll.

Track listing

# "Rock Star" (

remix edit) # "Rock Star" (Formerly Rock Star Poser) # "Rock Star" (Nevin's Classic Club Blaster – edited mix) # "Rock Star" (video)

Charts

References

2002 singles N.E.R.D. songs Song recordings produced by the Neptunes Songs written by Pharrell Williams Songs written by Chad Hugo 2001 songs Rap rock songs {{2000s-hiphop-single-stub