I touched on this briefly in my post about Indie music, but I wanted to delve further into this ultra-indie, wyrd genre of Wrock.
I think “Indie” can be defined as being built around a counter-culture, and the music as artifacts of this community. Wizard Rock embraces a “do it yourself” style, and the bands self-produce their recordings, distributing them online through youtube or myspace.
The culture that this music comes from is the Harry Potter Series. This is a genre where the subject matter is solely hailed from Harry Potter which goes against mainstream bands that have songs that reference many different things.
The indie genre, as being in revolt to mainstream culture, has become convoluted and a part of a mainstream culture; cancelling itself out. But I don’t believe true indie is dead. I think it perhaps needs a new name, though. Harry Potter is very popular within mainstream culture, but this extent of fanaticism is still about under the counter.
When performing live, wizard rock bands often cosplay, or costume play—a sort of role playing of one of the characters from the series. The bands usually show up at fan conventions, bookstores and libraries—and of course, house parties.
There is a documentary on Wrock called, We Are Wizards. You can watch it on Hulu or Netflix for free. Here's the trailer:
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