Filk Friday: Wrocking with Harry Potter

Friday, June 11, 2010

| | |
I admit it. I love Harry Potter. The series, that is.

Now I didn't jump in when it first came out. By the time I heard about HP, it was already a teen craze. I tend to avoid crazes. They're often just overhyped emptiness. But I caught my mom reading it, shortly after book two came out. A surprise since she's not much into crazes either.

She'd picked it up out of self-defense in order to know what all the kids were talking about when she subbed in their classrooms. Turned out she liked it. Since by this time I openly admitted to having a similar taste in books, I decided to give the Harry Potter series a try. I've been a fan ever since. Yes, I was one of those crazy people in line for the midnight releases for books 6 and 7. And I had to debate with my hubby who was going to read them first. (He ended up getting them first.)

The Harry Potter universe is the source of much ridicule as well as fan-produced hilarity. (And drivel, but I'm not going there.) Entire sites of fanfiction are devoted to HP. There is even a subdivision of filk music called Wizard Rock. I doubt that Wrockers consider themselves as filkers, but they are. The groups I listen to most are The Moaning Myrtles, Gred and Forge, Draco and the Malfoys, and The Parselmouths, but there are many more. Some of them do shows. If you get a chance to see them perform, go check them out. If you can't, look them up on iTunes.

Wizard Rock is my guilty pleasure, because some of it gets a bit raunchy ("Prefects Are Hot" and "And Then I Died") or not nice ("My Dad Is Rich," "Potions Yesterday," and "What Kind of Name Is Hermione"). But oh, I love them anyway. Some of these songs are very well done, musically speaking. Clever lyrics, too.

Anyway, here are a few I don't mind sharing more directly. I hope you enjoy them.

99 Death Eaters


Save the Quibbler


This last song isn't Wizard Rock, even though it's still about Harry Potter. Robert Lund pokes fun at the series and its fandom. But if you haven't read the books, you'll only get about half the references and jibes. Even though I do actually enjoy the Harry Potter series, this song cracks me up. It's one of my favorites with some of the best quotable lines. ("You put the 'emo' in Voldemort.") The man is a wizard with lyrics. Check out this parody of "Rockstar."

You've Got Hogwarts

6 comments:

Brad said...

Haha!
I discovered Harry Potter after the third book came out. I've always enjoyed "kid's" fiction, and decided to see what all the fuss was about.
Turns out I really enjoyed it.
I was impressed the way the books grew up with the characters.
I enjoy the movies, too, but no where near as much as the books.
Those songs are awesome!
Thanks for sharing them!

Tahereh said...

omg that's hilarious!

i'm a huge HP fan, too :D love love love the series, and i wish JK would write more..

i can't wait til she does!

Jaleh D said...

*Grin*

I'm glad you both liked these. I really wished I could have found a link for Urban Tapestry's song "Hey JK" that they did before the release of Book 7. I have the recording on my computer, but I can't find one online anymore, not even on their Myspace page. But here's the lyrics: http://www.urbantapestry.org/songs/heyjk.html. It's all about the big question of who Rowling was going to kill off. Funny to see how close their speculations were.

Jai Joshi said...

I adore Harry Potter. Like you, I'm not much into crazes but HP is definitely not empty nonsense and it's well worth the time spent reading. I love it!

Jai

Star-Dreamer said...

Ha! I only just discovered the series... (actually, I have to sneak out to read them: they're forbidden at my house because they're about witches and wizards... :( ) I've read the first four books now... hide them in my locker at work. That last song is genius! So, so funny!!!! :D

Jaleh D said...

Thanks for sharing, Nicole. That gives me an idea for an upcoming post.

Post a Comment