Wizrocklopedia

Question Tuesday

Dinahsaur

Each and every one of us has had to face, at some point or other, an interesting situation in which a Muggle first learns of our Wizard Rock love. Sometimes this elicits a response along the lines of, “Ooh, I love good ol’ HP! Tell me more!” Other times, we get a, “Well, that’s sure interesting…” response just before they get confused and walk away. However, today, I’d like to hear about some of the crazier responses you’ve gotten from Muggles. So today’s question is:

What is the most intense response (positive or negative) that you have ever gotten from a Muggle first learning about Wizard Rock?

My answer has to be a situation that arose at my local theatre. I run lights and sound for shows at a local community theatre and, when I run sound, I like to play my own music through the sound system before we open up the house. Naturally, this means I play Wizard Rock about 90% of the time. One day in particular, I was listening to The Ginny Potter Revelation and, within a song or two, literally had five people approach me separately to inquire after the music because they liked it so much. With each person, I told them the name of the band and that it was a Wizard Rock band and every single one of them responded with, “…. Oh.” Then they would blink stupidly, slowly turn around and walk away. It was pretty hilarious, I can’t deny.

Dinahsaur

Co-Senior Editor of the Wizrocklopedia, founder and writer of the Daily Wrocket, and dedicated Wizard Rock fan of the ages.

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16 responses to “Question Tuesday”

  1. Maggie Avatar
    Maggie

    Last May, I was trying to explain to my co-workers why I was taking two days off to go to Boston for LeakyCon. They just couldn’t quite wrap their minds around the concept that 800 people, mostly young adults our age, would spend 4 days partying about… Harry Potter.

    “But that’s not even the best part,” I gushed.
    “What?” they asked.
    “No, seriously, the best part is gonna be all the bands there. I’m so pumped to see the Dracos live. OMG. And the Remus Lupins!”
    ::blank stare::
    “You know, wizard rock bands. It’s a huge genre now. It started with Harry and Potters a few years ago…”
    “Like, they sing about- the books?”
    “Yes! A lot of the bands are really good, too.”

    They all looked pretty weirded out, and the subject was dropped. Oh well.

    Happy 1st September everyone! Let’s go back to Hogwarts!
    (or, if you’re lucky, you’ll be transferred to Pigfarts…)

    Reply
  2. Jonathon Rosenthal Avatar
    Jonathon Rosenthal

    This isn’t really about Wizard Rock, it’s about my fandom involvement in general. But it is a “coming out of the broom closet” story =)

    I was recently on NY1 early in the morning. Being interviewed regarding TGTSNBN’s activities surrounding the HBP release.

    I am an IT consultant and realized that it was possible some of my clients would see the interview (which featured me in my bowler hat and robes 😉 But I am incredibly proud of our group and was willing to answer any questions a client might bring up if they saw me.

    What caught me off guard was during a phone call with one of my clients. I was talking to him about some technology plans and he replied “So does Dumbledore agree with all this or not?”

    I was stunned for a second, laughed and replied “Oh, so I guess you saw the NY1 interview?”

    It ends up that particular client has 5 kids and has read the books to them several times =) He gives me shit about it from time to time, but is overall cool about it 😉

    Reply
  3. Debbie Avatar
    Debbie

    Oh i love when people hear me play wrock and how they react. Now there have been two of these that make me laugh every time i think of them. The first was when we were having a party in one of my High School classes and I was the only one who had any CDs in their bookbag. Now these were mixes i made with both Muggle and Wrock music. The second song that played was PLatform 9&3/4 by harry and the potters. Just imagine a class of about 30 Seniors and Juniors pausing in the middle of dancing and talking and eating because they hear this crazy song. Yes one of my al time favs.. The next was when i was up in VA for Christmas with the family. My brother’s girlfriend was wondering what kind of music i listen to. I put on No Shame in Hufflepuff by the blibbering humdingers. Lets just say that song was stuck in her head for the next few months and if you want to annoy her all you have to do is start with the “hufflepuff huff hufflepuff”… Those are my favorite times

    Reply
  4. meg Avatar
    meg

    I’ve never had a really good reaction, but the best is with my relatives. My parents are really good natured about it, so they tried to help me explain Wizard Rock to my Dad’s family, and they just did NOT get it. It’s not like they thought it was stupid or weird, they just didn’t understand. We spent like half an hour trying to explain, but it didn’t take.

    Other than that, though, the rest of my family are geeks and I go to a really geeky school, so for the most part it’s not a big deal.

    Reply
  5. Ish Avatar
    Ish

    I just started listening to wrock last year. So, usually I share my music folder in the office as per request of my officemate who is just seated right next to me coz she’s too lazy to copy songs. Our firm is about 50 employees w/ diff. teams, all in one network tree.. So one time, someone from the other team msg me askin permission if he could copy Harry & the Potters coz she find it interesting, so i said “sure go ahead, if u want you could copy the others as well..” then she msg me again.. “are they related to the movies?” i told her that it’s called wizard rock, the names, titles, lyrics are somehow related, and i guess she got it.. But, a couple of minutes passed, a pop up msg again came from her asking “what are they? Are they really a practising witch??” haha! Then i said “just google wizard rock”.. Maybe he heard Draco & the malfoys, coz after work she said to me, some sounded like cult music.. Hehe..

    Reply
  6. Zack W Avatar
    Zack W

    Someone told me that I would never marry, have a career, or any real happiness, and that I would die alone. I kid you not.

    Reply
  7. Julia Avatar
    Julia

    A friend of mine really hates that I’m so involved in fandom. She spends half her life trying to talk me out of it. After I came back from LeakyCon she was so disappointed that I had a great time, and keeps trying to convince me to give up PwnCast, stop reading HP, and generally stop caring about it.

    I was on the phone one evening with her and she said that she’d seen We Are Wizards. She warned me to remember to keep this separate from my real life. I couldn’t believe she would say such a thing to me, as though you guys aren’t my real life? As though I can separate my love you and our friendship from the day to day doing of my life.

    On a different note, one day I was with some friends listening to a WRock podcast and my friend commented “I’ve never heard so much bad music in my life.” I think I went into the corner and cried.

    Reply
  8. Pippa Avatar
    Pippa

    Every single time we go through the us/canadian border for a wizard rock concert in seattle its a new hilariously difficult conversation with the border guards….

    Reply
  9. Kali Avatar
    Kali

    @ Pippa: Oh dear that shall be a fun conversation to have on the way to Wrockstock.

    Seriously though I think the funniest reaction I’ve ever experienced was when I was in a bookstore and I spotted an employee carrying around HBP. I pointed it out to my friend (also a HP fan) and the employee heard us. The employee came over and said “Oh, you’re a Harry Potter fan. I bet I’m a bigger one.” Then my friend (who knew about wrock via me) looks at the woman, points at me and says “No way, she’s a bigger one. She listens to wizard rock.” The employee looked at me like I had grown another head and asked if we meant the soundtrack and so I explained. Afterward she began to laugh, called over her friend and told her everything, and ended it with a huge smile and told me “Now that is awesome” and asked me to refer some bands.

    Reply
  10. Avery Avatar
    Avery

    I have tried to convert my friends many, many times, but really only two of them have read the series. (Yes, they are all Twilight fans) So, I decided that for my birthday (nine months away) instead of them giving me presents, they would each buy two Wizard Rock songs and put them on their iPods. Well, I drafted this whole questionnaire asking about what kind of music they like, how many books/movies they have been exposed to, etc. I planned to send it out on my birthday, so in an attempt to stop myself from sending it to my friends yet i wrote in giant red letter DO NOT SEND YET. It worked pretty well, but I kept editing it so I had to click save, not send, every time. One time I accidentally did send it, still with the massive DO NOT SEND. So I sent out another email pleading them not to read it yet and delete it. I’m pretty sure they all did, except for one. For some reason she’s like “Avery, you’re so sweet!” which isn’t really an adjective people describe me with…

    Reply
  11. Joella Avatar
    Joella

    All of my friends think it’s pretty cool that I listen to music about HP… at least, if they find it weird, they don’t mention it. The only reaction that sticks out in my head is right after I went to my first wrock concert in March ’08, I had a picture of me and Alex as my default pic on myspace, and one of my friends commented me asking who the guy was, and I explained about how I’m a dork and I went to a concert by a band who sings about Harry Potter, and she said something along the lines of “dorky?? I think it’s really cool that you were able to do something you love. :)” I was pleasantly surprised =]

    Reply
  12. Ashley Avatar
    Ashley

    @ Joella — Aw, that is so sweet! I wish people I knew were like that!

    Mostly my parents are supportive, although most people generally think I’m weird. I know my sister does.

    Once, when I was still at school, I tried to tell my classmate Minnie about Wrock. I knew she liked music, so I asked her if she liked HP, and she said, “Are you kidding I love Harry Potter!” So I tried to tell her about Wizard Rock, but its probable she didn’t hear me, because there was absolutely no reaction.

    Typical. What a waste. I never was good at talking.

    But I think my dad knows about bands, because I discussed some with him once when I was just starting to get into Wizard Rock. He was always a bit Potter fan, because he bought all the early movies, two copies each of the books, and took us all to the cinemas when the first movie came out, too, trying to get us into it.

    We don’t talk too much about anymore, though. 🙁

    And mum, although not into it, is willing to listen to me prattle on about it all the same, and I even tested her on the canon (using Deathly Hallows) the other day, though predictably, she didn’t get any.

    And sometimes I sing wrock songs and tell her about bands, too.

    Reply
  13. Allison Avatar
    Allison

    Okay, one of my friends is always talking about her punk rock music with my Chemistry class and has heard my rant about wizard rock like a million times since I first told her said when I made a wizard rock comment “What if I said that I am going to give up punk rock for a Twilight band?” So I replied with “Then good luck finding more than ten bands to listen to” Then three days later she was talking about punk rock with the rest of the group I eat lunch with and asked why I hadn’t heard of any of the bands. So I explain I listen the Wizard Rock said “I’m going to build a time machine to disinvent (yes she used that word) Harry Potter, then what would you talk about?” I replied simply with “Pandas”

    Reply
  14. palantiriel Avatar
    palantiriel

    I told one of my freinds that I’d been listening to wizard rock all day, and he said “isn’t that a bit boring, just listening to the theme tune all day?” he thought I’d sat there listening to Hedwig’s Theme over and over and over. I had listened to it a couple of times, to be fair, but Peeved’s version is so cool! My friends don’t really get it or want to know, but my Mum’s beeen a diehard Trekkie since she was 16, so she understands! And I’ve got my HP fan boyfriend and brother into it to a level where they know what band and what song I’m talking about most of the time.

    Reply
  15. Allison Avatar
    Allison

    Okay, now I know I just posted my negative experience of explaining wrock. But I had an amazingly positive experience about explaining it today. I was in my study hall working away (for once!) and a reporter for the school’s yearbook came into my study hall. She asked to interview me about my liking of Harry Potter (what an understatement!). So as I answered she asked about all my HP t-shirts that I got at Wrock concerts. I jumped on the opportunity to explain wizard rock and it may be in our yearbook… SQUEE!

    Reply
  16. Jacquelyn Eden Avatar
    Jacquelyn Eden

    Whenever I tell people about my wizard rock alter ego, Miss parkinson, I always get a series of questions.

    First: Wizard Rock?

    Yur.About the Harry Potter Novels.

    Second: I’ve heard about Harry and the Potters.

    Well actually theres over 400 bands now. Some are REALLY talented. Like ministry of magic. two of their members were signed to a record label before they became wizard rockers.

    Three: And… You do this?

    Yea… I write all my own songs and I think I am pretty good at it.

    Now people will either go one of two ways:

    Way 1: Oh *stupid blank stare* Sounds fun.

    Or

    Way 2: Can I hear you sing something?

    Right here?

    Yea!

    Um…No. That’d be unexpected. There are muggles around.

    Pleaseeeee.

    And this is when I’d direct them to my Youtube or Myspace.

    I’ve also had people ask me to write songs for them, and now whenever I see them I’m expected to sing. Which I do gladly of course.

    Reply

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