Geek rock
Geek rock is a subgenre of alternative rock that draws influences from indie rock, college rock and nerd music. Characterized by traditional rock instrumentation combined with synthesizers, unusual instruments and song structures, as well as lyrical references to geek culture and specialized yet mundane interests, whimsy, and offbeat humor in general.
Characteristics
Geek rock is characterised by strong use of both electronic instruments and more atypical musical instruments, such as accordions or ukuleles.Lyrically, the genre is generally characterised by subject matter that covers topics such as geek media pop culture, academia, technology and related topics. Kyle Stevens, co-founder of Kirby Krackle, expands this to include any passionate interest, saying in a 2013 interview: "To us now, what we consider or genre of 'nerd' or 'geek' rock means anything we are really passionate about, whether that be traditionally geeky subject matter or a song about how we're really into tacos. In essence, they're love songs directed to whatever we're really passionate about." Irony, self-deprecation and humour are major elements.
While mainstream rock music tends to be aspirational, representing things the average male audience member wants or wants to be, geek rock celebrates the mundane, common things that its audience members would find familiar.
Etymology
The term "nerd rock" was first used as the title of a 1977 sketch on the American sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live, named by writer Anne Beatts after Elvis Costello appeared as the musical guest star. She is on record as thinking, while watching his performance, "this isn't punk rock; this is nerd rock." The sketch was the first in their "The Nerds" series following the same "nerd" characters.History
Forerunners
The label "proto-geek rock" covers both similar musicians performing before the term was established and those that were adopted by geek culture but were not strictly part of it themselves. Alex DiBlasi contends that Frank Zappa is the archetypical geek rocker and antecedent of geek rock. Pitchfork notes Jonathan Richman's the Modern Lovers as "nervous nice-guy geek-rock that presages the Talking Heads". Other early influences include new wave acts such as Devo, Talking Heads, Robyn Hitchcock, Oingo Boingo, Elvis Costello, Thomas Dolby, the Dead Milkmen, and XTC, as well as Kansas art-punk band the Embarrassment who were described as forerunners to "geek-punk".Origins
The first band to describe themselves as "geek rock" is believed to be Nerf Herder. The success of They Might Be Giants' 1990 album Flood may have begun making geek culture and geek rock more mainstream. Billboard has referred to They Might Be Giants as "Nerd-Rock Kings". Similarly, "Weird Al" Yankovic has been called the king of nerd rock.Earlier filk music was based around fans performing at science fiction conventions. Geek rock, however, is not necessarily connected to conventions in the same way and, while often still connected to fandom, is more adjacent to the fan community than an out-growth of it. Geek rock musicians are professional rather than amateur and band members need not be fans themselves. For example, Chicago Doctor Who-based band Time Crash was started by Doctor Who fan Ronen Kohn but the band's drummer, Andy Rice, had not seen the TV series until some time after the band started. This was made possible by equipment becoming more affordable and the growth of the internet.