mondojohnson

I was completely unaware of this “Wizard Rock” phenomenon, which is odd given my bona fides as both a Harry Potter fan and follower of quirkily bland college bands. For my fellow ignoramuses, “Wizard Rock” is a genre in which all of the songs and music are inspired by the Harry Potter books. The deans of the genre, apparently, are “Harry and the Potters”, two nerdly lads who dress as Harry at different ages.

Their unexpected success launched a wave of surprisingly good little bands that are refreshingly sincere. The fans are thrilled without pretension (the gigs mostly take place in libraries, it seems), and the musicians genuinely beam and enjoy the weird celebrity that they stumbled into.

The “Wizard Rock” movement is only a third of this movie, but it is the part that struck me because of its novelty. Equally striking, if not more, is the tale that this movie tells of Warner Brothers coming to grips with massive fan culture and the technology of “mashups” (see the segment about Brad Neely‘s amazing “remix” of the 1st HP movie).

Go check it out on hulu.com, absolutely free!