The election of Donald Trump as President of the United States in 2016 had a profound effect on many, especially those with opposing viewpoints – which included both performers and fans of the musical genre known as Wizard Rock.
“After Trump’s election, we had a lot of folks revisiting and finding comfort in certain songs from our catalogue, particularly a song like ‘These Days Are Dark,’ a rallying call to allies set in the aftermath of Voldemort’s return,” Paul DeGeorge of the band Harry and the Potters told Rolling Stone in 2018. “We were invigorated by this and by the live shows we’d been playing and I guess just felt like we had a few more things to say.”
Paul and his brother Joe DeGeorge refined those “few more things to say” into a fresh batch of songs that were then released in 2019. “The new album is certainly our most pointedly political work to date,” Paul DeGeorge explained to Rolling Stone. “We’re hoping that parents and their young kids might see us play at the library, hear a song explicitly critiquing pureblood supremacy and then later have a real discussion about white supremacy and how it manifests in their own lives.”
Harry and the Potters were not the only wizard rock band to release a new album in 2019. Hawthorn & Holly – named after the wands of Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter from the Harry Potter book series and featuring the vocal talents of Leah Hamm and Christie Mowery – likewise launched a new collection under the title We Are the Wizard Resistance. The cover artwork was created by John Hairston Jr., an illustration depicting a group wizards and witches holding up their glowing wands. The title track, meanwhile, was a sing-along anthem that declared, “Our voices cannot be turned down/Hold fast, all shall stand their ground/We plan on making a difference/We are the Wizard Resistance!”
Wizard rock is a genre of music consisting of songs inspired by – and pay homage to – narratives from the Harry Potter series of books and films. Harry and the Potters was the first wizard rock band on the scene, debuting in 2002, but were hardly the last. At its peak in 2009, there were an estimated 800 wizard rock bands around the world, and even though the last Harry Potter film was released in 2011, wizard rock remains strong within the fandom nonetheless.
While the songs performed by Harry and the Potters, Hawthorn & Holly, and other wizard rock bands are not direct commentaries on real-world social and political climates, the fictional world of Harry Potter is filled with such similarities, making many of the songs relevant to the here-and-now.
“Throughout the books, characters actively oppose unjust authority figures, castigate politicians who are failing to provide for the common good, admonish the abuse of politically sanctioned power, and demand democratization,” Paul Thomas explains in his 2018 book I Wanna Wrock! The World of Harry Potter-Inspired ‘Wizard Rock’ and Its Fandom. “Others fight for the rights of the enslaved, champion education reform, or deride the evils of racism. Furthermore, the socio-political themes of the Harry Potter books, despite being fantastical, often parallel or resemble our own world.”
While resistance against authoritarianism is strong within the wizard rock community, it is not the only social activist component of the musical genre. Although there are wizard rock bands that shy away from being socially and political engaged, the majority are involved with some sort of activism, especially in the areas of literacy, feminist movements, and charity work.
Having been inspired by a series of books, for instance, it should be no surprise that many wizard rock bands use their popularity to promote literacy. Libraries have evolved into a de facto performance space for many of their concerts, and library card drives have often coincided with their appearances. Wizard rock bands have likewise organized concerts and compilation albums whose proceeds have been donated to organizations like First Book, a non-profit that provides books to impoverished children.
Steph Anderson of the wizard rock band Tonks and the Aurors has created charity albums herself as well as donated tracks to albums created by other wizard rock performers. She has also been a regular presenter at the Granger Leadership Academy – a non-partisan conference sponsored by the Harry Potter Alliance that teaches attendees to be strong and effective leaders – where she shares her experiences as a female performer of wizard rock with those present.
Despite these discussions being beneficial, Anderson realized after the first Granger Leadership Academy in 2014 that direct action was needed as well. She therefore launched Yes All Witches, a grassroots movement that encourages female empowerment while likewise promoting female artists and musicians within Harry Potter fandom. As part of that effort, the organization provides small $100 grants to wizard rock bands featuring women and minorities within their ranks.
Although the amount may not seem like much, Paul Thomas points out in I Wanna Wrock! that the first recipient – TK Lawrence of the wizard rock band Totally Knuts – was able to use the funds to record and release a 2017 album entitled Fresh, Spooky, and Queer.
“The portion of Harry Potter fandom affectionately referred to as Wrock – Wizard Rock to the uninitiated – is known for two things,” Wired magazine wrote in 2008. “The first is a joyous and unabashed celebration of the Potter mythos through music. The second is an equally fervent dedication to combating the social ills of the day.” In 2019, wizard rock bands Harry and the Potters and Hawthorn & Holly released new albums that confirmed this “fervent dedication” was still prevalent a decade later.
Using the final Harry Potter book – The Deathly Hallows – as a catalyst, Harry and the Potters sang about the struggle against the evil Lord Voldemort, the virtues of Hermione Granger, and the power of love to overcome. The comparison of the fictional to the factual world was subtly established in the opening lyrics of the first song – “Back when we were young it felt like a story/The evils in the world simply defeated by my friends and me/But then we grew up and the world grew dark” – which could easily have referred to fans of Harry Potter just as much as the title character himself.
Hawthorn & Holly, meanwhile, were more direct on their own new album, openly declaring “We are the Wizard Resistance!” A simple and straightforward statement, it can also be considered a fitting epitaph for both performers and fans of wizard rock alike.
Anthony Letizia