A few people tasked me with writing up a Wizard Rock Primer, and who am I to deny such a request? What you'll find (in two parts!) is a brief description and history of Wizard Rock, followed by a run down of some of my favorite bands. There are lots of links, embeds, photos, and downloads in this post, so hopefully you will soon know your Harry and the Potters from your Parselmouths (and be eager to find more Wizard Rock on your own).

I do encourage you, fans of Harry Potter, to check out this post.
Wizard Rock is not just a bunch of kids singing off-key.

What Is Wizard Rock?
Wizard Rock (or Wrock) is rock music about the world of Harry Potter. Many bands take on a persona from the books either as a specific character (The Remus Lupins) or as students (The Parselmouths are Slytherin students) or as other characters/organizations from the books (The Whomping Willows, Ministry of Magic). A band named for one character may not write all of their songs from that character's point of view.

What does Wizard Rock sound like?
The sound of Wizard Rock is very diverse. There's everything from raw garage bands (Harry and the Potters) to music that is more techno/remix-based (Ministry of Magic) to traditional rock sounds (The Remus Lupins) to folk/blues (The Whomping Willows) to metal (Voldemort) to rap (Dumbledore). So you're likely to find a Wizard Rock sound that is similar to your normal musical tastes.

Don't Take It Just From Me
TIME Magazine recently released an article on Wizard Rock and had this to say about the movement.

… [I]f you’re trying to get your head around wizard rock, punk is a good place to start. Like punk, this is a subculture in which the fundamental poles of popular culture, cool and uncool, have no meaning. Nerds tend to be very comfortable with powerful, unironized emotion—Harry and the Potters’ 2008 tour was titled Unlimited Enthusiasm. As the poet said, they’re too busy singing to put anybody down.
—Lev Grossman, July 20, 2009

When you're done with the Primer, you might want to check out the full article here.

( Wizard Rock, A History )

For all bands I've provided embedded songs which will give you a 30-second preview of each song. If you would like to hear a song in its entirety, click on the link and you can listen to it on imeem. If you are still curious about a band, click on the band webpage and you can hear more of their songs from their MySpace music players. Also, all of the bands listed here are available on iTunes, so you can use iTunes to preview tracks or buy digital copies of their albums.

While I support trading Wizard Rock to help people fall in love, I urge you to help support the bands by purchasing either physical or digital copies of their songs and albums. Purchasing albums allows them to tour and encourages them to continue producing music about Harry Potter.

( Harry and the Potters )

( Draco and the Malfoys )

( The Whomping Willows )

( The Remus Lupins )

Continued in Wizard Rock Primer, Part 2!