Word of the Day

I learned a new word today, nerdcore. Here’s how the Urban Dictionary defines it:

Any form of music that is made by nerds, for nerds, or about nerdly things. Nerdcore can be made in any style of music, but most people identify it in either its pop-punk or hip-hop forms.

With the important caveat:

Nerdcore should not be confused with bands that are simply stereotypically popular with nerds such as They Might Be Giants, DEVO, Ween, etc.

I came about this word in an interesting manner. I heard Optimus Rhyme on the radio (regular, boring radio, not awesome Pandora intertubes radio). This was on the local music segment, and I guess they qualify, being somewhat local, out of Seattle.

I liked their sound (and name, being a huge Transformers geek too) and found them on MySpace (natch), and my new favorite song is “Obey the Moderator“. Even if you don’t like their sound, the words are hilarious, if you’re of a certain geeky persuasion, which I am.

My wife did not find them as funny, not being of the geeky persuasion, not even when I explained why their name was cool. Actually, that made it worse because of course, she already knew and isn’t a fan of Transformers either. Not like I am anyway. She made the “Batman or Superman?” face.

So, digging a bit more, apparently there’s a whole musical genre here called nerdcore, which incidentally is killer clever IMHO. How awesome is that?

Growing up, I suffered through the rise of pop like New Edition, Debbie Gibson and Tiffany before settling into “alternative”. It would have ruled to have nerdcore music back then; I especially like the “by nerds, for nerds” mantra. Good stuff.

All this reminds me of the great Weird Al Yankovic, especially his homages to nerd-dom “White & Nerdy” and “It’s All about the Pentiums“. Watching the latter for the first time in a while is interesting; a lot has changed since 1999, so it’s a funny history lesson too.

It’s Friday. Enjoy your weekend.

Oh, almost forgot, another geeky highlight this week came when Carl tweeted the link for the “Watchmen” movie trailer. Can. Not. Wait.

AboutJake

a.k.a.:jkuramot

4 comments

  1. Thanks, I already fixed it to point at Apple's page. The one you sent over Twitter didn't stream very well for me.

  2. Not at all technical, but I heard the 'Flight of the Conchords' the other day, and thought I'd spread the word about how great they are:
    http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=flight+of+the+
    Have a look at some of their songs on youtube if you get chance. Very clever stuff – comedy songs taking the rise out of different types of music, like the Pet Shop Boys / Gangster Rap etc. etc.

  3. Thanks for the tip. I've seen that show advertised on HBO, but never made the leap to watch or Tivo it. Not sure why. I'll have to give it a look.

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