Doctor Who fan music
Fans of Doctor Who have created a number of professional and semi-professional music projects. Some have recorded in the filk genre, while others have formed pop-rock bands.
History[[edit] | [edit source]]
The 1980s-1990s[[edit] | [edit source]]
The novelty band The Bessies, made up of Chris Taberham and Peter Finklestone, played the convention circuit. They released a 1991 four song audio cassette called Beat 'n' Bop.
2000s[[edit] | [edit source]]
Professional comedy musician and Who fan Mitch Benn had several Doctor Who-based songs in his repetoire which he played on BBC Radio and at live concerts. Just one, "Dr. Who Girl", from his Radio Face album, received an official release.
A newer innovation, Time Lord Rock (or Trock) was a genre of music created by Alex Day. He formed a band, Chameleon Circuit, which included himself, Charlie McDonnell, Liam Dryden and Chris Beattie, and promoted it via YouTube and MySpace. It took inspiration from Wizard Rock, a genre of music created by Harry Potter fans who sang about the Harry Potter universe.
"Teenage Rebel" was a song by Chameleon Circuit. Initially released in their album Still Got Legs in June 2011, it was later made into a music video as part of YouTube's 2013's "Geek Week". They received permission from the BBC to film on the actual TARDIS control room set. In the storyline of the music video — which the BBC channel shared, and BBC America added to its Doctor Who 2013 playlist — a teenager was feeling down until his friend showed him Doctor Who, and he began imagining he was part of the show. After watching the series in a marathon, making toy sonic screwdrivers and dressing up as Cybermen, the main character entered and explored the TARDIS, and went to sleep under the console.
An interview with two of Chameleon Circuit's members featured in Doctor Who Magazine 410.
The Trock movement gained significant traction with the success and popularity of Chameleon Circuit's first album.
In August of 2009, indie label DFTBA Records released Trock On!, a compilation of trock songs written by their most popular artists who perform TROCK songs.
2010s[[edit] | [edit source]]
On 18 May 2010, Parry Gripp (lead singer of Nerf Herder) wrote and performed a song entitled "Doctor Who", containing several references to Doctor Who. This song was written as part of his "Song of the Week" series of songs.[1]
On 29 March 2011, Stephen A. Willis posted in the world's main Doctor Who online forum, suggesting a virtual orchestra and choir called the Doctor Who Fan Orchestra. He offered his arrangement of Murray Gold's "I Am the Doctor" and mixed together the audio recordings and video recordings. Since then, they have come up with many well-known modern Doctor Who tracks, such as "This is Gallifrey", "Vale Decem", "Rose's Theme", "Doomsday", all main Dalek themes, and music from The Impossible Astronaut.
While working on his 2012 album BiTrektual, a collection of humorous Star Trek and Star Wars songs, dark cabaret singer Aurelio Voltaire wrote and recorded "It's Bigger On the Inside", a bawdy tribute to the Doctor and the TARDIS, due to overwhelming fan demand that a Doctor Who song be included.
On 22 February 2014 American nerdcore rapper Devo Spice released I Am the Doctor, a comedy concept album based on Doctor Who. The album contains 12 tracks: one centred upon the eras of each of the eleven television Doctors which had appeared at that point, and a track paying general tribute to the series. The album features cameo appearances by Katy Manning, Peter Davison, and Sophie Aldred.
On 22 November 2013, the American Trock band known as Legs Nose Robinson, released their first single, "The Oncoming Storm," as part of a tribute video to celebrate Doctor Who's milestone 50th anniversary on YouTube. One year later, they released their first EP, with "The Oncoming Storm" as its title track. With subject matter including the Weeping Angels, River Song, and the Doctor's relationship to his TARDIS, the EP culminated in a farewell to the Eleventh Doctor with "Goodbye Bowtie." Known for creative detailed lyrics about the show, all while "making a playful, pop- music" mashup.
In early 2015, LNR began playing live shows in their native Tennessee, in full character as The Librarian (piano/vocals), The Engineer (guitar/vocals), The Illusionist (keys/vocals), Elise Prefect, (bass/vocals) and The Vashta Nerada (drums). They put out a series of webisodes called "The UNIT Files" that explored the alien personas that they adopted on stage and in their videos.
On 22 July 2015, Australian geek pop singer-songwriter Meri Amber released an album of Doctor Who-inspired songs called Pop Goes The TARDIS. The album included 13 tracks, two of which were parodies ("She's Blue" and "If Only I Couldn't Turn Back Time"), one which was a mash up of ten songs that made guest appearances on the show ("Doctor Who Guest Song Mash") and ten other original tracks.
External links[[edit] | [edit source]]
- io9.strung out on science fiction - It's Not Filk - It's Trock!
- DFTBA Records Wiki - Chameleon Circuit
- "I Am The Doctor" - first music video by Doctor Who Fan Orchestra
- "It's Bigger On The Inside" - Official YouTube Video by Aurelio Voltaire
- "Pop Goes The TARDIS" - Meri Amber
- Legs Nose Robinson - YouTube
Footnotes[[edit] | [edit source]]
- ↑ Parrygripp.com - Song of the week for May 18, 2010. accessed 11th July 2010
2. Gender and the Quest in British Science Fiction Television - Tom Powers
