Rock and roll was a genre of music from Earth, distinguished by a contempt for authority and the status quo, that was first recognized in the 1950s. Tom Paris said that rock and roll "was one of the 20th century's greatest inventions." (VOY: "Virtuoso")
John Lennon of The Beatles, Elvis Presley and AC/DC were popular rock and roll artists during the mid-to-late 20th century. (DS9: "The Siege of AR-558"; (DIS: "Context Is for Kings") The Jimi Hendrix Experience and Berman's Rainbow Dreamers were psychedelic rock and roll groups during the 1960s hippie-era. When Kira Nerys and Miles O'Brien beamed into the year 1967, they experienced a brief snippet of the classic "Hey Joe", performed by Hendrix's band. (DS9: "Past Tense, Part II")
The Woodstock festival, held in August 1969, was a milestone event in the history of 1960s rock and roll and hippie counterculture. (VOY: "Death Wish")
Punk rock, such as acid punk; was a subgenre of rock and roll, originating from the punk counterculture of the 1970s. The punk-rock song "I Hate You" by the obscure band Edge of Etiquette was listened to by a punk in 1986. The punk counterculture was still alive a decade later, in 1996. (Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home; VOY: "Future's End")
Heavy metal music was also a subgenre of rock and roll, originating in the late 1960s and early 1970s, known for louder and heavier melodies than the average rock song. A heavy metal music festival was a show scheduled to occur at Deacon's sometime in 2024. (PIC: "Monsters")
Seven of Nine and Raffaela Musiker were riding on a bus that had an interior sign that was an advertisement for a local rock radio station in Los Angeles. (PIC: "Watcher")
Even the inventor of warp drive, Zefram Cochrane, liked classic rock and roll music, such as artists Steppenwolf and Roy Orbison, and their works "Magic Carpet Ride" and "Ooby Dooby". In 2378, Neelix played rock and roll music on a jukebox in the USS Voyager's mess hall, celebrating the anniversary of Cochrane's legendary flight. (Star Trek: First Contact, VOY: "Homestead")
In the alternate reality, James T. Kirk listened to "Sabotage" by the Beastie Boys while joyriding in his stepfather's Corvette. (Star Trek) 23rd century society deemed some American music of the 20th century as "classical music", as indicated by Spock and Leonard McCoy's comments on the Beastie Boys song "Sabotage". (Star Trek Beyond)
One of Miles O'Brien's favorite kayak-paddling songs was the 1950s and '60s rock and roll classic "Louie, Louie". (DS9: "Heart of Stone")
In 2375, when B'Elanna Torres was in sickbay due to having a cytoplasmic lifeform attached to her, Tom Paris told her he could force her to listen to rock and roll and she couldn't do a thing about it. (VOY: "Nothing Human")
In 2376, Ensign Paris told Abarca that there were many different types of music, including rock 'n' roll. Abarca asked if The Doctor performed rock 'n' roll, to which Commander Chakotay replied that The Doctor was more of an opera man. (VOY: "Virtuoso")
In 2380, Barnes apparently liked rock and roll, and she told her date Sam Rutherford that she liked the classical band The Monkees, and Sam jokingly told her "I'm a Believer." (LD: "Second Contact")
Ensigns Beckett Mariner and D'Vana Tendi performed a heavy metal song on the USS Cerritos for the crew. The performance was so loud, that it was heard throughout the ship, and the intense bass sound of the performance was even heard by a neighboring Klingon Bird-of-Prey. (LD: "Temporal Edict")
By 2381, Bozeman, Montana was made into a theme park dedicated to Humanity's first contact with Vulcans. When Mariner, Tendi and Boimler got on the Phoenix warp ship, which was an amusement ride that featured a holographic duplicate of Doctor Zefram Cochrane, just as they were about to blast off, Zefram said "Let's rock and roll!!" and started playing "Magic Carpet Ride". (LD: "Grounded")
In 2383, Dal played a rock and roll song while he was taking the Kobayashi Maru scenario on the USS Protostar's holodeck. (PRO: "Kobayashi")
In 2384, Barniss Frex jokingly tells Rok-Tahk that she probably wants to be a rock star when she grows up. (PRO: "Asylum")
That same year, on the street fighting sim that Jankom Pog often played on the holodeck of the USS Protostar, there was a motorcycle gang that played rock music on their motorbikes. (PRO: "Ghost in the Machine")
At some point, rock and roll bands became common among cultures outside of Humanity as well. By the 2390s, the thrash metal group known as HIchmey nga'chuq was a popular Klingon rock band. They performed at the Bewlay Island music festival in Stardust City in 2395. (PIC: "Nepenthe")
In 2401, when the SS Eleos XII was in orbit of Sarnia Prime, Jack Crusher was listening to "Starchild," a song by the rock and roll band Baby. (PIC: "Disengage")
In the shooting script of TNG: "The Neutral Zone", "Sonny" Clemonds mentions rock and roll when he lists several popular music genres to Wesley Crusher. This scene (and Wesley's character overall) was deleted from the episode and not filmed.
External links[]
- Rock and roll at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
- Rock and roll at Wikipedia
- Origins of rock and roll at Wikipedia