Today author J.K. Rowling surprised fans by publishing a short story about a 34-year old Harry Potter. Though music isn't talked about so much over the course of the seven Harry Potter books (other than the Weird Sisters), here are some bands that I think Harry Potter would probably listen to.
1. Oasis
The Harry Potter series took place between 1991 and 1998, which means Harry would have been a teenager in the midst of the Britpop era and the height of Oasis' popularity. Like most young British people at the time, he and Ron would have been huge Oasis fans, though Hermione seems like she would be a bigger fan of Blur, since they're more cerebral and much cuter.
2. Radiohead
After Harry eventually grew bored with Oasis by its 1997 album Be Here Now, Harry found more progressive sounds on Radiohead's breakthrough OK Computer. Hermione's also a fan, but Ron thinks Radiohead is too depressing. There's a rumor going around Hogwarts that Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood and Phil Selway performed at the Yule Ball in disguise, but Harry doesn't buy it.
3. The Smiths/The Cure/Joy Division
I'm lumping these three together because they're all bands that people listen to during their mopey, angsty teen phase, which is something that Harry definitely went through around the time of Order of the Phoenix.
4. The Cramps
The Cramps are famous for writing songs about werewolves, the undead, and other horror-influenced topics, which is all stuff that Harry's seen in real life. When he hears a song like "I Was A Teenage Werewolf," he understands that the lives of actual werewolves like his late friend Remus Lupin are much more tragic, but it still has a cool guitar riff.
5. Syd Barrett
While all of Harry's other friends were spinning The Dark Side of the Moon in the Gryffindor dorms, he was digging deeper into Pink Floyd's catalogue, finding the band's early psychedelic material with Syd Barrett, which led him to Barrett's bizarre solo work like The Madcap Laughs. There's something very whimsical about Barrett's music that reminds Harry of Dobby the elf.
6. Sigur Ros
Though muggle fans of Sigur Ros are under the impression that Hopelandic is a language that lead singer Jonsi Birgisson simply made up, wizards know that Jonsi's actually reciting wizard spells, which is how he's able to get his guitar to sound like a blizzard. The violin bow he uses to play guitar is actually a wand.
7. Kings of Leon
Kings of Leon are huge in the UK for some reason. I don't get it, either, but I imagine that Harry really digs "Sex On Fire." At the very least, they're Ron's favorite band, and Harry goes and gets tickets with him whenever they're in town.
8. Electric Wizard
Any muggle band with the word "wizard" in its name immediately catches any wizard's attention, and doom metal band Electric Wizard is probably the best of the bunch. Harry would have been 20 when Electric Wizard released its classic Dopethrone LP, the perfect age to get into absurdly psychedelic metal.
9. Wilco
Harry probably wasn't into Wilco during its late '90s-early '00s artistic peak, but now that he's a dad, Harry definitely spins Sky Blue Sky all the time.
