Jeff Stern

Filmmaker, Professor, Public Speaker

Design by the amazing Mike Fleisch

Brockets!

March madness for rock’ roll

Now featuring an all new set of BROCKETS!™ brackets!

No March Madness this year to keep you distracted, thrilled and entertained? Stuck at home and suddenly thrust into the role of being your kids’ teacher 5 days a week? Running out of ideas to keep things interesting? BROCKETS!™ has got you covered! Part music history lesson, part cutthroat competition, part excuse to play Led Zeppelin really loud in the middle of the day — BROCKETS!™ is fun for the whole family.

After the success of our first set of BROCKETS!™, we are excited to announce BROCKETS!™ Number Two — featuring 64 new bands and artists battling each other for musical supremacy.

Scroll down for info on how it works and how to play at home. There are now TWO downloadable brackets, recommended Spotify playlists and instructions on how to share your results. And don’t forget to join our online community on Facebook and Twitter to meet fellow Brocketeers and debate whether the Billie Eilish can beat Billy Joel in the first round!

And, once you’ve finished your first BROCKETS!™, take our easy and fun exit survey to tell us your Final Four and make suggestions for future matchups!

Background

Somewhere in the middle of week 2 of home schooling our two kids (10 and 8), I decided we needed to start having music lessons. I had a captive audience and it was high time these kids learned the difference between Devo and Lizzo. Plus: when you’re the teacher, you make the lesson plans. There are only so many of those Math Facts sheets we can handle in a week. I think we’ve got 2 + 7 pretty much down at this point (It’s 9, right?).

Our kids love brackets. They love keeping track of teams doing battle with each other. Our younger son, Alex, makes brackets all the time that feature incredible matchups like “Happy vs. Red” or “Staplers vs. Rain.” So I thought I could take a format they really like and use it to “teach” them what I thought they needed to know about rock history.

The first set of BROCKETS!™ came together pretty quickly. I had the idea, I printed a bracket, grabbed a pencil and ran with it. I filled this in while simultaneously playing driveway basketball with Leo (I am also the gym teacher). I did not use the Internet when I was filling this in and my selections and seedings are subjective and non-comprehensive. In some cases, I just really liked the matchup (see: Taylor vs. Kanye and Beach Boys vs. The Weeknd).

After the positive response to the original BROCKETS!™ — as well as some constructive/angry feedback (“Where the hell is David Bowie?!?) — I created BROCKETS!™ Number Two. I think you find the seedings a little more fair in Number Two (but you can still keep that helpful feedback coming!).

How it works

The competition is designed for kids who are likely unfamiliar with many of these artists. It is really fun to observe them listening to, say, The Pixies for the first time and seeing how they react. And then ask them to pick a winner between 2 bands/artists.

That said, anyone can obviously play this game. Not just kids. But it is especially fun when the listener/judge does not have preconceived notions about a band’s “legendary” status. For example: with fresh ears, are The Who actually better than Weird Al? I know what I think.

These are the rules I came up with for Leo and Alex during our music lesson:

The brackets are set up exactly like March Madness. This is a single-elimination tournament that features 4 groups of 16 seeds (see “Send Your Complaints To…” section below to complain about seeding and to rip into me about leaving out your favorite band).
For each head-to-head match, you play 30-60 seconds of a select song for each artist. I tended to play the beginning of each song, but in the case of a long instrumental intro (like “Hotel California” or “Heroin” — just kidding! I didn’t play “Heroin” for them!), I would cut to the chase by going to a chorus or “best” part of the song.
While they are listening, I recommend asking the kids to rank each song on a 1-10 scale. I started doing this because I noticed they were picking the second song they heard every time. They were forgetting what the first song sounded like.
Have the kids vote on the winner for each matchup. In our family of 2 kids, there sometimes needs to be a tie-breaker. In this case, we go back to the scores that were given to each artist. If it’s still a tie, then OT results and you play 2 new songs by each artist. There might be several OT’s. Just like March Madness!
Once the round of 64 is complete, move on to 32, 16, 8, 4 and then the finals.
For the Final Four and championship, I recommend listening to longer sections of each song, or even the entire track. These bands worked hard to get here. Give them their due.
OPTIONAL: If you feel ambitious, you can pick a new song for each artist when they play in a subsequent round. Just try to make sure the song is representative. For example, you might play “Rock n’ Roll” in Led Zep’s round 1 matchup and then (assuming they crush Van Halen) play “Ramble On” in round 2. This is up to you. I also think it works if you use the same song throughout.

A playlist featuring David Bowie, Flight of the Conchords, Green Day, and others

Play at home!

Ready to play at home?

You can download the Original BROCKETS!™ brackets here.

You can download BROCKETS!™ Number Two here.

To the right is the Spotify playlist for BROCKETS!™ Number Two, with suggested tracks for each artist.

You can find the Spotify playlist for the Original BROCKETS!™ here.

Feel free to use your own judgement when selecting tracks. Musical taste is subjective. I love Led Zeppelin but have never liked “Stairway to Heaven.”

A few notes on the Spotify list and music selections

In most cases, I have selected an artist’s best known/most popular song. In some cases, though, I have chosen a song that - for lack of a more scientific term - ROCKS the hardest.
In other cases, I have chosen a song that is somewhat more geared to kids. For example, “Intergalactic” is maybe not the #1 Beastie Boys song, but kids love that #@$&.
Please note that some songs have explicit content. That’s just how Kanye, Lizzo, Wu Tang and others roll.

KEEP IN TOUCH!

We love hearing about how your BROCKETS!™ are going, updates on exciting upsets and disappointing losses and your requests and suggestions for future brackets. Here are some ways you can keep in touch:

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Fill out our fun and easy survey to fill us in on how you did and how we can improve BROCKETS!™