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LokRok

Velocirappers
Image from Luke Campbell

A blend of traditional Toh Chi folk music and various genres of Inner Sphere popular music, characterized by a moderately fast tempo (140 - 240 bpm), extremely staccato and hypnotic rhythms, complex and unpredictable melodies that change frequently within a single musical piece, and highly poetic lyrics - usually on the subject of mating, love for one's mate or uplift subject, or love and loyalty to the Archosaurian Entity eirself. Interestingly for such a matriarchal culture, it is the male Toh Chi who have taken to this musical genre with such passion, although female musicians (even among the priesthood) are also common. LokRok has maintained a steady popularity within the Inner Sphere over the past two centuries, mainly because the Toh Chi themselves are motivated by aesthetic merit and passion rather than fads and profit, and thus are constantly producing new and original musicians. Also, because the genre is difficult for most sapients to imitate, it will be a long time before the novelty wears off. Nonetheless, its superficial influence upon the musicians of other species is noticeable. It is generally considered that only those with tweaked reflexes and tails can truly dance to LokRok.

There has been some controversy over LokRok bands in recent years, particularly in the case of SylkenHyde's Brain Party Externalize Conditional and RuneScale's Tail Helix Tingle Explode. These data packages have been confirmed by archailect decoders to contain subliminal messages that only take effect under specific conditions (food / beverage / narcotics intake, certain virch linkups etc). Although difficult to describe to sapients, the messages are believed to be of the "Trust in the Entity / The Entity is your Mother" variety, and may well explain the emigration of many Inner Sphere youths to the Toh Chi Lok-Nar to live and work indefinitely.
 
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Development Notes
Text by Darren Ryding
Initially published on 15 January 2003.

 
 
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