Rock and tech: the perfect duo?

Music festival stage

We have all come to realise in recent years that technology is a necessity for work. From high-powered servers to low-end printers, businesses can rarely take the manual path if they want to function to full efficiency.

But to many in the business world, technology is a massive part of their consumer lives too. Report after report has shown the growing dominance of smartphones. Tablets which despite attempts to sell them as enterprise class, still fall pretty firmly in the consumer space are growing in adoption. The idea of getting on any mode of public transport and not seeing at least one iPod in sight is unheard of. Technology has saturated our lives.

But for some, this goes even further. Technology is not something that just makes our businesses run efficiently or makes our daily lives that little bit easier, it is a passion in itself. The world of gaming, customising PCs, developing applications or delving deeply into the science behind the inventions is how many spend their spare time. And they love it.

The words "geek" and "nerd" may spring to mind, but the connotations behind these words have dampened over the years. They no longer conjur up images of lonely men hiding in their bedrooms. Far from it. Now, we're brought images of intelligent, fanatical people more akin to the endearing characters in the Big Bang Theory or the IT Crowd than Timothy Olyphant in Die Hard 4.0.

But as the geeks begin to inherit the earth, another link is becoming clear. For those fanatical about technology, there is often room for one more avid fandom and this comes in the form of alternative music.

As my choice of job gives away, I am into my tech and I also have an academic background in sociology. It won't have escaped many of you who read my blog that I fall into the rock category when it comes to tunes and, as such, many of my friends and acquaintances also favour a heavier melody.

Jennifer Scott

Jennifer Scott is a former freelance journalist and currently political reporter for Sky News. She has a varied writing history, having started her career at Dennis Publishing, working in various roles across its business technology titles, including ITPro. Jennifer has specialised in a number of areas over the years and has produced a wealth of content for ITPro, focusing largely on data storage, networking, cloud computing, and telecommunications.

Most recently Jennifer has turned her skills to the political sphere and broadcast journalism, where she has worked for the BBC as a political reporter, before moving to Sky News.