Getty Image / Gie Knaeps
In the past month, there has been an emerging trend of showing appreciation for ‘Cigarette Mom Rock‘ music on social media. The music genre is being framed as the ideological opposite to ‘Divorced Dad Rock’ which encompasses 90s/00s post-grunge hard rock like Nickelback and Creed.
What exactly is Cigarette Mom Rock music? Let’s take a look.
What Is Cigarette Mom Rock? Music That Rocks
A quick perusal of TikTok for ‘Cigarette Mom Rock’ shows results for a handful of videos, all similar in nature. They feature a person bopping along to a short clip of 90s alt rock or 00s rock.
There is a core group of musicians which seem to comprise the genre. They include Alanis Morissette, Melissa Etheridge, Concrete Blonde, the Counting Crows, and for reasons that are inexplicable to me Avril Lavigne and P!nk have also been lumped into the genre despite occurring years later in the musical timeline.
A prime example of Cigarette Mom Rock would be Melissa Etheridge’s ‘I’m The Only One’ as seen in this video:
@softaltcore Cigarette mom rock or divorced dad rock…which do you prefer? I’ll take both please. #softalt #90smom #alternativerock #softalternativefashion #nostalgia
Essentially, any artist who ever performed at Lilith Fair qualifies. Artists people are sleeping on here include Tracy Chapman, Lisa Loeb, Sheryl Crow, the Indigo Girls, Fiona Apple, and Jewel. They need some love in this trend as well.
What qualifies?
We also have people arguing over whether Staind is Divorced Dad Rock or Cigarette Mom Rock. I happen to think it’s the former and that it’s pretty obvious but I will defer to her on this one:
@notso.cheyy elite genre idc #dadrock #alternative #music #fyp
Apparently, Michelle Branch now also qualifies but this video brings us to the next chapter of the Cigarette Mom Rock story:
@iamjoshuajohnson Song brings back so many memories! #michellebranch
The prompt in that video is to type the genre into the search bar and whatever results you get are your corresponding songs. I don’t need to do that to know mine are either Alanis Morissette’s ‘Uninvited’ or Natalie Imbruglia’s version of ‘Torn’ which is obviously a Cigarette Mom Rock anthem.
Already, there are Spotify playlists dedicated to the genre. This one comes out swinging hard with Sheryl Crow’s ‘If It Makes You Happy’ before diving straight into ‘Ironic’ by Alanis.
I think one interesting aspect of this emerging TikTok trend is it can really go anywhere at this point. Chances are, you already rock to this genre sometimes. You likely also appreciate Divorced Dad Rock. This is not an all-or-nothing world we are living in.