Rockstar, an esoteric programming language that looks and feels like writing rock song lyrics. Although we do not advocate teaching entire CS1/CS2 courses with Rockstar, we believe there is room in the CS curriculum for esoteric languages as an additional activity, a co-curricular workshop, or part of a student club. By stepping outside the familiar realm of Python, Java, or C, participants learn to refocus on problem-solving and foundational logic rather than standard syntactic patterns. Moreover, because esoteric languages are relatively unknown to AI models, they can help reduce over-reliance on automated solutions. Attendees will learn the basics of Rockstar, reflect on how to integrate it into teaching contexts for enriched conceptual learning, and enjoy the playful fusion of code and rock songs.
