In his music Roukens strives to move away from modernist dogmas in search for a more direct idiom in which present and past, diatonicism and chromaticism, tonality and atonality can coexist in a natural way. In doing so, he tries to be open to as many different kinds and styles of music as possible, whether it be new styles or old styles, high culture or vernacular culture, ‘serious’ or popular music, western music or non-western music. For a long time, Roukens has also been active in pop music.
