Finn McKenty | |||||||
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Born | Finnegan McKenty [1] September 7, 1978 | ||||||
Education | University of Cincinnati | ||||||
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Children | 1 | ||||||
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Years active | 2017–2024 | ||||||
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Last updated: December 20, 2024 |
Finnegan "Finn" McKenty (born September 7, 1978) [2] is an American marketing strategist, music commentator, writer and graphic designer who is director of marketing at the online education platform URM Academy. Previously, he ran the YouTube channel The Punk Rock MBA, was executive producer at CreativeLive's "Music & Audio" channel and, under the persona Sergeant D, wrote articles in MetalSucks and Stuff You Will Hate. [3]
Finn McKenty grew up in Snohomish, Washington. [4] [1] He started going to hardcore punk shows in December 1990 and began making zines in 1992 in order to talk about bands which "deserved more attention", according to him. [5] His fanzines received positive reviews from Maximumrocknroll , Punk Planet and HeartattaCk , which praised their interviews with underground powerviolence and grindcore bands, photographs and graffiti art. [6] [7] [8] [9] At eighteen he relocated to Cleveland, Ohio. [4] [1] McKenty studied at the University of Cincinnati. [10] [1]
After graduating, McKenty did strategic design at a product development consulting firm and worked for several companies, including Swiffer and Febreze. [10] He also created videos for Quiksilver, DC Shoes, among other brands in the sports publication Flo. [11] Around 2009, he went on to Abercrombie & Fitch where he worked in product design, at some point supervising factories in Asia, and then continued as their marketing production coordinator for several years. [12] [13] Along with his industrial design career, he kept writing in blogs and publications such as Decibel and Terrorizer for approximately a decade. [14] [15] In 2019, he said that "the common thread through all [I have done] is hardcore". [16]
In March 2009, under the persona Sergeant D, McKenty launched the comedy website Stuff You Will Hate which focused on satires of the heavy metal and hardcore punk subcultures and their trends. [17] It became an "internet phenomenon among metal and hardcore fans". [18] He also began to collaborate with comedy website Something Awful [19] and heavy metal outlet MetalSucks . [20] His writing alternated between comic and serious articles, the former, on occasions, featuring a deliberately provocative style. [20]
Stuff You Will Hate was praised by the Chicago Reader , [21] Vice , [18] and NPR, which named one of Sergeant D's articles the best heavy metal writing of 2010. [20] According to Sean Wright of WVUM, Sergeant D posts "brought back the spirit of satire-fanzines from the 90’s such as The Grimoire of Exalted Deeds ". [3] Stuff You Will Hate closed in December 2015. [22]
In May 2013, McKenty co-launched and became the executive producer of the "Music & Audio" channel at CreativeLive, an online education platform which broadcasts courses by artists. [5] [13] During his tenure, the channel mostly tackled DIY production of heavy metal, especially progressive metal, and electronic music. [23] He helped to host courses by Kurt Ballou, Andrew Wade, Steve Evetts, Matt Halpern of Periphery and Eyal Levi. [13] [24] Ballou's course of production brought more than 10,000 live viewers. [23]
In June 2015, McKenty established the website The Punk Rock MBA whose objective is to promote "career, business + life advice for the DIY community". [25] In September 2017, he began uploading YouTube videos primarily analyzing the music industry with a special focus on rock and heavy metal subgenres. Billboard praised the channel for its "deep research and endearing DIY production". By June 2019, The Punk Rock MBA had over 100,000 subscribers on YouTube. [26] As of September 2023, he has over 510,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel.
On April 22, 2024, he announced his plans to stop making videos on YouTube. [27] Later that year, he admitted that he stopped creating content because he had met his financial goals with the channel, and that he did it "for the money", stating that he has never had an interest in music to begin with. [28]
For around a year and a half, McKenty was a collaborator of URM Academy, an online education platform which focuses on producers, and in September 2017 joined them as director of marketing. [29] [26] URM Academy offers multitracks from albums by diverse heavy bands such as A Day to Remember, Meshuggah, Opeth, Lamb of God and Bring Me the Horizon, and at the end of every month the producers of those albums do livestream sessions teaching how they mixed them. [30]
Grindcore is an extreme fusion genre of heavy metal and hardcore punk that originated in the mid-1980s, drawing inspiration from abrasive-sounding musical styles, such as thrashcore, crust punk, hardcore punk, extreme metal, and industrial. Grindcore is considered a more noise-filled style of hardcore punk while using hardcore's trademark characteristics such as heavily distorted, down-tuned guitars, grinding overdriven bass, high-speed tempo, blast beats, and vocals which consist of growls, shouts and high-pitched shrieks. Early groups such as England's Napalm Death are credited with laying the groundwork for the style. It is most prevalent today in North America and Europe, with popular contributors such as Brutal Truth and Nasum. Lyrical themes range from a primary focus on social and political concerns, to gory subject matter and black humor.
Hardcore punk is a punk rock subgenre and subculture that originated in the late 1970s. It is generally faster, harder, and more aggressive than other forms of punk rock. Its roots can be traced to earlier punk scenes in San Francisco and Southern California which arose as a reaction against the still predominant hippie cultural climate of the time. It was also inspired by Washington, D.C., and New York punk rock and early proto-punk. Hardcore punk generally eschews commercialism, the established music industry and "anything similar to the characteristics of mainstream rock" and often addresses social and political topics with "confrontational, politically charged lyrics".
The Alternative Music Foundation located at 924 Gilman Street, often referred to simply as "Gilman", is a non-profit, all-ages, collectively organized music club. It is located in the West Berkeley area of Berkeley, California.
Maximumrocknroll, often written as Maximum Rocknroll and usually abbreviated as MRR, is a not-for-profit monthly online zine of punk subculture and radio show of punk music. Based in San Francisco, MRR focuses on punk rock and hardcore music, and primarily features artist interviews and music reviews. Op/ed columns and news roundups are regular features as well, including submissions from international contributors. By 1990, it "had become the de facto bible of the scene". MRR is considered to be one of the most important zines in punk, not only because of its wide-ranging coverage, but because it has been a consistent and influential presence in the ever-changing punk community for over three decades. From 1992 to 2011, it published a guide called Book Your Own Fuckin' Life.
Extreme metal is a loosely defined umbrella term for a number of related heavy metal music subgenres that have developed since the early 1980s. It has been defined as a "cluster of metal subgenres characterized by sonic, verbal, and visual transgression".
Rich Kids on LSD (RKL) is a Californian hardcore punk band formed in 1982 in Montecito, California, a suburb of Santa Barbara. They were associated with the "Nardcore" scene of West Coast hardcore that evolved out of nearby Oxnard. Their music expanded over the years from Nardcore to a mixture of hardcore infused with rock and metal elements. This style, along with touring, made them very popular on the European scene, especially among skaters in the 1980s and 1990s. Guitarist Chris Rest was the band's only consistent member.
Metalcore is a broadly defined fusion genre combining elements of extreme metal and hardcore punk, that originated in the late 1980s. Metalcore is noted for its use of breakdowns, which are slow, intense passages conducive to moshing, while other defining instrumentation includes heavy and percussive pedal point guitar riffs and double bass drumming. Vocalists in the genre typically perform screaming; more popular bands often combine this with the use of standard singing, usually during the bridge or chorus of a song. However, the death growl is also a popular technique within the genre.
Underoath is an American rock band from Tampa, Florida. It was founded by lead vocalist Dallas Taylor and guitarist Luke Morton in 1997 in Ocala, Florida; subsequently, its additional members were from Tampa, including drummer, singer and last remaining original member Aaron Gillespie. The band's current lineup consists of Gillespie, keyboardist Christopher Dudley, lead guitarist Timothy McTague, bassist Grant Brandell, and lead vocalist Spencer Chamberlain. Originally, the band identified as a Christian group; they have since distanced themselves from Christianity.
Walter David "Wattie" Buchan is a Scottish punk rock musician, best known as the lead vocalist for the Exploited.
Mathcore is a subgenre of hardcore punk and metalcore influenced by post-hardcore, extreme metal and math rock that developed during the 1990s. Bands in the genre emphasize complex and fluctuant rhythms through the use of irregular time signatures, polymeters, syncopations and tempo changes. Early mathcore lyrics were addressed from a realistic worldview and with a pessimistic, defiant, resentful or sarcastic point of view.
Roger "Buzz" Osborne, also known as King Buzzo, is an American guitarist, vocalist and songwriter. He is a founding member of the rock band Melvins, as well as Fantômas and Venomous Concept.
New York hardcore is both the hardcore punk music created in New York City and the subculture and lifestyle associated with that music. The scene established many aspects that are fixtures of hardcore punk today, including its simplified name "hardcore", its hardcore skinhead and youth crew subcultures, the moshing style hardcore dancing, its association with street gangs and its prominent influence of heavy metal.
Folk punk is a fusion of folk music and punk rock. It was popularized in the early 1980s by The Pogues in England, and by Violent Femmes in the United States. Folk punk achieved some mainstream success in that decade. In more recent years, its subgenres Celtic punk and Gypsy punk have experienced some commercial success.
Melodic hardcore is a broadly defined subgenre of hardcore punk with a strong emphasis on melody in its guitar work. It generally incorporates fast rhythms, melodic and often distorted guitar riffs, and vocal styles tending towards shouting and screaming. Nevertheless, the genre has been very diverse, with different bands showcasing very different styles. Many pioneering melodic hardcore bands, have proven influential across the spectrum of punk rock, as well as rock music more generally.
The scene subculture is a youth subculture that emerged during the early 2000s in the United States from the pre-existing emo subculture. The subculture became popular with adolescents from the mid 2000s to the early 2010s. Members of the scene subculture are referred to as scene kids, trendies, or scenesters. Scene fashion consists of skinny jeans, bright-colored clothing, a signature hairstyle consisting of straight, flat hair with long fringes covering the forehead, and bright-colored hair dye. Music genres associated with the scene subculture include metalcore, crunkcore, deathcore, electronic music, and pop punk.
Sean Ingram is an American musician and entrepreneur, best known as the frontman for the mathcore band Coalesce. He contributed all the lyrics and most of the artwork and packaging for his band. After several years as a vocalist, he started an entrepreneurial career inspired by the DIY punk ethic, founding the companies Blue Collar Press, Merchtable and Fixcraft.
Foss was an American rock band formed in El Paso, Texas in the early 1990s. It is known for former members Cedric Bixler-Zavala, who found success in the music industry as the singer for the rock bands At the Drive-In and the Mars Volta, as well as Beto O'Rourke, who later was a U.S. Representative and unsuccessful candidate for U.S. Senator, U.S. President, and Governor of Texas.
AMP Magazine was an American music magazine founded in 2002, by Brett Matthews, Lisa Root and John Joh. It featured interviews, album and live reviews and band journals. Online, it featured exclusive videos and audio, as well as video game reviews. It closed its doors on February 26, 2013, with its 112th issue having been published in November 2012. Root went on to form New Noise Magazine.
Firestorm is the second EP by American metallic hardcore band Earth Crisis. It was released in 1993 and marked the band's first release through Victory Records. Firestorm has been described as a landmark release in hardcore punk for its metal influences and political, militant lyrics, along with helping "pioneer what would become both a signature sound for the band, as well as metalcore as a whole – right alongside the likes of Integrity." The title track is considered Earth Crisis' best-known song.
The Above is the fifth studio album by American hardcore punk band Code Orange, released on September 29, 2023, through Blue Grape Music. It is their first album to be entirely self-produced, their first with the label Blue Grape Music, and their first to feature drummer Max Portnoy. It was preceded by three singles: "Grooming My Replacement / The Game", "Take Shape", and "Mirror".