When I found out that a guest speaker was going to talk to us, I was interested to know what aspect of art they will be discussing. The options, however, did not really appeal to me: DIY, punk rock, graffiti, tattoos, or poetry. The class settled on punk rock and I was willing to listen to what the guest speaker had to say.
The guest speaker, Rich Stremme, presented some highlights of his creative background and took us through a trip down memory lane. Stremme mentioned that his interest in punk rock started young at the age of eleven. He did not know much about this kind of music before because his musical background consisted of whatever was played on the radio. Stremme started writing a zine called Socially Unaccepted in middle school, and discovered the similar roots between reggae music and punk rock. Eventually, he formed his own band, Brutally Familiar, and went around touring on a national level. His anecdote about a show in El Paso, Texas where kids were border hopping to see his band perform shocked me. It put into perspective the recognition that I did not know punk rock artists received. This incident was the inspiration behind his band’s album Ashamed to be White. Stremme pointed out that punk rock is predominantly a male genre, and the few females that engaged with it were most likely photographers or in the background of crowds. I was not too surprised by this statement.
Rich Stremme dabbled with different artistic mediums, and his work with Revs inspired him to graffiti his story in New York City train tunnels. Ian Mackaye said that “punk rock is free space”, and Stremme added on to that idea by saying “if you did it first, you did it best.” Punk rock, especially in America, was different from traditional British punk because artists were considered “dangerous” if they dressed like average looking people and blended in. It was cool to see some actual 7 inch records and get a “vintage” pin and sticker, but by the end of the presentation, I was not persuaded to listen to punk rock music on my own time. Stremme emphasized that punk rock is not meant to exclude anyone, but it is one of those things where you either like it or you don’t. The natural divide happens because of how different the genre is from what is considered traditional.
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