Finn McKenty (born September 7, 1978) is an American marketing strategist, music commentator, writer and graphic designer who currently runs the YouTube channel The Punk Rock MBA and is director of marketing at the online education platform URM Academy. Previously, he was executive producer at CreativeLive's "Music & Audio" channel and, under the

persona A persona (plural personae or personas), depending on the context, is the public image of one's personality, the social role that one adopts, or simply a fictional Character (arts), character. The word derives from Latin, where it originally ref ...

Sergeant D, wrote articles in ''

MetalSucks MetalSucks is a heavy metal music-themed news website. The site features reviews, interviews, information on latest metal releases and blog-like posts from the writers, most notably Vince Neilstein and Axl Rosenberg. History The site was foun ...

'' and ''Stuff You Will Hate''.

Early life

Finn McKenty grew up in

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...

. He started going to

hardcore punk Hardcore punk (also known as simply hardcore) is a punk rock music genre 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 ...

shows in December 1989 and began making

zine A zine ( ; short for '' magazine'' or '' fanzine'') is a small-circulation self-published Self-publishing is the publication of media by its author at their own cost, without the involvement of a publisher. The term usually refers to writ ...

s in 1992 in order to talk about bands which "deserved more attention", according to him. His fanzines received positive reviews from ''

Maximumrocknroll ''Maximumrocknroll'', often written as ''Maximum Rocknroll'' and usually abbreviated as ''MRR'', is a not-for-profit monthly zine of punk subculture. Based in San Francisco, ''MRR'' focuses on punk rock and hardcore music, and primarily featur ...

'', ''

Punk Planet ''Punk Planet'' was a 16,000 print run punk zine, based in Chicago, Illinois, that focused most of its energy on looking at punk subculture rather than punk as simply another genre of music to which teenagers listen. In addition to covering music ...

'' and ''

HeartattaCk Kent McClard is a record label owner and zine publisher from Goleta, California. Early life McClard grew up in a "broken home" and describes himself as a troublesome child. As a teenager, he discovered hardcore punk and both its freedom and speci ...

'', which praised their interviews with

underground Underground most commonly refers to: * Subterranea (geography), the regions beneath the surface of the Earth Underground may also refer to: Places * The Underground (Boston), a music club in the Allston neighborhood of Boston * The Underground (S ...

powerviolence Powerviolence (sometimes written as power violence) is an extremely dissonant and fast subgenre of hardcore punk which is closely related to thrashcore and grindcore. In contrast with grindcore, which is a "crossover" idiom containing musical ...

and

grindcore 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. G ...

bands, photographs and graffiti art. At eighteen he relocated to

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

. McKenty studied at the

University of Cincinnati The University of Cincinnati (UC or Cincinnati) is a public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 1819 as Cincinnati College, it is the oldest institution of higher education in Cincinnati and has an annual enrollment of over 44,00 ...

Career

After graduating, McKenty did

strategic design Strategic design is the application of future-oriented design principles in order to increase an organization's innovative and competitive qualities. Its foundations lie in the analysis of external and internal trends and data, which enables design ...

at a

product development In business and engineering, new product development (NPD) covers the complete process of bringing a new product to market, renewing an existing product or introducing a product in a new market. A central aspect of NPD is product design, along wi ...

consulting firm and worked for several companies, including

Swiffer Swiffer is an American brand of cleaning products that is made by Procter & Gamble. Introduced in 1999 the brand uses the " razor-and-blades" business model, whereby the consumer purchases the handle assembly at a low price, but must continue ...

and

Febreze Febreze is an American brand of household odor eliminators manufactured by Procter & Gamble. It is sold in North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. First introduced in test markets in March 1996, the fabric ...

. He also created videos for

Quiksilver Quiksilver is a brand of surf-inspired apparel and accessories that was founded in 1969 in Torquay, Australia, but is now based in Huntington Beach, California. It is one of the world's largest brands of surfwear and boardsport-related equipm ...

DC Shoes DC Shoes is an American company that specializes in footwear for action sports, including skateboarding and snowboarding. The company also manufactures apparel, bags, accessories, hats, tshirts, and posters. History The company was founded in J ...

, among other brands in the sports publication ''Flo''. Around 2009, he went on to

Abercrombie & Fitch Abercrombie & Fitch (A&F) is an American lifestyle retailer that focuses on casual wear. Its headquarters are in New Albany, Ohio. The company operates three other offshoot brands: Abercrombie Kids, Hollister Co., and Gilly Hicks. As of Februar ...

where he worked in

product design Product design as a verb is to create a new product to be sold by a business to its customers. A very broad coefficient and effective generation and development of ideas through a process that leads to new products. Thus, it is a major aspect of n ...

, at some point supervising factories in Asia, and then continued as their marketing production coordinator for several years. Along with his industrial design career, he kept writing in blogs and publications such as ''

Decibel The decibel (symbol: dB) is a relative unit of measurement equal to one tenth of a bel (B). It expresses the ratio of two values of a power or root-power quantity on a logarithmic scale. Two signals whose levels differ by one decibel have a po ...

'' and ''

Terrorizer Terrorizer is an American grindcore band formed in 1986 in Los Angeles, California. After disbanding, its members gained recognition by playing in influential extreme metal bands, such as Morbid Angel ( David Vincent, Pete Sandoval), Napalm D ...

'' for approximately a decade. In 2019, he said that "the common thread through all have doneis hardcore".

CreativeLive

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. During his tenure, the channel mostly tackled

DIY "Do it yourself" ("DIY") is the method of building, modifying, or repairing things by oneself without the direct aid of professionals or certified experts. Academic research has described DIY as behaviors where "individuals use raw and semi ...

production of heavy metal, especially

progressive metal Progressive metal (sometimes shortened to prog metal) is a broad :Fusion music genres, fusion music genre melding heavy metal music, heavy metal and progressive rock, combining the loud "aggression" and amplified electric guitar, guitar-driven s ...

, and

electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...

. He helped to host courses by

Kurt Ballou Kurt Ballou (born February 1, 1974) is an American musician and producer based in Massachusetts, best known as the guitarist for hardcore punk band Converge and for his prolific recording and production work at his own GodCity Studio. Early and ...

Andrew Wade Andrew Robert Wade (born August 4, 1984) is an American recording engineer and music producer. Early years and A Wish for Marilynne (2002–2006) In August 2002, Wade started playing guitar and singing lead vocals in Christian rock/emo band A W ...

Steve Evetts Steve Evetts is an American record producer who has produced music for Alesana, Poison the Well, A Static Lullaby, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Sepultura, Symphony X, Saves the Day, Lifetime, Kid Dynamite, Hightower, Story of the Year, Every T ...

Matt Halpern Matt Halpern (born June 21, 1983) is an American drummer best known for his work with progressive metal band Periphery. Biography Born in Baltimore, Halpern took an interest in music at a young age and got his first kids drum set aged 3, befo ...

Periphery Periphery or peripheral may refer to: Music *Periphery (band), American progressive metal band * ''Periphery'' (album), released in 2010 by Periphery * "Periphery", a song from Fiona Apple's album '' The Idler Wheel...'' Gaming and entertainm ...

and

Eyal Levi Eyal Levi (born May 22, 1979, Cleveland, Ohio).A Day to Remember A Day to Remember (often abbreviated ADTR, and previously known as End of an Era) is an American rock band from Ocala, Florida, founded in 2003 by guitarist Tom Denney and drummer Bobby Scruggs. They are known for their amalgamation of meta ...

Meshuggah Meshuggah () is a Swedish extreme metal band formed in Umeå in 1985. Originally, the band's name was Metallien. The band's current lineup consists of lead vocalist Jens Kidman, guitarists Fredrik Thordendal and Mårten Hagström, drummer Tomas ...

Opeth Opeth is a Swedish progressive metal/rock band from Stockholm, formed in 1990 by lead vocalist David Isberg. The group has been through several personnel changes, including the replacement of every original member; notably Isberg in 1992. Mikael ...

Lamb of God Lamb of God ( el, Ἀμνὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ, Amnòs toû Theoû; la, Agnus Dei, ) is a title for Jesus that appears in the Gospel of John. It appears at John 1:29, where John the Baptist sees Jesus and exclaims, "Behold the Lamb of God wh ...

and

Bring Me the Horizon Bring Me the Horizon (often abbreviated as BMTH) are a British rock band formed in Sheffield in 2004. The group consists of lead vocalist Oliver Sykes, guitarist Lee Malia, bassist Matt Kean, drummer Matt Nicholls and keyboardist Jordan Fis ...

, and at the end of every month the producers of those albums do livestream sessions teaching how they mixed them.

''The Punk Rock MBA''

In June 2015, McKenty established the website ''The Punk Rock MBA'' whose objective is to promote "career, business + life advice for the

community". In July 2018, he began uploading YouTube videos primarily analyzing the music industry with a special focus on rock and heavy metal subgenres. ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'' 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. As of August 2022, he has over 400,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel.

''Stuff You Will Hate''

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

subcultures and their trends. It became an "internet phenomenon among metal and hardcore fans". He also began to collaborate with comedy website ''

Something Awful ''Something Awful'' (SA) is an American comedy website hosting content including blog entries, forums, feature articles, digitally edited pictures, and humorous media reviews. It was created by Richard "Lowtax" Kyanka in 1999 as a largely per ...

'' and heavy metal outlet ''

''. His writing alternated between comic and serious articles, the former, on occasions, featuring a deliberately provocative style. ''Stuff You Will Hate'' was praised by the ''

Chicago Reader The ''Chicago Reader'', or ''Reader'' (stylized as ЯEADER), is an American alternative weekly newspaper in Chicago, Illinois, noted for its literary style of journalism and coverage of the arts, particularly film and theater. It was founded by a ...

'', ''

Vice A vice is a practice, behaviour, or habit generally considered immoral, sinful, criminal, rude, taboo, depraved, degrading, deviant or perverted in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a negative character tra ...

'', and

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

, which named one of Sergeant D's articles the best heavy metal writing of 2010. According to Sean Wright of

WVUM WVUM (90.5 FM) is a non-commercial alternative and electronic music college radio station at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida in the United States and broadcasting over-the-air to the Miami metropolitan area and streaming onli ...

, Sergeant D posts "brought back the spirit of satire-fanzines from the 90’s such as '' The Grimoire of Exalted Deeds''". ''Stuff You Will Hate'' closed in December 2015.

References

Works cited

* *

External links

Official websiteURM AcademyThe Punk Rock MBAThe Punk Rock MBA Podcast
{{DEFAULTSORT:McKenty, Finn American graphic designers Writers from Seattle University of Cincinnati alumni People from Seattle Video bloggers Businesspeople from Seattle Living people 1978 births