Valerie Gritsch
Academic, Activist, Artist & Social Media Marketer

January 01, 2020

My first peer-reviewed essay was published in the Journal of Popular Culture in January 2020, volume 52, issue 6, pages 1451-1471 in the Special Issue: Exploring the Popular Culture and Tourism Place-making Nexus. This pulls from my Master's thesis research on how David Bowie's death affected his fans and his hometown of Brixton, South London. The DOI link is: https://doi.org/10.1111/jpcu.12865

May 21, 2018

An event review of punk band Against Me!’s sold out show at Brooklyn Steel in New York City on October 14th, 2017. Against Me!’s frontwoman, Laura Jane Grace, was the first major punk celebrity to come out as trans in 2012, which is when she began her transition. After doing so, Against Me’s shows became a space where fans of varying gender expressions can feel welcomed and safe to be themselves while connecting to the band, and each other, creating a symbiotic relationship between the two. Through examining their music, performance, and fans’ behavior that night, we can see how Against Me! challenges the notion of punk rock as a boy’s club, and creates cathartic places where fans can define and reaffirm their identity within the music community. Photos are courtesy of Nick Karp.

In the PDF edition of the journal Intermedium, this article appears on pages 23-32.

December 15, 2017

A Keyword is an essay focused on a single term and a set of debates surrounding it. In this instance, the keyword is "Groupie." This means the etymology of "Groupie" is traced, the term is defined, and questions are raised on its established and emergent terminology in regards to gender, sexuality, affect, and performance.

December 16, 2015

Just what is it about a musician like Frank Turner that can inspire devotion and motivate his fans to travel the world in pursuit of his concerts? What comparisons can we draw between such fandom and religion? I explore these questions from the inside out of Turner's fandom and pinpoint when an imagined community became a force of empowerment, and a chance at escape. This essay was written as an undergrad at Queens College for my Musical Subcultures course. It was awarded Best Media Studies Scholarly Essay for 2015-2016 by the Queens College Media Studies department.