"I had the time of my life"

Growing up, my favorite band was always Green Day. I rocked out on my electric guitar to “Basket Case” and “Brainstew” as well as “American Idiot” and “21 Guns”. I had big plans to marry the lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong when I was 13 (and still ponder that endeavor from time to time). I went to concerts, had all the merch and knew the lyrics to every song. As I got older, my musical tastes grew into more of a variety and I strayed away from Billie Joe and the gang...but not too far.

A couple of years ago, I heard somewhere that Green Day was taking their album, American Idiot and transforming it into a broadway musical. I was ecstatic when I heard this because I knew the whole story of American Idiot and had pictured the entire thing in my head. To see it actually performed in front of me, with the music blaring was going to be an experience I’d never forget. But then I thought, “When am I ever going to be in New York or LA to see that?” I just figured I would probably never see it until maybe they started touring.

But then last semester, I got my trip to New York; not for the purpose of seeing the broadway, but with a school club. I still didn’t have my hopes very high because I figured no one would really want to go see a Green Day musical. But I got pretty lucky, and the girls I was with were into Green Day too. We walked through Time Square to get our tickets and took our seats in a beautiful, black and red, theater decked out in graffiti and punk rock.

As I watched with eyes wide open, I saw the songs come to life in front of me, in spikey died hair and ratty band t-shirts and rock n’ roll choreography, unlike any dancing I had ever seen before. The singers took the songs I love to new levels. I was so used to hearing Billie Joe’s voice that watching a female soprano sing a part from “Jesus of Suburbia”, while acting it out with fervent emotion was unreal to me.  

 It never occurred to me that this amazing experience was one giant remediation. My favorite band's music moving from the medium of an album to a broadway musical had to be the best remediation I have ever seen. There was interpretive dancing in the air and televisions all over the walls; things I never could have thought up in my head. It's sort of how Vielstimmig presents cubism in his piece to think of rhetoric and poetry in a different way. 

Changing genres is very interesting to me because it presents something you know very well in a different light. Or maybe you are not very familiar with the subject, and it embeds a genre that you relate to and understand. I think crossing genres is very entertaining because we like to see what we know cross into what we don't know. It was amazing to see a beautiful, brand new thing come out of something familiar. I think it's a smart way to engage an audience, whether it be for entertainment or educational purposes.