Bad opinions [ARCHIVED] • Page 966

Escape by Rupert Holmes is better than anything Taylor Swift has written

 

yeah but they aren’t related.

 

Is struggle exclusive to rap? Because I think I've seen some struggle bands and for damn sure seen some struggle singer-songwriters.

 

Struggle is universal.

 

" I think you can credibly argue that Zach Bryan is at the same position in country music right now that Nirvana was in rock music 30 years ago"

I don't know enough about this scene to make a strong opinion on this but I like Zach Bryan, is this a controversial opinion?

 

zach is just jackson maine irl

 

also if you're just looking purely at numbers, sure. but nirvana was a transgressive band that singlehandedly ended a half-decade long trend in rock music (hair-metal) and changed the sound of rock, arguably, forever. zach is kinda doing what a lot of others have been doing for a long time but with better songwriting.

 

I don't even know what that is supposed to mean

 

If you watch the video the point the guy is making is Zach Bryan helped end the half decade long trend in country music (bro country) and changed the sound of country, likely for the foreseeable future. That the neotrad alt-country sound is the dominant sound in country now.

You could also argue that Nirvana was doing what others were doing (Melvins, Sonic Youth, Pixies) for a long time but with better songwriting too. But they were the right sound at the right moment and went mainstream in a way others didnt..

 

i watched. and i agree he has changed the top 1% of pop country. it's splitting hairs but people like jason isbell and ruston kelly and chris stapleton, to name a few, are much bigger than melvis and sonic youth were haha, and much closer to the mainstream. and bro country isn't really "over," unfortunately. it just isn't taking the #1 spot anymore. i like zach a lot. i think it's just people overreacting a bit to a breath of fresh air to say something like that.

 

Also, let's be honest, Morgan Wallen is still the biggest star in country music by a massive, massive margin, and he's the opposite of Zach and all the other guys Pat mentioned. I think ZB is definitely make a difference in country, but it ain't a Nirvana moment yet.

 

yeah that's true

 

The landscape of music is also so much different than 30 years ago that I don’t think any one artist could make a huge change like that

 

I think Morgan Wallen is my #1 most hated musician today

 

Did Nirvana really do all that by themselves though? I feel like there were a lot of bands changing the landscape all at the same time, like Metallica and the Smashing Pumpkins. Gish and the Black Album both came out before Nevermind, didn't they?

I guess that makes it more difficult nowadays. I doubt we'll ever see a time when so many artists push in so many different directions.

 

Zach Bryan would be Pearl Jam because they both tried to destroy Ticketmaster and failed

 

Nevermind was immensely more popular than Gish, although it’s true that Nirvana didn’t cause the sea change by themselves they were certainly at the forefront. Bands like Boredoms don’t get picked up by fucking Warner Bros without Nirvana.

Metallica certainly had majors throwing money at metal bands, but to a lesser extent than Nirvana did

 

Also you never know how these things will turn out. Like in the early 2010's when people thought Kendrick and Cole were going to be the second comings of Pac and Biggie, that they were going to be the saviors of "real" hip hop after years of Crunk and Snap music, and everyone was going to start doing conscious bars over Boom Bap or Jazz beats. Then Drill blew up, and both sounds just co-existed together since.

 

Nirvana was kinda like tabloid famous too, they were bigger in pop culture than their musical peers, maybe alongside Eddie Vedder

I wonder if there’s enough of a monoculture now for another beatlemania/kurt type event. im sure zach bryan is very popular but ive never heard of him

 

What about Hobo Johnson?

 

from the outside looking in, Taylor Swift's following seems to be as close to Beatlemania as I've seen recently.

 

Taylor might even be bigger than Beatlemania in some ways?

There was that stat the other day 1 in 78 streams in the US was Taylor in 2023, and I’ve seen a retail stat that’s like 50% of all US vinyl sales are Taylor, her tours are big big tours, big movie etc

Music culture as we know it is indelibly stamped by the Beatles / the Ed Sullivan performance, but that influence might be fading

 

If Zach Bryan does have a Nirvana moment, he would have to be worldwide famous. Country music rarely, if ever, comes close to charting internationally. Morgan Wallen has had two charting singles in the UK, one that made it to 31, another made it to 84. Zach Bryan has had no charting singles. They're the only two country singers I know tbf. Googled some other big names... someone called Luke Combs had a song that reach the top 10 in 2022, which is something. Lainey Wilson (no idea) has had nothing even touching the charts.

Couldn't be bothered to search for anymore haha

 

Yeah I don't know anyone who could name any of these people.

 

country’s nirvana moment was at the same time as nirvana and his name is garth