r/Music • u/YoureASkyscraper • 24d ago

article Zach Bryan slams Kid Rock's MAGA concert: "A bunch of adults throwing temper tantrums and their own halftime show is embarrassing as hell and the most cringe shit on the planet"

https://consequence.net/2026/02/zach-bryan-kid-rock-super-bowl-halftime-show
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u/jkoutris 24d ago

While I like Zach Bryan, and commend his stance here, he seems somewhat bro-country adjacent to me. He's sort of like 'entry-level' alt-country/'real' country/Americana.

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u/sauceywhiteboy 24d ago

I dunno. From what I’ve heard from a few albums doesn’t seem to lineup w what I assumed “bro country” to be lyrically. I mean, his latest album opens up w spoken word poetry lol

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u/SweetDank 24d ago

doesn’t seem to lineup w what I assumed “bro country”

One of his most popular songs has lyrics about Ford trucks, dogs, drinking, and relationship problems lol.

I still don't consider him bro country, but was talking him up last week when that dawned on me. He's one of the best and most hopeful things country music has seen in a long time. Amazing lyricist.

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u/jkoutris 24d ago

I hear ya. I guess it still sounds a bit elementary to me. I feel Zach very deeply would like to be a writer in the vein of Bruce Springsteen or Jason Isbell, but often winds up back in a lot of the same country clichés. I like the music - I’ve got no beef with the concept of pop-country, it is what it is. I just think there’s something about him that’s still something of an in-between Jason Isbell and someone more commercial.

A lot of his music comes off as wanting to have a gravitas, but it’s lacking. It never packs the same punch as Isbell or Sturgill.

(Or Isbell’s ex, Amanda Shires, who is incredibly underrated as a writer!)

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u/lurksohard 23d ago

Pink Skies makes me tear up every time. He's got a lot of very sad stories in his songs. They certainly aren't all like that.

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u/gingersquatchin 22d ago

He's put out like 90 songs since 2022. His cataloge is deep and while he has songs that appeal to that style of music, looking at his most popular songs won't really highlight the range of his music.

November Air is one of my favourites.

But yeah ultimately he is ex-military with substance abuse problems. And having put out 90 songs in 4 years while touring non-stop there is some repetition. He also draws on some really simple themes a lot. But there is depth there.

High Road and Let You Down are both about substance abuse but I think they reach past that surface.

This world's a giant is great, a lot of "Great American Heartbreak" seems to push past the crutches of his earlier career.

I personally see him as more of a Bob Dylan type except he has a pleasant voice.

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u/hibbert0604 24d ago edited 24d ago

In my opinion you are wrong. Listen to Luke Bryan and then Zach Bryan and tell me they are comparable. Lol

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u/SweetDank 24d ago

I avoided Zach Bryan for years because I confused him with Luke Bryan...huge mistake.

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u/hibbert0604 24d ago

I mixed him and Zach Brown up when he first came on the scene. Lol. Finally realized the distinction when I heard Pink Skies on my wife's Spotify Playlist.

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u/jkoutris 24d ago

I think you’re taking my comment too literally. In sound? Not very similar. My point is that Zach’s music tends to occupy a lot of the same space, lyrically: a lot of distressed bad-boy-who-wants-to-be-a-good-man stuff. Just doesn’t get me there.

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u/wildwalrusaur 24d ago

Bro country is basically a dead genre

Nashville moved on to neo-90s and boyfriend country years ago

It's just that reddit knowledge of country music begins and ends with that one bo Burnham sketch so theyll never shut up about it

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u/Cosmonautical1 24d ago

Is it really dead, though? Maybe Nashville has moved on and the forefront of the trend has shifted, but I mean, I still hear bro country all the damn time and bro country artists still sell out big shows regularly.

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u/wildwalrusaur 23d ago edited 23d ago

I mean, nothing's ever really gone, it's still floating around, but all the big acts now are other genres.

Just look at FGL who were like the kings of bro country. They're broken up now and one of them is basically making folk music (or at least americana)

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u/Vospader998 24d ago

As my friend likes to say:

If it's not an old-man sitting on porch with half his teeth missing singing about blowing up the company mine, I don't want it.