Zach Bryan

It barely took Zach Bryan more than a couple years after releasing 2019’s DeAnn before becoming one of the biggest stars in the country, not just in country, rock or roots music, but any genre. His debut album was a tribute to his late mother released while the 23 year old was serving in the Navy.

Military service is a deep part of Bryan’s upbringing: He was born in an American Navy base in Japan, where his father served in the Navy. The family moved to Oklahoma when Bryan was a teenager, shortly after his parents divorced.

After self-releasing his next several albums, including 2020’s Elisabeth and the EP Quiet, Heavy Dreams, Bryan made his major label debut with 2022’s American Heartbreak. Over the following two years, he established himself as a bona fide star selling out arenas and stadiums across the country with his 2023 self-titled record and his star-studded 2024 LP The Great American Bar Scene, which featured collaborations from A-listers like John Mayer and Bruce Springsteen.

Throughout all his success, Bryan has maintained a tentative relationship with the wider music industry, particularly the Nashville industry that forms the center of country music, the genre with which Bryan is most often, and frequently to his chagrin, associated.

Bryan has refused to submit his music for Grammy consideration, lashed out when his songs became charting pop hits, and, most famously, taken a public stance against live music giant Ticketmaster, culminating in a live album titled All My Homies Hate Ticketmaster.

The first five years of Bryan’s career has been one of the most rapid rises in 21st century popular music, representing a culmination of the increasing popularity in both country and Americana music throughout the preceding decade of the 2010’s. “I think life is reckless and it should be insane,” Bryan told the New York Times in 2022. “It all ends in agony. It’s all about the outcome, so like, do it, you know? Do whatever it is.” — Jonathan Bernstein