Okinawa isn’t too far from Oologah, Oklahoma, just about 6360 miles across the sea. Oologah, whose contested name may mean “clouds” in Cherokee, boasts store fronts that haven’t changed since its settlement as a small frontier town in 1891. This is the hometown that country-folk artist Zach Bryan grew up in. Although he was born in Okinawa, Japan, into a navy family, he grew up in a “red dirt” district. If it weren’t for his honorable discharge after eight years of service, Bryan would still be serving America in what he calls “the world’s greatest navy.” The brotherhood he formed in the navy gave birth to his music career.
He uploaded to YouTube his first single, titled “Godspeed,” while his friends recorded him in their navy barracks. After his rise to fame online and with two albums released, he dropped his 34-track triple LP, American Heartbreak, in 2022.
This is not uncommon for new artists, but strange for a country artist—a mixtape originates and is commonly found within the hip-hop community. Essentially, American Heartbreak is Bryan’s way of flooding the market with his sound to see what sticks.
Long story short, it stuck; Something In The Orange won Bryan his first Grammy nomination in 2023. While the name sounds cliche for a country album, American Heartbreak is a genuine narrative composed of intimate moments, a stark contrast in tone amidst a sonic landscape of pickup trucks and pretty women.
Christmas Eve 2022 also saw the release of All My Homies Hate Ticketmaster (Live From Red Rocks), an album version of his Burn, Burn, Burn Tour.
Zach Bryan, among other artists who cultivate dedicated fan bases, expressed disdain for the way Ticketmaster handles the buying and selling of concert tickets. Instead of using Ticketmaster for his Burn, Burn, Burn tour, he partnered with a smaller fan-friendly ticketing service. His commitment to his fans exemplifies the moral and familial feel found within his fandom.
Bryan’s decision resonates with Sixth Former Jack Long.
“The virtues that he holds, family, god, and love, are things that I think a lot of kids can relate to, due to how close of a community we are,” Long said.
Still, Long isn’t sure if Zach Bryan exemplifies the virtues on Haverford’s Walk of Virtues.
“Not exactly,” Long said. “He’s famous and he has flaws, but I think in some sense he does.”
Yes, Zach Bryan—like all men—has flaws. He’s spent a night in jail for mouthing off to a cop and been through a divorce, but through all the pain and repentance he is still the same driven man.
Long said, “He keeps it real with his music and doesn’t go chasing after what people want him to do.”
Fifth Former Kellen Gardner agrees: “It feels like raw true music.”
After all, it’s Bryan’s honest commitment to his music and fans that have filled arenas and brought grown men to tears.
In the late summer heat of August, eight months after his last release, “Dawns (feat. Maggie Rogers)”, Zach Bryan released the self-titled Zach Bryan album. This album debuted at no. 1 on the Billboard 200. It saw the convergence of multiple fandoms featuring artists such as The Lumieres, Kacy Musgraves, and The War And Treaty, who are nominated for Best New Artist at the 2024 Grammy Awards.
“I Remember Everything (feat. Kacey Musgraves)” shot to no. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and has been in the top 10 for the past 22 weeks. It tells the story of an ill-fated summertime beachtown romance: star-crossed lovers drinking to ease the pain of an unresolved breakup. This song was nominated for Best Country Song and Best Country Duo/Group Performance at the 2024 Grammy Awards. The most powerful thing within the song, and what most people connect to is the emotion behind their voices.
“I like him cause his voice is raw, it sounds like actually showing emotion when he sings,” Sixth Former Banks Young said. “It feels real.”
When Zach Bryan sings, “Blame it on the beach, grown men don’t cry,” he imposes a lyrical juxtaposition upon his entire brand. Yet, the lyric, “Strange words come on out of a grown man’s mouth when his minds gone,” infers that the “strange words” are the sounds of him crying.
In this instance, alcohol—a core element in country music—grants Zach Bryan the clarity to feel his emotions. For boys brought into a culture where men are taught not to show emotion as it’s “a sign of weakness,” Zach Bryan flips the script and shows boys that it’s okay to let it all out.
Bryan brings up the phrase “grown men don’t cry” and blames his lack of emotion in this past relationship on something as dry as the beach symbolizing that their relationship was short, hot, and ended when she realized that he cared more about whiskey than her. At the end of her verse Musgraves sings, “No, you’ll never be the man that you always swore /But I’ll remember you singin’ in that 88’ Ford.” She accepts the fact that the relationship will never work out even though they found companionship singing together in the car.
The car is one of the few places of privacy where boys are allowed to listen to whatever music they want. English teacher Ms. Emily Harnett speaks of this phenomenon in her classes: how boys don’t want to be caught listening to female pop stars, turning on rap the second their friends enter the car for fear of being thought of as effeminate or gay.
In this case, listening to Bryan in the car is a freeing experience. As Fifth Former Zack Oswald describes it, his songs are “especially screamable at the top of your lungs in the car.”
Zach Bryan, providing a way for boys to freely release their emotion, is not free from the spotlight of the media, but still fights for independent control of his career. His record label, Warner Records, allows him a good amount of control over the music he produces.
In response to Bryan’s independence, Long remarks, “I feel like it’s a little more real in country… I feel like those dudes are like real people, and they don’t let what the media says or what other people are saying change what they’re actually doing. They know what they want to do, what they value, and they preach that in their music. The flaw I see in pop is that the artists go after what people want to hear.”
While pop artists do seem to always be chasing a fad, in stereotypical “bro country,” artists like Morgan Wallen aren’t being inventive either. His song “Whisky Glasses” is essentially a pop song, the only thing making it country is the subject matter—whisky—and the instruments and tone in which it’s sung. It follows a pop song structure—excellently written, but not by Wallen. He’s not doing anything outside the box and the song itself is peak bro country. This “basic bro country” mindset is still popular among many Fords. As one matures and grows older, it’s absolutely necessary that one’s music taste evolves as well. If Fords listened to the same Florida Georgia Line and Jason Aldean songs all throughout their highschool careers, they would grow increasingly close minded in their music taste and worldview. Likewise, the mainline’s perception of Haverford is also close minded, clouded by the perception that haverford is a lax bro breeding ground.
Young, a representative of the Haverford community and avid Zach Bryan listener, comments on the negative way that Haverford is portrayed in the media.
“People who don’t go to Haverford would describe us as one group, but everyone here is unique and a lot of people don’t see that because of Haverford’s reputation,” said Young.
Many see Haverford as a sonic landscape of “bro country” and Main Line white boys who listen to rap. However, the rise of Zach Bryan within the community can counter the stereotypes about Haverford.
Sixth Former Sebastian Perez states he found out about Zach Bryan by, “listening with my friends, and hearing the songs they put on. It just put me on.”
Young points at himself as starting the Haverford Zach Bryan train, and Perez responds with a grin, “probably Banks Young if I’m being honest. Just hearing it while we’re hanging out together, I related to the themes of family and God. It just made me enjoy it more.”
Long says he found out about Zach Bryan through his brother.
“He’s a musician, so he’s involved in all types of music. He definitely put me on a little bit. My friends Banks and Connor Nolan, we share music a lot, [which] picked up at the end of sophomore beginning of junior year.”
Allowing boys to feel comfortable in the uncomfortable—expressing vulnerability—is integral in developing healthy perceptions of masculinity.
One thing led to the next, and pretty soon a Zach Bryan culture found a home at Haverford.
Gardner said, “There is always the bro-ey stereotypical country music listener. Zach Bryan leans more into folk music. He’s broadening the spectrum of people who listen to country music.’
Clearly, Haverford is a mixed bag when it comes to music.
“I feel like in some instances we are the same,” Perez said. “In the sense that [we] listen to the same type of music, and we’ve found a love for it. However, it also took some time to search outside the box from ‘bro country’ to Zach Bryan.”
At an all boys school, it’s easy to get caught up in a hypermasculine front. Thankfully, the softer soothing inflections of Zach Bryan’s voice may play a role in forming positive outlooks on masculinity within certain school subcultures.
Allowing boys to feel comfortable in the uncomfortable—expressing vulnerability—is integral in developing healthy perceptions of masculinity.
