Media and Public Beclown Themselves Over Unreleased Zach Bryan Song

Random Notes 73 Comments


What do I think of the new Zach Bryan song? I have no idea what I think about it, because I’ve never heard it. You may think you have all kinds of opinions about it. You might have even gone online and vehemently shared those opinions. But you’ve never heard the song either, which makes you perfectly unqualified to have or share an opinion on it too.

I feel embarrassed to be a music fan, to be an American, to be part of the media, and to be a part of a modern society that allows the reactions to a song that isn’t even out yet to puncture the zeitgeist to the point where the White House and public officials are being asked to make public statements about it.

In fact, many of the people posting their screeds about “Zach Bryan’s new song” haven’t even heard the snippet of it that’s caused such a stir. A lot of them have never even heard a Zach Bryan song ever, or even know who Zach Bryan is. That’s why so many of them are prefacing their opinions by calling Zach a “country singer.” They just saw that Zach released an “Anti ICE” song somewhere online, and decided to either praise him to the hilt, or take to social media to seethe.

Can you imagine how discrediting it would be to a music critic to give their opinion on a song they’ve never heard in full? “Yeah, but I’ve heard enough.” No, you haven’t. In fact, you have no idea what the fuck you’re even talking about, and beclowning yourself by acting like you do. You have no idea what this song says, or where this song goes. And you’ll twist and turn the words to make it shape whatever narrative you’ve preconceived for it once the song is released, if it ever is.

There’s not even a release date for this song yet. Maybe it will be released at midnight, October 10th. Maybe it won’t be. We’re not even 100% sure what the title is. Maybe it’s “Bad News.” Maybe it’s “The Fading of the Red, White, and Blue.” Maybe it’s neither of these. We don’t know because it hasn’t been released yet. And all we’ve heard is a small portion of it.

And even in that small portion, the mention of ICE is made in what seems to be in passing. In fact, if there is one thing we can somewhat plausibly conclude from what we have heard of the song so far, it’s that it’s probably not a song entirely about ICE. But of course we can’t 100% conclude that. Why? Because we haven’t heard the song. But it’s very plausible that the basis for the song is not ICE, but the politically polarizing environment we’re currently living in.

Here are the lyrics from the snippet:

“Didn’t wake up dead or in jail
Some out of town boys been giving us hell
I got some bad news
I woke up missing you
My friends are all degenerates but they’re all I got
The generational story of dropping the plot
I heard the cops came
Cocky motherfu–ers ain’t they?”

“And ICE is gonna come, bust down your door
Try to build a house no one builds no more
But I got a telephone
Kids are all scared and all alone
The Boss stopped bumping, the rock stopped rolling
The middle fingers rising and it won’t stop showing
I got some bad news
The fading of the red, white and blue”

As Zach Bryan himself said in a statement about the song, “I wrote this song months ago. I posted this song three months ago as a snippet. This shows you how divisive a narrative can be when shoved down our throats through social media. The song is about how much I love this country and everyone in it more than anything. When you hear the rest of the song, you will understand the full context that hits on both sides of the aisle. Everyone using this now as a weapon is only proving how devastatingly divided we all are. We need to find our way back.”

In other words, according to Zach Bryan, the ludicrous reactions and weaponizations of his snippet is proving the exact point the song is trying to make. And as people on the left try to employ Zach Bryan as their unwitting pawn for being a “country artist” releasing an “Anti ICE” song, the people on the right who bemoaned cancel culture are trying to cancel him for doing the same thing.

Zach Bryan continues,

“I served this country, I love this country and the song itself is about all of us coming out of this divided space. I wasn’t speaking as a politician or some greater-than-thou asshole, just a 29 year old man who is just as confused as everyone else. To see how much shit it stirred up makes me not only embarrassed but kind of scared. Left wing or right wing we’re all one bird and American. To be clear I’m not on either of these radical sides. To all those disappointed in me on either side of whatever you believe in just know I’m trying my best too and we all say things that are misconstrued sometimes.”

There’s a strange irony in how a guy who was making headlines a few short weeks ago for hopping a barbed wire fence like a crackhead going for a catalytic converter to fight Gavin Adcock is the most rational voice in the room. Anyone, anyone who has decided to politicize this moment deserves to be discredited as an irresponsible party. This includes perhaps millions of social media users at this point, but also members of the media who took the “ICE song” narrative and ran with it.

What is the problem with media and social media these days? It distills down important topics in a way the bleeds the nuance out of them, giving an incomplete picture. It jumps to conclusions. It roils political acrimony to drive clicks. It facilitates misinformation going viral. All of these things have been in play with this unreleased Zach Bryan song.

And at the same time all of this has been happening, there has also been a huge news cycle about how Dolly Parton was deathly ill—and then the same media outlets who embellished this narrative turned around and drove clicks again by dispelling their own myths. In a dark era for media, it has been especially dark over the last few days in music.

Dissent is an imperative part of the United States of America. And anyone who thinks that everything is hunky dory out there and that anyone who is offering up any sort of dissent is being un-American, you’re not paying attention. We are trundling towards a civil war in the United States, and even Tucker Carlson agrees.

Zach Bryan is simply doing his job as an artist by synthesizing and illustrating our feelings and concerns about society through his art. It’s then our job as music fans and the public to listen before sharing our opinions. And once you listen, you can choose to embrace, ignore, or admonish that art.

But until you’ve actually seen, heard, or experienced whatever an artist has created, you are in no position to criticize, commentate, and most especially, weaponize it for your political purposes.

So shut the fuck up. And instead of rushing to speak, actually try to listen. Because taking a deep breath and listening is when you get the most out of music.

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