Zach Bryan isn’t holding anything back. Taking off his gloves, the country singer criticized country radio culture after learning Tyler Childers just earned his first charting single.
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Childers’ song “In Your Love” recently charted in the Top 50 on the Mediabase chart, a first for the artist. Given Childers’ talent and tenacity for both singing and songwriting, the news surprised Bryan. Taking to social media, Bryan shared in his surprise, writing, “‘First ever’ is f–kn insane, one of the best songwriters to ever do it.”
Bryan wasn’t done. Instead, the singer took a shot at country music stations for the slight, also sweeping up fellow singer Walker Hayes in his criticism. In particular, Bryan took issue with Hayes’ “Fancy Like,” which embraced a marketing tie-in with Applebee’s.
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In Bryan’s mind, “Fancy Like” represents the cookie-cutter corporate sound that’s overwhelming artistry in the genre. He wrote, “Imagine being radio (whoever the hell that is), hearing Shake the Frost and being like ‘no no let’s go with the Applebees song.'”
Zach Bryan Defends Stance
Bryan further added that it shouldn’t have taken a decade for Childers to get his due. He wrote, “We don’t have a choice in what happens after songs are released, I am glad he’s on the radio, it’s just silly it took ten years, shows the validity of it.”
However, Hayes and his music have their fans as well. Some took to Twitter to criticize Bryan for putting Hayes on blast. One person wrote, “You’re not wrong but don’t do Walker dirty like that. Another great songwriter.”
In response, Bryan insisted that he wasn’t actually trying to insult Hayes. He was pointing out that the current state of radio didn’t allow songwriters to shine. Bryan wrote, “not insulting anyone! Meant it with humor not malice, different strokes different folks was just bent about the first ever on mainstream radio thing my bad.”
Bryan’s criticism has opened up a larger conversation around country music on the social media platform X. One person wrote, “Nah, you were right. Fancy Like is awful songwriting. Many country music fans are tired of the average songwriting with the same themes. You hear the same themes at country radio and it’s getting old. I miss the storytelling in country songs.”
[Photo by Rich Fury/Getty Images for Stagecoach]
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