“Zach Bryan Is Absent From 2025 Grammy Ballot, as He Joins the Superstar Ranks of Drake and the Weeknd in Declining to Submit”

https://t.ly/vzfZn

And that’s why he’s such a big star.

When the Eagles sing we haven’t had that spirit here since 1969, this is what they’re talking about.

This is what made music so powerful, not Lady Gaga in a lame Hollywood movie, but those who were on their own path, away from the mainstream, thinking for themselves, which is why everybody followed them.

Bryan is in tune with the times. People are sick of the construct, they feel marginalized, they want someone to believe in.

This is the antidote to Kardashianism, that was so 2010s.

The story of the past ten years, the Trump ascendance, is that people are questioning institutions and the people who run them. Like Hillary Clinton. They want someone new, someone to lead them, someone to believe in. That was not Trump, but he tapped into a feeling, the zeitgeist of today’s America, meanwhile, historical institutions like the Grammys double-down like they still count, oblivious. He not busy being born is busy dying? That’s what Bob Dylan sang, meanwhile the Grammys are calcified. They can’t even eliminate categories for fear some marginalized musician will complain they don’t have an opportunity to win a statuette.

I could continue to trash the Grammys, but what’s the point.

The point is music can be our number one cultural driver, no art form is as powerful, but it requires artists to think for themselves, out of the box.

One of the great things about the decimation of the major labels is that now acts don’t have to listen to suits tell them what to do. This is the way it was in the late sixties and seventies. The suits finally realized they didn’t know, the acts were in control, they just delivered finished albums, there was no remixing, none of the constant drone about a hit single…

There’s this canard that music is a commodity. That the major labels are stewards of what is popular now. That’s business, not art. And never confuse them.

There is no artistic competition. It’s a faux construct. Who is better, Picasso or Braque or Pollock or… Picasso kept changing, knowing that to stay stuck in a rut is anathema. Pollock threw out the entire rulebook forget traditional representation.

Imagine a TV painting competition. Couldn’t be done. What are the criteria for excellence? How long does someone get? But now too much music is made on an assembly line.

Meanwhile, when the outside triumphs, it’s good for everyone. Chappell Roan is good for everyone. Because she’s not a tween from a TV show singing songs written by committee.

And in country age is no longer a barrier.

And the most revered man in country, who is also very successful, is 46 and overweight.

You have to be able to say no. You have to be able to question convention and authority. You must think for yourself and risk.

This is what the public is looking for from artists.

Artistry knows no bounds. It’s about inspiration, vision. Not some committee deciding whether you’re good or bad.

We need more artists pulling out of the Grammys as opposed to those complaining they’re not winning awards.

A Grammy is meaningless. A song that changes someone’s life is not.

If your obituary says how many Grammys you won, either you missed the point or the writer did.

We live in a bottom up society. Think of what the public wants. When you hang with celebrities and are featured in TMZ, when you flaunt your lifestyle, when you start selling us perfume and brandy…you may be making money, but you’re missing the point.

That’s got nothing to do with music.

And the money goes to those who focus on music, and only music.

Because when you do this, when you are uncompromised, people believe in you, FOREVER! You can pursue your art FOREVER!

Music is not about the momentary, it’s about careers, those who explore and last.

The stars should exist in their own world, outside the corporation, beacons to the people.

Which is what Zach Bryan does, which is why he succeeds.