Don't Work It Out On the Remix: Stars Don't Need To Be Friends
Thoughts on celebrity drama, Zach Bryan vs. John Moreland, and parasocial fandom.
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In my days, I’ve written about a lot of celebrity drama. Whether it was backlash to a TikTok pop-punk band, breakups, rap beefs, or people making amends, I’ve written about it. While I certainly see the appeal and get why people get swept up in it, I almost always feel that there’s a certain level of disconnect when looking at it from the outside. Yes, sometimes we get great art from the drama (see: Kendrick Lamar’s “euphoria”), but for the most part, it’s also just another mindless form of entertainment. I also recognize the irony that I’m about to spend many words talking about a relationship between two people that I do not know personally.
I first learned that John Moreland took a shot at Zach Bryan on Reddit. Unlike many of Bryan’s fans, I was pretty well-acquainted with Moreland’s work before their collaboration, and I was also happy to see him featured on “Memphis; The Blues”). I was never super knowledgeable about Moreland, but I knew he had a bit of a metal/punk background, and most of the artists that I’d seen recommend him came from that world. When Bryan revealed he was a fan, I clocked it as interesting, and when they released the song, I enjoyed it. I felt that it was positive for Moreland to get a bit more exposure.
As the drama unfolded, I felt like it was all incredibly drab. Moreland’s shot, where he said that Bryan was the “off-brand version” of him was pretty tame. Bryan’s response that he was taking him off the album was childish, and the fan response even worse.
Back in December, my fiancée and I attended the final show on the “Quttin’ Time” tour, and I’ve never felt more out of place at a show. Bryan is at his best when he’s wearing his heart on his sleeve. He’s addressing the fact that he’s a flawed person, and he struggles with life’s challenges. His best songs are emotional, and they show that he’s willing to open up about feeling down. I’m not the first person to draw a comparison between Bryan and emo artists, but you wouldn’t see that connection in the audience at that show. It didn’t exactly look like the most welcoming group of people in the world.
When Moreland took his shot and word began to spread, comments immediately soured. It was typical popstar stan bullshit.
· “The only reason you have a career is because of Zach.”
· “Say goodbye to your most streamed song.”
· “You’re just jealous of his success.”
I also noticed a lot of people commenting on Moreland’s tattoos and his weight. I can’t help but think that there are plenty of people who listen to popular music that believe that part of being a talented musician is also maintaining a flat stomach. I won’t dwell on the fact that a lot of it seems fat-phobic, but it was disappointing to see fans of an artist I like begin attacking someone’s weight.
Moreland mostly laughed off the attacks. He explained why he personally wasn’t a fan of Bryan’s, and he explained that he felt like it was cooler to get kicked off of Bryan’s record rather than be featured. “Memphis; The Blues” has been pulled from streaming, and Bryan is presumably re-recording the song without Moreland’s parts.
Most recently, Moreland noted that he’s still getting traffic from Bryan fans who have continued to attack him over two weeks after the initial posts.
I don’t think that Moreland or Bryan are going to release diss tracks in this whole debacle. Even if they were going to, I don’t think either has a “Not Like Us” in them. In turn, I do wish that most of the fans would just let the two of them be. The only thing that’s really affected fans is that now they can’t stream one song from Bryan’s album.
While I have found that a lot of older, more mature fans have been able to put the public sparring aside and simply enjoy music from each artist, I also wish people could just do away with it entirely. So much of pop music has been dominated by a “us against them” mentality, where if there’s any rivalry between two artists, you can only truly enjoy one. It all goes back to our parasocial relationships with artists.
I don’t expect every artist to be friends, even those who work together. I’m not hoping for a country version of the “girl so confusing remix” to come out to rectify my ability to listen to both Bryan and Moreland. I’m not friends with either artist. I will listen to LP5 and American Heartbreak just as much as I want to.
That also leads to the fact that Bryan has decided to remove Moreland from the record entirely. I can understand the desire to delete someone who has seemingly wronged you by speaking out of turn. I’ve unfollowed people on social media and utilized that mute function. Still, in my honest opinion, it’s a massive baby move. Wasn’t this guy in the Navy? I’m sure there were people that he didn’t get along with great there. You still have to work with them. I understand that he’s made the record and decisions for what he wants to do, but just eat it and leave it up. If you’re really so hellbent on having a version with Moreland, just record a separate version and let people listen to that one. Taking the whole thing down, especially without a replacement ready to go, makes him look like he’s hurt by someone after he just got a $350 million payday.
While I also feel like fans should suck it up and just listen to the version with an artist that they’ve decided not to enjoy, at least giving the choice doesn’t penalize people who would like to stream the original version. In reality, it looks like he’s trying to take back some of the royalty money that he’s making sort of like when Ozzy Osbourne replaced parts on his past albums. Again, it just makes him look more and more petty.
This whole thing has reminded me of when Bryan and his ex-girlfriend Brianna “Chickenfry” LaPaglia broke up, and she was very outspoken about him being a garbage boyfriend. Since the #MeToo Movement began, we’ve heard lots of horror stories about beloved stars doing terrible things. As LaPaglia spoke out against Bryan, it mostly just sounded like he was an asshole.
As Bryan’s career took the hit, I thought about when John Mulaney and his ex-wife Annamarie Tendler split up in 2021. Mulaney faced a bunch of backlash from fans due to the fact that he’d spoken about his wife countless times in his special. Some people suggested he cheated on her, but this hasn’t been confirmed. Some fans thought that he was problematic after the split, but really the only thing that happened was a relationship ended. As some of my friends spoke about their relationship, I couldn’t help but feel indifferent. I’m a fan of Mulaney’s comedy, but I’m not inviting him or his ex-wife over for dinner.
In both instances, those revelations didn’t affect my relationship with their work. In Bryan’s instance specifically, so many fans have simply accepted that he probably isn’t a very good guy to date. The fact that they’re shocked that Moreland has said that he’s still not a great guy to hang out with has also not clouded my enjoyment of either artist’s music.
Despite dedicating over 1,000 words to this, I also know that this is to some extent just me lingering on celebrity drama. I’m certain that people will still continue to attack celebrities that their favorite stars are feuding with. Still, I hope you graduate to harder dreams.