"During the summer of 2023, U.S. media detected a growing loneliness problem among men. They no longer had friends. They no longer liked anything. In less than a month, The New York Times published two articles on the subject: one discussing how difficult having close friends seemed to have become, with another offering pickleball as a cure for this new pandemic."
"That is, until the 4th of July, which coincided with the release of The Great American Bar Scene (2024), the fifth album by country musician Zach Bryan. The Atlantic suggested that perhaps therein lay the cure for contemporary male loneliness. It sounded like a joke (albeit no more so than pickleball), but it confirmed an already undeniable fact: Zach Bryan had become a musical and social phenomenon."
"Last September, Bryan performed at Michigan Stadium before 112,408 people, the largest attendance for a non-festival or free concert in U.S. history. That night, merchandise sales reached $5 million. With Heaven on Top (2026) is the sixth album by this 29-year-old musician, who was born in Japan (at the U.S. Navy base where his parents were stationed) and raised in Oklahoma. The record was released on January 9 and soon hit No.1 on the U.S. Billboard charts."
Media coverage in summer 2023 highlighted rising male loneliness, reporting declines in close friendships and proposing activities like pickleball as remedies. The 4th of July 2024 release of The Great American Bar Scene, Zach Bryan's fifth album, coincided with renewed attention on male social isolation, and some suggested the album might alleviate that loneliness. Bryan set attendance records with a Michigan Stadium show of 112,408 people and $5 million in merchandise sales. With Heaven on Top (2026), his sixth album, was released January 9 and quickly reached No.1 on the U.S. Billboard charts, displacing another leading country artist and underscoring the genre's popularity and controversies.
Read at english.elpais.com
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