The Allure of the Contemporary Pop Star

In Beats + Bytes by Nue Agency

Who’s ready for a little industry gossip mixed with a marketing case study? Grab your coffee and stay with me for a second – we’re trying something different this week.

28-year-old country singer-songwriter, Zach Bryan, was dating 25-year-old influencer and podcaster, Brianna ChickenFry LaPaglia. They met at the Country Music Awards in May 2023.

It felt like a perfect pairing. The singer had just released his new album, The Great American Bar Scene, and Brianna was signed to Barstool Media. They hit the Golden Globes and the concert scene and were generating some good attention beyond their respective creative output. She went on tour with him. They were an Americana match made in college marketing heaven and taking the world by storm.

Then, last month after a year of dating, Zach broke up with Brianna and then the next day, blindsided her and the rest of the world on Instagram.

This week is when things started getting interesting as the story hit the mainstream media, podcasts, and even the music charts.

Brianna and her boss, David Portnoy of Barstool sports fame (who I apparently still have beef with from back in the day), did a tell-all podcast and livestream.

Meanwhile Portnoy, a master of internet marketing, dropped an inarguably funny “diss track” aimed at Zach that is going viral. His echo chamber keeps reverberating around it. It helps that he has 10K accounts to push whatever content he wants.

The tune experienced some takedowns over copyright infringement but, undeterred, he dropped another one to make up for it.

Zach came back with a big track called “High Road” that landed atop Spotify’s New Music Friday, and then quickly followed it up with a second song just as Dave had.

Why It Matters:

It will be interesting to see how the sonic barbs propel these two stars further into the mainstream. Zach’s music will grow, as will his allure. Brianna will become a much bigger star, too. This is a great example of how successful marketing happens in 2024.

They did a good job of tying together their stories, their art, non-traditional media, the mainstream media, and real time marketing. We saw something similar, albeit on a larger scale, with the Kendrick/Drake beef. It’s all happening so fast these days as the main characters peer into the Fourth Wall for all the world to comment and cringe.

This differs from music feuds of the past. Zach’s lore reminds me a bit of a young Taylor Swift. However, when she put her stories to music back then, we didn’t actually know the gory details or get to hear from the other party.

Zach Bryan & Brianna ChickenFry have our attention now. They’re putting on a masterclass in contemporary media’s ability to build (or destroy!) a career.