Conan Gray

One Liner:  Male Olivia Rodrigo?  Great songwriter either way.

Wikipedia Genre:  Pop, indie pop, acoustic pop, bedroom pop
Home: L.A.

Poster Position: 5
Both Weekends.
Weekend 1 - Saturday. Weekend 2 - Friday.

Thoughts:   So, my youngest has requested that she get to see three things this year, if she can.  Kacey Musgraves (heck yeah), Sza (okay?), and this guy.  Who I have absolutely never heard of before.  And yet he has several songs with hundreds of millions of streams - one almost has a billion - so I guess I'm the one who is behind the musical curve here.  But my first instinct on the guy is a male Olivia Rodrigo.  That comparison doesn't always work, but it frequently does.

My man was born in California, to an Irish dude and a Japanese mother, which is a fun combo of cool heritages.  At one point he could speak Japanese fluently, but Wikipedia says no more.  He moved around a lot because of a military father, but ended up settling in Georgetown, Texas.  So I wish I could claim him as a local, but he apparently moved back out to L.A. in 2017 when he was accepted to UCLA.  he got his start with just YouTube videos - no music, more like cooking and vlogs about home or whatever.  After getting millions of views (why?) he was able to branch out to music and start this new career.

He self-released some singles back in 2017, and got millions of streams, until he finally released his first EP, Sunset Season, in late 2018.  Every song on it has more than 64 million streams, and one has 147.6 million.  This is "Crush Culture."

Lyrically, top notch.  Music-wise, don't need it.  But I like the anger towards crush culture and being sad/mad about young relationship issues.  But this song and the rest of the EP blew up, peaking at #2 on the Billboard Heatseekers Albums chart, which then led to opening slots for Girl in Red and Panic! at the Disco.  His first full-length album was Kid Krow, released in 2020.  The big track on there is his top streamer overall, with 918 million streams (!?!) called "Heather."  I was wishing for "Maniac" to be the top track, because I like that one better.  But this is the hit.

There's that Olivia Rodrigo sound right there, right?  Doesn't it sound like that sort of longing, smart, broken, thoughtful love song that she did on "Drivers License"?  This was a big TikTok hit as well.  Of course, though, right as he was on the cusp of massive stardom and appearances on TV and big tours and Grammy nominations and everything, COVID smacked him down.  "Wish You Were Sober" (on that album) is a bop - I really like the mood and lyrics on that one.  

Gray says that Taylor Swift is his biggest inspiration, which I guess I can hear as well.  But the guy is lucky enough to have had Swift praise Kid Krow and one of the songs on there, on social media.  He also shouts out Lorde as an inspiration, which I hear less of.

Now, in 2022, he released Superache.  Good album overall.  I'm honestly surprised at how much I have liked all of this - normally you tell me that a bedroom pop guy is the next artists and I'm going to be suspicious, but this guy is talented.  "People Watching" is the hit on here so far, with 139.1 million streams.

Creepy ass stalker ass observational guy.  Damn.  Just make the damn coffee and quit checking them out.  Just kidding - yet again, lyrically, this is a great song.  Smart poetry and legitimate emotional observations.  "Memories" sounds like a Harry Styles tune.  "Yours" sounds like Rodrigo again.

Yeah, I hope to get to see this guy with the youngest.  I'd check it out for sure.

Edit after I wrote the above - the world has crapped on the guy for his National Anthem performance at the 2022 Home Run Derby.  Not sure it was that awful - not Fergie awful by any means - but definitely a little pitchy at times.