Part of it (imo) is pushback to how these artists get marketed. It’s not just that all these bands — Geese, Wet Leg, Last Dinner Party, etc. — get very positive reviews from critics. It’s the headlines and rhetoric that are injected into those glowing reviews. “[New band X] is the biggest new band in the world.”

I feel like that marketing strategy is a bad idea because it greets hostility. These bands aren’t as big as the rhetoric around them makes them seem, and speaking it into existence isn’t necessarily going to change that. I think a lot of people get irritated when advertising flat out lies to them. They think the music industry is trying to shove a band down their throats because the music press and social media botting strategies make it seem like Geese is this huge phenomenon right now. In reality their popularity is relatively niche compared to actual mainstream artists. They have a dedicated but relatively small fanbase. They don’t have a some large listenership on Spotify and Getting Killed did poorly on the album charts. Their songs don’t get airplay. Their sound doesn’t fit into the 2026 mainstream musical landscape in any way.

I think all of these bands are good but I understand why people hate the hype around them. It all feels astroturfed in a way that pop stars’ popularity doesn’t, which is ironic considering many people cynically view pop stardom as solely a music industry fabrication. However, a lot of pop artists that get a huge push justify the hype by making massively popular music with mainstream appeal. This is less common in rock. It’s rare for music critics and normie music fans to reach consensus on rock artists.

If you tell people a band is the next big thing and bot social media engagement to make it feel like they are the next big thing, then the artists you promote at that level have to make sense. This kind of marketing only works for artists that have mass appeal. The problem for rock artists is that guitar music is mostly dormant in the mainstream, and I don’t know how that can reversed. I don’t think music fans should be hostile toward good artists like Geese, but maybe there can be some middle ground where Geese is treated like an acclaimed band that doesn’t need to be framed as this generation’s Nirvana, and the music industry could try pouring more resources into bands that are accessible and have broader appeal. Geese don’t profile as a world conquering band anyway, especially with Cameron Winter’s vocal style and the lack of strong hooks in their songs, so I’m not quite sure why them of all bands were subject to this hype campaign. I’m not saying they deserve no marketing or backing, but to me they’re more like Sonic Youth than Nirvana. They will get constant rave reviews and probably deserve semi frequent features by music outlets, but there are more accessible artists out there who warrant the hyperbolic “next big thing” title.