The warm embrace Geese/Cameron have received from audiences and industry titans alike comes as undeniably garage music-esque acts like Djo and Wallows crawl toward the kind of mainstream success their early 2000s influences enjoyed in an era TikTok has dubbed “the golden age of white boys.” Back when “My Own Worst Enemy” was a guaranteed needle drop in every teen comedy, and Sum 41, The White Stripes, and Green Day topped charts, defined style, and sat at the center of cultural relevance. Gen Z’s exhaustion with those trends explains the enthusiasm around Djo earning his first-ever Billboard #1, or the Wallows appearing at nearly every major festival, and it helps clarify the hunger for Geese, who’s been lovingly referred to as “Gen Z’s first great rock band.” There have been plenty of Gen Z rock acts, but the celebrity fanfare this one’s beginning to receive recalls a Gen X and millennial Hollywood ecosystem. There are plenty of jokes about why this very specific subgenre disappeared from the mainstream, they mainly blame the housing crisis (TikTok insights include: “Garages are unaffordable, it’s time to start playing under overpasses or some shit,” and “The HOA killed the rock star”), but this year’s emergence and success of acts that clearly fall within the category offers a small beacon of light for the future of white boy garage music.
Author: Annabel Iwegbue
Published at: 2025-12-17 21:21:00
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