About

Greta Van Fleet is an American rock band notable for its sonic similarity to classic rock groups, particularly Led Zeppelin. The group is composed three brothers, Josh, Jake, and Sam Kiszka, and Danny Wagner. They received global attention following the release of their debut album, Anthem of the Peaceful Army, which polarized critics.

History

Greta Van Fleet formed in 2012 in Frankenmuth, Michigan.^[1] They began growing in popularity thanks to their song "Highway Tune", which was featured in a January 2016 episode of the show Shameless and streamed on iTunes a year later. The music video for the song was posted to YouTube on April 18th, 2017, gaining over 27 million views (shown below). Shortly after, Apple Music named them "Artist of the Week."

The band became a favorite of the music publication Loudwire, who premiered the "Highway Tune" music video and was named Best New Artist by the publication. In 2017, the group released two EPs, Black Smoke Rising, a four track EP, and From the Fires, containing the tracks from Black Smoke Rising and new material. Their track "Safari Song" became their second straight song to hit number one on Billboard's mainstream rock charts (Shown below, right) On July 26th, the band made their national television debut, playing "When the Curtain Falls" on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon (shown below, right). The band released their debut full-length album, Anthem of the Peaceful Army, on October 19th, 2018.

Reception

Greta Van Fleet saw positive press in major publications around the time of their debut album's release. The group was interviewed by NPR,^[2] who said of the group that they weren't "Just For Your Led Zeppelin-Loving Dad." They were also interviewed by Rolling Stone^[3] about being "rock and roll" in an era where rock and roll was less popular. Their debut album received mixed reviews from critics, receiving a score of 58 on Metacritic.^[4] The New York Times^[6] described the group as a novelty in the current era, saying their evocation of 70s classic rock was akin to them putting on a "period costume."

Pitchfork Review

Popular indie-music review site Pitchfork^[5] sparked controversy by giving the group a scathing 1.6/10 review. Critic and Pitchfork senior editor Jeremy D. Larson wrote of the band, "Greta Van Fleet sound like they did weed exactly once, called the cops, and tried to record a Led Zeppelin album before they arrested themselves" and described the band as being designed to be friendly towards classic rock algorithms in streaming services while having none of the authenticity of the bands they attempt to emulate.

The review was praised for its ruthlessness and humor. User @redfabbri tweeted the first paragraph of the review, saying "I am dead" (shown below, left). User @timmarchman tweeted another paragraph, calling the whole review the best thing he'd read that day (shown below, right).

Others defended the band against the review. Loudwire^[7] published a compilation of tweets bashing Pitchfork. Twitter user @jacobkiszka, a superfan of the group, tweeted that those being mean to the group were hypocritical, gaining over 15 retweets and 90 likes (shown below, left). Barstool Sports insinuated that someone in the band must have had sex with the writer's girlfriend (shown below, right).

Other music critics shared similar sentiments to Pitchfork's the band, tweeting jokes about them. Noisey's Dan Ozzi tweeted pictures of generic "70s rocker" halloween costumes, insinuating the models in the pictures were Greta Van Fleet, gaining over 260 retweets and 1,300 likes (shown below, left). Critic Zoe Camp tweeted a screenshot from the WikiHow page for "How to Start Listening to Rock Music," gaining over 23 retweets and 170 likes (shown below, right).

Online Presence

Greta Van Fleet has developed a strong presence online, with over 372,000 likes on Facebook^[8] and 84,000 Twitter followers.^[9] The Fine Brothers made a video about the group, gaining over 1.7 million views (shown below).

Search Interest

External References