While the music scene surges with nepo babies, one musician breaks the mold. Meet Graham Miller, a 26-year-old artist who defied the insurmountable odds by achieving nothing despite abundant connections and wealth.
Graham comes from a distinguished film family led by his Academy Award-winning father, George Miller. At first, the musician took the common approach of the rich and well-connected: choosing to simulate poverty.
“People love an underdog, so I kept my background under wraps.” Still, the musician revealed the substantial investments made on his behalf behind the scenes—singing lessons, top-tier equipment, professional management, and extensive marketing—all of which seem to have been in vain.
Former classmates, however, tell a different story. One recalled “Oh we all knew. He’d start namedropping within the first 5 minutes of meeting him.” Another stated: “Playing coffee shops is cool, but then you find out who his dad is and it’s like wow, he should be doing way better than he is.”
He eventually tried to lean into it, desperately leveraging his father’s status. “I thought, you know, maybe the fact that my dad directed “Babe 2: Pig In The City” might come in clutch. I mean, who didn’t like “Babe?”
The musician stated that while it was disheartening to exhaust every industry connection at his disposal and still come up short, it proves that privilege and class matter far less than people think.
Still, this doesn’t explain the fact that many of his peers have been able to use their connections to their advantage– In a music industry where nepotism is often scrutinized, these so-called nepo babies tend to defend themselves by claiming the business is a meritocracy. “I resent that because, like, what about me? No, it’s gotta be something else.”
In Graham’s perspective, If individuals from different financial backgrounds can find success in the music industry “There seems to be an intangible, inherent quality crucial for creating great art that transcends class. And if I can’t use my dad’s money to buy whatever that is am I really all that privileged?”