Wed, August 23, 2023
Photo: Billboard / Contributor (Getty Images)
On August 8th, the unmistakably unknown singer Oliver Anthony uploaded his original song “Rich Men North of Richmond” to YouTube, and as of Tuesday, the song sits atop the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The stripped-down Appalachian folk tune lamenting the plight of the working man, along with conflicting jabs at who’s responsible for said plight, was immediately extolled by rightwing figureheads like Matt Walsh, Jack Posobiec, Ian Miles Cheong, Kari Lake, and Joe Rogan—a real who’s who of people I’ve muted on Twitter and would certainly never pass the aux chord to.
“I wish politicians would look out for miners / And not just minors on an island somewhere / Lord, we got folks in the street, ain’t got nothin’ to eat/ And the obese milkin’ welfare,” Anthony sings. He manages to scorn the government for not supporting society’s vulnerable, while also scorning society’s vulnerable for not properly allocating government support, all within a verse about harboring Jeffrey Epstein conspiracy theories. Walsh praised the song for being “raw and authentic,” while Posobiec wondered when “the last time a new song hit me like this.” It’s a populist (ish) fever dream of a tune, despite Anthony describing his political standing as “dead center.” But now that the man who the Right crowned their ideological troubadour isn’t upholding the full weight of their contradictory credo, some fast fans are souring on him.
“We’ve gotta go back to the roots of what made this country great in the first place, which is our sense of community. I mean, we are the melting pot of the world and that’s what makes us strong, is our diversity, and we need to learn to harness that and appreciate it, and not use it as a political tool to keep everyone separate from each other you know?”
As quickly as conservatives and right-wing nutsos glommed onto the bearded singer with a high, lonesome, “authentic” warble, they freaked out over his embrace of diversity. Diversity is, of course, the first symptom of the incurable “wokeness” disease. “Promoted algorithm boosted ‘based’ red beard hillbilly song guy was faking his accent and says diversity is our strength,” one user tweeted, receiving over 8,500 likes. Another user wrote, “Did he sell out already to the rich men north of Richmond?”
Of course, Anthony’s wistfulness for a time long ago when kind neighborly kindness prevailed in *checks notes* Richmond, Virginia, aka the capital of the Confederacy, is laughably ahistorical. And his disdain for women on welfare, whether originating from personal biases or as a result of parroting racist conservative talking points, remains off-putting and vile. But there is a smidgen of schadenfreude to be had in seeing right-wing reactionaries devolve into a hissy fit when their adopted Appalachian folk hero doesn’t perfectly uphold their illogical ideologies.
In fact, it’s almost as if the “authentic” working-class American man whom Anthony purports to represent, and whom conservatives have their panties in a twist trying to win over, is actually complex and contradictory, and not just in a top-down political strategy sort of way. The incoherence that right-wingers have built their empire upon—a hatred for “the man” orchestrated by who else but “the man”—has come back to bite them.
Jezebel
Oliver Anthony’s ‘Rich Men North of Richmond’ Is the Number One Song in the Country
Ethan Millman
Mon, August 21, 2023
oliver-anthony-number-1 - Credit: Youtube
In what can only be described as one of the most unexpected shakeups in recent chart history, Oliver Anthony’s “Rich Men North of Richmond” has beaten out superstars including Taylor Swift, Morgan Wallen, Luke Combs, Olivia Rodrigo, and Gunna for the top spot on Billboard’s Hot 100 songs chart. The achievement also earns Anthony the distinction of being the only artist to ever make their first entry in the Hot 100 at Number One, the publication announced on Monday.
But nothing about his ascent to the top of the charts is conventional. Anthony was unknown before the song took off, and “Rich Men North of Richmond” blew up practically overnight after several prominent conservative influencers started sharing the song online just over a week ago. While streaming is the most common method of listening to music as traditional sales and digital downloads continue to wane, Anthony’s success can most directly be traced to the more than 147,000 units sold through digital purchases according to data provider Luminate. The song has stuck firmly atop the iTunes chart since last Friday.
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Still, while the populist anthem got a major boost from its particularly high sales, “Rich Men” is a streaming success too. Per Luminate, the song saw 17.4 million streams last week (nearly equal to Swift’s “Cruel Summer” and Rodrigo’s “Bad Idea Right?”), and it took the top spot on Apple Music and Spotify’s U.S. charts multiple times last week as well.
Coming in at two this week was “Fast Car” by Combs, while Wallen’s “Last Night” took three, Swift’s “Cruel Summer” came in at four, and “Calm Down” by Rema and Selena Gomez rounded out the top five.
Anthony’s sudden surge coupled with the political backing caused a stir online as skeptics questioned if its success was organic or the result of “astroturfing.” Anthony addressed his newfound audience at length last week on Facebook, confirming that his real name is Christopher Anthony Lunsford, and that Oliver Anthony was his grandfather’s name. He wrote that he’s turned down $8 million offers on his music and that he lives out of a $750 camper he bought on Craigslist, parked on a plot of land he bought in 2019 for which he still owes $60,000.
“I wrote the music I wrote because I was suffering with mental health and depression,” Anthony wrote. “These songs have connected with millions of people on such a deep level because they’re being sung by someone feeling the words in the very moment they were being sung. No editing, no agent, no bullshit. Just some idiot and his guitar. The style of music that we should have never gotten away from in the first place.”
Anthony, who performed a concert this weekend on a golf course in North Carolina, joins Jason Aldean in topping the charts after gaining support from American conservatives for their music. In Aldean’s case, sales on “Try That in a Small Town” skyrocketed last month after CMT pulled the song’s music video, which depicted protests as violent and lawless and was filmed at a courthouse in Tennessee where a 1927 lynching occurred.
The track marks yet another chart victory for country music, which is enjoying a booming year thanks mostly to a surge in streaming popularity. Aside from “Small Town” and “Rich Men,” whose political connections and sales helped drive them to the top of the charts, Wallen’s “Last Night” has spent 16 non-consecutive weeks atop the Hot 100 because of major streaming numbers. Combs’ cover of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” has spent much of the summer fighting for a Number One spot, amassing more than 340 million streams to date.
Wallen is looking to break the record for most weeks atop the Hot 100, a distinction that currently belongs to Lil Nas X’s 2019 smash “Old Town Road.”
“Rich Men North of Richmond” joins “Try That in a Small Town” and Jung Kook and Latto’s “Seven” in topping the charts from strong digital sales. While pushing traditional sales help move songs up the charts if the goal is a Number One distinction, it doesn’t always lead to sustained periods in the top slot. Both “Small Town” and “Seven” dropped out of the Top Five by the next week. (“Seven” dropped to nine the week after its Number One peak, while “Small Town” plummeted to 21).
In what now becomes one of the biggest questions for the upcoming songs charts, will Anthony see a similar dip — or could he ride the hot streak in the weeks ahead?
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