No one actually knows why songs become popular, especially now that record companies leave most of their promotional efforts to the mysteries of social media algorithms. When you start hearing a song over and over again, you think it became popular on TikTok as part of some kind of trend that you don't really want to decipher. “Rich Men North of Richmond,” an overnight viral hit by an unknown country singer named Oliver Anthony, is a rare popular song that actually comes with a ready-made explanation. The track, which begins with the lyrics “I sell my soul and work all day / Overtime for shitty pay,” has been played millions of times across social platforms and as of Tuesday morning on the iTunes platform. Most streamed song in America. The short timeline surrounding Anthony's virality and the seemingly synchronized methods of right-wing commentators like Matt Walsh and Jack Posobiec tweeted Eagerly And “The Rich North of Richmond” almost apocalypically turned the singer into something of a savior or conspiracy theorist. Depending on your politics, he's either a heaven-sent voice to express white working-class anger, or a fully fledged voice who's arrived to express outrage in a thick, folksy varnish of Americana. Either it's a constructed viral creation.
Let's clear up two obvious points. The song's chorus goes, “Living in a new world / With an old soul / Rich people north of Richmond / Lord knows they all just want total control.” , which should naturally perk up anyone's ears. I wonder who this “rich man” is. In addition, during the song, she was criticized online for making abusive comments about “obese people'' who are “5 feet 3 inches tall'' and “300 pounds'' and “milk pumpers.'' Anthony sings that they shouldn't use their tax money to buy “a bag of fudge rounds.” This, along with the line “Your money is worthless and endlessly taxed,” is a really obvious political comment. in the lyrics. Unless there is some secret plan to disenfranchise short people or people of unhealthy weight, I don't imagine these specific complaints will galvanize conservatives. Even more important is the part where Anthony declares: “It’s such a shame that the world has turned out like this / For people like me and for people like you.”
“Rich Men North of Richmond” comes just days after Jason Aldean's song “Try That in a Small Town” reached number one in the US. signboard Hot 100. The popularity of “Small Town'' was driven in no small part by the outrage over the lyrics, which included lines such as “It's terrible to hit someone on the sidewalk'' and “Carjack an old woman at a red light.'' In a small town “full of good old-fashioned young people,” such things wouldn't get away with something like that, or “pointing a gun at a liquor store owner.” Aldean's music, which has been viewed nearly 29 million times on YouTube, combines a variety of footage, including footage from a convenience store surveillance camera that captured the moment of the robbery, and video clips of young protesters fending off police. The lyrics are emphasized. There was also footage of what appeared to be people from a small town jumping into police cars and possibly armed with rifles. The message is clear. Don't bring social justice and crime into our turf or you will be punished.
What appears to be happening is that a handful of conservative media people who do ribbing for a living are willing to bet that good money can be made on offensive or oblique political music. It means that you are aware of your sexuality. Thus, “Let's Try It in a Small Town” and “Rich Men North of Richmond” can be seen as attempts by the conservative media machine to create its own version of gangster rap through easily manipulated viral channels. Masu. Instead of the violence and misogyny of 1960s conservatism that worried boomers, we now have a reactionary nostalgia for the days of sunset streets and the lack of access to welfare for those who are clearly overweight. I miss the days when it wasn't there. (The same goes for violence.)
No one knows if this ruse will work or if Anthony is involved in the trick. He says his political views are “pretty central,” and he certainly seems to criticize both Republicans and Democrats, but until his big breakout last week, his songs were largely apolitical. It was a small town anthem that sounded like it was written by me. Dip a fountain pen into Merle Haggard's ashes. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it's certainly not new. Sad, frustrated men can be found singing Hank Williams songs in bars across America. So why Oliver Anthony? “The main reason this song resonates with so many people is not political,” says conservative blogger and filmmaker Matt Walsh. tweeted. “That's because this song is raw and real. We get suffocated by the artificial. Everything around us is fake. A man pouring his feelings into his guitar in the woods… It’s real.”
Anthony may very well be an industry plant fed into our social media feeds to promote a xenophobic vision of this country, but a bunch of right-wing Twitter accounts can't make any song count on the charts. If anyone could push him to the top of the pack, Jack Posobiec would be it. The most powerful record company executive in the country. There's something else going on here that can't be explained by the silly game of matching national desires with song lyrics and declaring that the people (in this case the white working class) have discovered it. their national anthem. Anthony may not be a “real” sensation, but that doesn't mean he's not talented. More than anything, he reminds me of the type of country singer on “American Idol” who sings old songs and gets rave reviews, but ultimately struggles when it comes to making modern albums. For viewers, it's not only the joy of seeing someone succeed, but also the reassurance that there are talented people all over this country who sing anonymously and don't bend themselves to suit any musical trend. .
Just like “Idol” contestants like Beau Bice and Scotty McCreary, Anthony can really sing. His voice isn't as smooth and virtuosic as country star Chris Stapleton's, but it has a similar deep tone, and his screeching voice never sounds like the love of an amateur trying too hard. It doesn't feel like it, instead it's doing what it's supposed to do. What you need to do: Communicate your feelings. The words in that voice are far more important than the nostalgia the music evokes or, in Anthony's case, the image of a true singer-songwriter.
“Authentic” is a word often used in the world of music, especially country and blues. It's one thing to know just by listening to him, but for all that honesty there's a lot of image-making involved. We commonly see it as a lonely man standing with a guitar (preferably a strange guitar) in a field, surrounded by the comforts of country life. This vision is not just limited to the country. Les Blank's short documentary “Lightnin' Hopkins' Blues” depicts its title subject in a junkyard, a front porch, and a simple living room. When a blank camera is at its best, all this scenery is blurred into a pleasing saturated bokeh. The same motif is featured in the video of Anthony performing “Rich Man North of Richmond.” We see Anthony standing in front of a microphone with a resonator guitar. In the grass at his feet lie three dogs of obscure breeds, and in the background, soft and out of focus, the greenery of the rural South.
What I would like to say here is that I am not immune to these attractions either. When I first heard Townes Van Zandt, it felt like some truth about how life can break and drag was revealed in a yet fascinating way. Lyrics like “Yes, I was awake and running with the moon/I was living like a pitchfork and a young man” seem to point to some truth that lies deeper than most. I saw. In the documentary “Heartworn Highway,” Van Zandt is seen in a kitchen with a beautiful woman and an old black man wearing a cowboy hat who sheds tears as Van Zandt plays “Waitin' Around to Die.” It is captured. The signs of authenticity—the boarded-up kitchen, the woman who alternates between washing dishes and smoking cigarettes, and the grizzled black man who is himself a spokesperson for authenticity—are problematic as any new student in an important class would pick them apart. may be declared. -Study class. But they also work.
It's true that “Rich Men North of Richmond'' has a more refined revivalist spirit, but Anthony is neither the worst nor the most reactionary artist to sing about the plight of the common man. A few, and in Anthony's case, the experts who are trying to turn country music into gangster rap by sticking to sometimes silly lyrics, have no idea how many country songs are about old feelings. While we are significantly underestimating, we are overestimating how long viral trends will last. Can be sustained. Within a year or two, Oliver Anthony was performing in front of decent audiences and trying his best to distance himself from the “rich people from north of Richmond” and playing the type of folky, “real” country music he preferred. You might be able to play songs. Actually enjoy it. I imagine this might be what he actually wants after all. ♦
