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Rich Men North of Richmond #1

T

TheBigA

An independently released song is #1 on the Billboard Hot Country chart. It is the #2 streaming song, and #1 in digital sales. The song I'm talking about is "Rich Men North of Richmond" by Oliver Anthony. Here's how Billboard reported it in today's newsletter to subscribers:

"Rich Men North of Richmond” The viral hit, released Aug. 11, blasts in atop Hot Country Songs — and the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 (dated Aug. 26). The first chart entry for the former factory worker corralled 17.5 million official U.S. streams and sold 147,000 downloads through Aug. 17, according to Luminate. It also drew 516,000 in country radio audience.
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I checked Mediabase for airplay on country radio, and found that the song was officially added by 8 monitored stations and charts at #71.

Those are the facts.
 
Here's more from Rolling Stone:

www.rollingstone.com

Oliver Anthony's 'Rich Men North of Richmond' Is the Number One Song in the Country

'Rich Men North of Richmond,' the populist anthem by Oliver Anthony, is the Number One song in the country, topping Billboard's Hot 100 chart.
www.rollingstone.com www.rollingstone.com

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.
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The song is getting played 44 times a week, the Top 10 song on Norfolk VA's country station WGH. The station is near Anthony's home town.

Here's another view from the LA Times:


Yet Anthony’s song is similarly naive in its political calculation: Where Aldean paints a hysterical portrait of urban chaos, Anthony muddies his critique of government malfeasance by complaining about obese people “milking welfare” to buy “bags of Fudge Rounds,” as though food stamps are the reason he’s been working “overtime hours for bulls— pay.” Even the National Review and Christianity Today dinged Anthony for his childish and mean-spirited thinking, with its tired echoes of Ronald Reagan's blame-the-poor rhetoric.
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TheBigA said:
An independently released song is #1 on the Billboard Hot Country chart. It is the #2 streaming song, and #1 in digital sales. The song I'm talking about is "Rich Men North of Richmond" by Oliver Anthony. Here's how Billboard reported it in today's newsletter to subscribers:

I checked Mediabase for airplay on country radio, and found that the song was officially added by 8 monitored stations and charts at #71.

Those are the facts.
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What's your point? It's another shitty rightwing country hate song being amplified by conservative manipulators and Billboard fell for it. It's #71 at radio which is pretty irrelevant as far as airplay goes.

I personally know a tech guy who singlehandedly amplified his unknown musician friend's song up to #1 online several years ago. He didn't even need a team of collaborators to do it, he just wrote some automation. Now magnify that 1,000,000x for the political operatives who do it for money every day, and this is what you get.

The average person does not know this song at all.
 
Theater of My Mind said:
What's your point?
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This is the country music discussion board, and it's definitely an issue now in country music. It's being covered by all of the country media, and was the top story in the Billboard country email sent Monday night.

The question is how does radio deal with something like this. It's obviously very divisive. The country radio audience is not 100% far right. Does radio want to play divisive music that alienates a chunk of the audience? I don't think so.

Theater of My Mind said:
The average person does not know this song at all.
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Radio is format based, and people who listen to current country music know the song. You may be right, and it may be a political thing. We'll find out quickly if he P1s want to hear it.
 
Red Plume said:
I only listened to this song once, but it didn't seem very right-wing to me. It seemed critical of wealthy politicians and oligarchs, which are all over the political spectrum. Did I miss something?
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No sir,,,you are spot on. The left wants to turn it into racism.
 
TheBigA said:
It plays on stereotypes of overweight welfare cheats that isn't true.
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I thought that was an allusion to politicians using public funds for private gain. But yeah, if the literal translation is indeed what was intended, then that line sucks. But I still don't feel that pushes it into 'right-wing country hate' territory.
 
Red Plume said:
I still don't feel that pushes it into 'right-wing country hate' territory.
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By the same token, it stands out among the typical country songs about love, trucks, and drinking.

There have been lots of similar songs that haven't received the attention of this one. John Rich has put out a few political songs, and they went nowhere.
 
TheBigA said:
It plays on stereotypes of overweight welfare cheats that isn't true.
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So it is your position that there is not a single 300lb single mom on Welfare, with fancy nails and a new iPhone? Welfare fraud is real sir,,,
 
Imagine this song being one never ending song with verses from people around the USA who are fed up,,,it truly hits home for many common folk in these United States of America.
33 million hits as of this afternoon, in 13 days.

The Rich Men North of Richmond are in DC.
 
Bill Betten said:
So it is your position that there is not a single 300lb single mom on Welfare, with fancy nails and a new iPhone? Welfare fraud is real sir,,,
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I'm saying it's a stereotype. The SNAP program (food stamps) is primarily a factor in red states such as West Virginia, Louisiana, and Alabama. From what I've seen, it's used by senior citizens to augment social security. The issue of welfare fraud was battled in the 1990s by Newt Gingrich, and he inserted lots of language in the laws to restrict who gets aid. Because of numerous changes in the laws, it's not as big a problem as some would like to make it. This is the right wing side of the discussion, that ANY aid to poor people is a handout and therefore wrong. The reality is that even red state conservatives know that they can't just shut down all federal aid to poor people, because it would hurt their constituents.
 
Bill Betten said:
Imagine this song being one never ending song with verses from people around the USA who are fed up,,,it truly hits home for many common folk in these United States of America.
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Sure people are fed up, but they don't know what to do or how to fix it. There are billions of dollars in tax breaks going to billionaires and large corporations, and instead of fixing that side of the equation, this song wants to take away $140 check from a single mom. Something wrong with that too.
 
TheBigA said:
I'm saying it's a stereotype. The SNAP program (food stamps) is primarily a factor in red states such as West Virginia, Louisiana, and Alabama. From what I've seen, it's used by senior citizens to augment social security. The issue of welfare fraud was battled in the 1990s by Newt Gingrich, and he inserted lots of language in the laws to restrict who gets aid. Because of numerous changes in the laws, it's not as big a problem as some would like to make it. This is the right wing side of the discussion, that ANY aid to poor people is a handout and therefore wrong. The reality is that even red state conservatives know that they can't just shut down all federal aid to poor people, because it would hurt their constituents.
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Absolutely true. That's why I found the whole topic of shutting down Medicare a suicide mission for certain Republican politicians.
Uh, you do know that this would negatively affect seniors, many of which vote GOP? Same goes for wanting to do away with mail-in voting.
It's just so bassackwards.
 
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