Another week, another furore about politics and divisions in America in Country music. Is there any other genre that’s split by these type of culture war protestations, we’d love to know? This week the chatter has been all about Oliver Anthony’s viral smash, ‘Rich Men North of Richmond’, which is a working class swipe at the state of the nation and the fat cats that are harming it from a blue-collar, factory worker from Carolina that has been adopted by the right wing as a sort of ‘poster child’ for everything that is wrong in America right now.
Armed with just a guitar and his powerful voice, Oliver sings, ‘rich men north of Richmond” – federal politicians – who want to have total control.’ At this point the song could be a swipe at all politicians as the ‘Rich Men North of Richmond’ could be politicians from both sides of the divide, both red and blue. However, the song takes a kind of darker turn when Oliver references ‘the obese milking welfare’, stating that ‘if you’re 5-foot-3 and you’re 300 pounds / Taxes ought not to pay for your bags of fudge rounds.’ That’s problematic. Bashing people on welfare is a very right-wing touchstone and one that the bigger voices in the genre, like John Rich of Big ‘n’ Rich, soon jumped on to support. As soon as a voice like Rich’s supports an artist that artist is automatically thrown into the whole pro-gun, Qanon, anti-vax brigade of which Rich is a very vocal supporter of.
Furthermore, a reference to politicians ‘looking out for minors on an island somewhere’ seems to be a reference to Jeffrey Epstein’s ties to elite figures which has also prompted speculation that Anthony could be nodding to Qanon, the bonkers far-right conspiracy theory that suggests Democrats and Hollywood stars are drinking the blood of children. This was something that dogged Hillary Clinton’s election campaign in 2016 and, whilst the whole Qanon thing has quietened since Donald Trump’s election defeat to Biden, it will surely ramp up again next year as Trump continues his ominous journey towards becoming president again.
Prominent conservative figures, including podcaster Dan Bongino, have lauded the song, joining the voices of those hailing Anthony as an independent phenomenon. “What is a Woman?” documentarian Matt Walsh of the Daily Wire described “Rich Men North of Richmond” as “the protest song of our generation.” Which is nothing short of incendiary crap that would have the likes of the real protest song singers like Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger turning in their graves!
Oliver Anthony is a singer-songwriter who lives in Farmville, Virginia, where he works as a farmer. He started writing his own music in 2021, he stated in an introductory video posted on his YouTube channel last week, as an outlet for difficult times he experienced, including spending “a lot of nights getting high and getting drunk.” He credited his experience working 12-hour shifts in a North Carolina factory and his belief people are overtaxed and cannot get ahead financially despite working hard as inspiration for ‘Rich Men North of Richmond.’ The song, following hot on the heels of the success of Jason Aldean’s ‘Try That in a Small Town’ is an example of how a banal, run-of-the-mill song can be propelled to the top of the charts and garner millions of views online when the right-wing mobilise and politicise a song. In a week when Will Hoge and members of the Black Opry released a much better song in ‘Can I Be Country Too?’ but seemingly failed to get a lot of traction with it online, it shows that Country music’s right wing activists can use their platforms in a much more effective way that those of a left-leaning persuasion.
The bigger issue is here though is do people care? Country music’s social media presence is a bizarre one that I don’t see happening in other genres. It’s combative and very politically charged in some areas of Twitter (yes, we are still calling it that!) between certain artists, journalists and ‘thought leaders’ but does the average Country music fan care? The average Joe who rocks up at the next Luke Combs concert – do they give a fig about these things? Well, given the right-leaning nature of many rural areas of the south and the fact that these seemingly right wing message songs seem to do better in the charts and on Youtube, the answer would seem to be yes, they do. In the run up to the 2024 elections Country music might well start to become even more weaponised as the kind of messages that can be put out through the genre could be an effective way of Trump et al getting some sort of message out to whole swathes of potential voters. Liberal, Democratic artists and fans are behind in the curve here and much more likely to stay quiet in their views for fear of alienating a fan base. Does this happen in any other form of music?
