Oliver Anthony’s shock viral hit “Rich Men North Of Richmond” is more a therapeutic howl of rage than a finished country song, but its jumble of complaints and fears roared through conservative America like a fire in a dying climate. Because of the way right wing media works, piling on and amplifying cultural memes and moments to advance their narrative of victimhood, there are reasons to worry about the fate of Anthony’s apparently earnest desire to be a truth-teller in a troubled time. Coming hot on the heels of the Jason Aldean “Try That In A Small Town,” Oliver’s hit is a Rorschach test of a song, with parts that read like a left-wing labor anthem and parts that read like a Q Anon drop. We all get to define what it means and who Anthony is, because he hasn’t had time to tell us, having been thrust overnight into a part in a drama. The whole affair deserves unpacking because it says a lot about where we are.
I have no formed feelings about Anthony yet because we have so little to go on. The song and performance sound sincere, and it’s no small thing to see a new voice with a guitar rise up with something strong to say and attract an audience. In folk music, that’s winning whatever else is going on. Anthony did make a (very underexposed) first-person statement video about the same time as the Rich Men video in which he says he’s a former factory worker, that he lived self-destructively during the pandemic, and that he’s put that behind him and is focusing on music as his mission. He says he’s in the political center, however he defines that to be. He also goes on an emotional tangent about his deep concern about child trafficking, as does the song.
The song itself is a list of barely connected complaints delivered in plodding couplets. The best line I think is “Living in the new world, with an old soul” but then he darts away from that setup by literally singing the title line, as if the “rich men north of Richmond” are the ones living in the new world with an old soul. So structurally and lyrically it’s a work in progress, to be kind about it. But Craig, people love it! That’s what matters! But I say no, the masses have flocked to terrible songs for decades, and what matters is WHY this song went megaviral. A large network of self-appointed right wing pundits latched on to it. They found it easy to do so, because as committed as Anthony SOUNDS, he’s pulling his punches and he’s being - by happenstance or design - evasive and vague. He’s not actually telling the truth.
The heart of the song is that working class folks like him and his community have been exploited by “rich men” who are “politicians” who want “total control.” And this is just a trope, a cliche. My reaction is WHO? ALL of them? Every last elected official in Washington? EVERY institution? At least give me a clue who, when, and how, or we’re just basting in nihilism, and the song is contributing to corrosion of trust, not hitting a target. Giant claims (the entire system is irredeemable!) require evidence beyond telling me the economy sucks for you and your community. In his personal video, the part where he says he’s “dead center down the aisle,” he then says, “It seems like both sides serve the same master. And that master is not someone of any good to the people of this country.” Ugh. Could have seen that coming from a mile away. This is a person who hasn’t done any reading or critical thinking OR it’s a person who’s savvy and cynical enough to understand the power of evasiveness and blaming a fill-in-the-blank villain.
This is the rhetorical dodge at the core of populist discourse, the bullshit at the core of our failed public conversation and failing democracy. Populism doesn’t work when it zeroes in on specifics because that leads to constructive debate, and for the right, that’s not the aim. It reminds me of a quote from Jason Aldean in the midst of that last country viral conservative meme moment a couple weeks ago. He said on stage one night reflecting on the fact that he’s being criticized (heaven forbid) by liberals for “Try That In A Small Town.” He said, “I love our country. I want to see it restored to what it once was before all this bullshit started happening to us.” Again with the code talking! What do you mean Jason, and why won’t you tell us? Because you want your audience to fill in the blank with their darkest instincts to get an emotional rise and more of their mindshare.
To be sure, some of the economic complaints in Anthony’s song are spot-on and worthy of anger in song or speech. Real wages have stagnated since about 1980. Health care and education costs have skyrocketed. The working class have taken it on the chin for generations. This is well known and much studied (here’s a solid, amusing critique of the economics in the song by an actual economist). But don’t bring your both-sides to this conversation. For decades, Democrats have been working the problem and attempting solution after solution while Republicans have rejected regulation as a concept and sabotaged the public policy process with reflexive protection of capital and rage against government. It was Democrats who backed the unions that kept the ruthless “rich men” at bay in the mine wars and Democrats who’ve tackled rural poverty and Democrats who back mental health care, veterans benefits, rural hospitals, and court rooms for rich men who commit fraud and ransack the system.
Then the weird stuff. The song veers off into the shaming of food stamp recipients and an allusion to Jeffrey Epstein’s child sex island, both of which are nasty MAGA or Q Anon dog whistles. These aspects of the song may be the more compelling parts for the reactionary vloggers urging Anthony to go to Nashville to work with reactionary country industry has-been John Rich, as if that’s going to help his career or the nation.
To be clear, I don’t detect anything hateful or racist about Oliver Anthony’s song itself beyond the weird fat shaming, and Anthony hasn’t done or said anything that I’ve seen that’s ugly or aligned with MAGA or right wing politics. What bothers me is how MAGA hoovers up opportunities like this, appropriating Anthony’s song to OWN THE LIBS. YouTube is crawling with dozens of bug-eyed “react” videos declaring that Anthony SLAMMED and DESTROYED and TRIGGERED their woke enemies. It’s the burning heart of our shittiest, darkest, death-knell discourse.
What’s it like to be Oliver Anthony, who sang his truth, only to be anointed by MAGA as THE VOICE OF REAL AMERICA? If he’s truly a centrist, he’ll be mortified, conflicted, and sad. If he runs into the greasy arms of John Rich, I’ll be mortified, conflicted and sad. Anthony is a developing artist and songwriter who deserves good mentorship and collaboration. It’s never good when a singer is thrust to the top of a mountain without doing the work to get there, and it’ll be interesting to see if Anthony has the self-assuredness and humility to evade the clutches of a dark movement that wants to use him - and say something more clear and persuasive on his own terms.
Per Twitter:
Rich men North of Richmond singer says “it’s aggravating seeing people on conservative news try to identify with me like I’m one of them.”
He says it’s funny they used it in the GOP debate because “I wrote that song about them.”