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In early August, a red-bearded musician named Oliver Anthony released a solo folk song titled Rich Men North of Richmond that became an overnight sensation. It was first uploaded on YouTube by RadioWV on August 9 and earned over 10 million views in less than a week and currently has over 1.2 million likes. Not only that, but it has also been charting at the top in Spotify, iTunes, Apple Music, and Billboard 200.
However, the song became viral on social media last week when conservatives started to share it in their circles and attempted to portray it as the ideal track featuring the struggles of working-class Americans.
Unfortunately, the folk song, the video of which was shot in a rural setting, recently came under fire when netizens realized that singer Oliver Anthony may have been an industry plant. In fact, some even alleged that he may be part of a practice called "astroturfing."
For those unaware, Oxford Dictionary defines astroturfing as the deceptive practice of presenting an orchestrated marketing or public relations campaign (in U.S. politics) in the disguise of unsolicited comments from the public.
Amid such controversy, the internet has been facing doubts about whether to continue backing Oliver Anthony’s success or slam him as the product of an astroturf. One X (formerly Twitter) user even commented under @Matt Moran Music’s claim that the trending singer is an industry plant.
“MOST FRAUDULENT industry plant ever”: Oliver Anthony’s name dragged in the wake of Rich Men North of Richmond’s success
As per Oliver Anthony’s brand-new wiki-bio, his real name is Christopher Anthony Lunsford, and he is a former sales worker in a construction factory hailing from North Carolina, who only joined the music industry in 2021. Prior to that, he had a history of being a cover artist. While he has released nearly a dozen songs since then, it is with the release of Rich Men North of Richmond earlier this month that he rose to fame.
In fact, his song was an instant hit across all music apps such as Spotify and iTunes. It even caught the attention of conservatives such as Matt Walsh, who called the song “raw and authentic” and Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, who took to X to not only share the music video but also lauded Oliver Anthony’s talents.
While the song initially appealed to the masses because of its labor-class themes, soon enough, social media users dug out that Oliver Anthony was a nobody before his latest song was released and was most likely an industry plant backed by the Republicans ahead of the 2024 election. In fact, an X user called @Lucky conducted their own investigation and found out that the song was in no way written by Oliver Anthony.
Not only that, but the netizen pointed out that it was the doing of a right-wing entrepreneur named Jason Howerton, who is the CEO of Reach Digital, a firm that allegedly helps "media companies and political influencers grow their social media footprint exponentially."
Further, @Lucky shared how Jason was one of the first people on X to promote Rich Men North of Richmond and even indicated that he funded the recording of the song. He also alleged that Howerton was one of the key players in the industry plant or astroturfing campaign.
As soon as the rest of Twitteratti figured out that @Lucky was stating facts, many, who previously commended Oliver Anthony’s songwriting talents, dragged down his name for trying to allegedly manipulate and deceive the public. Some have even raised the question that how an amateur like Anthony could garner such high media attention in less than a few weeks. Here are some of the reactions in this regard.
Oliver Anthony's thoughts on his recent success
While Oliver Anthony hasn’t responded to the astroturf backlash so far, on August 17, he took to Facebook and shared his experiences of his new-found fame. He said in the post that he was touched by how people could relate to his song and said:
“I’m sitting in such a weird place in my life right" now. I never wanted to be a full-time musician, much less sit at the top of the iTunes chart…I still don’t quite believe what has went on since we uploaded that. It’s just strange to me.”
He further added how he was already getting $8 million offers, with people wanting to buy him jets and send him on music tours. He stated how he wanted none of these, as his song was a product of his declining mental health and nothing more.
He continued by saying how he was just a camper and wanted to be like that without being in the “spotlight.” In addition, he mentioned how he was constantly upset over the fact that the internet has everyone divided, and he did not like the society he belonged to.
“There's nothing special about me. I'm not a good musician, I'm not a very good person.”
He also talked about the importance of freedom of speech and how people should allow nobody to take it away from them. Interestingly, since its release, Oliver Anthony has been performing the politicized song in public, such as at a farmer’s market in North Carolina.
