photo courtesy of @oliver_anthony_music on Instagram
BY JOSEPH DEBELL, OPINION ASSIGNMENT EDITOR
Whether or not you believe Oliver Anthony is a right-wing industrial plant or apolitical, some of the lyrics in his contemporary folk song “Rich Men North of Richmond” amplify conservative talking points, even if he didn’t intend them to be interpreted that way.
The reason the song shot up to the number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100 goes beyond its political claims, because it was pushed up by conservative pundits Jack Posobiec and a rich man south of Richmond named Matt Walsh. In Jack Posobiec’s repost of the song on X, previously known as Twitter, he’s hoping the song blows up due to his action.
“Don’t even remember the last time a new song hit me like this,” Posobiec posted. “Be a shame if this anthem went absolutely viral.”
The country song has been astroturfed so much by Republicans that it eventually made its way to the Republican National Committee debate stage. It was played for the candidates before they even spoke. Despite all the praise conservatives have given the song, Anthony finds it “aggravating” and explains in a video titled “It’s a pleasure to meet you – part 2.”
“It’s aggravating seeing people on conservative news try to identify with me like I’m one of them. It’s aggravating seeing certain musicians and politicians act like we’re buddies and act like we’re fighting the same struggle here, like that we’re trying to present the same message.” Anthony said.
What Anthony needs to understand is that the only reason “conservative news” applauds the song is that its lyrics are misleading to his actual message. The lyrics reference and agree with conservative talking points such as this welfare and Fudge Round lyric.
“And the obese milkin’ welfare/ Well, God, if you’re five-foot-three and you’re three-hundred pounds/ Taxes ought not to pay for your bags of Fudge Rounds.”
Anthony explained what this lyric means in a post on Instagram of a Fudge Round and an explanation in the caption.
“Our government likes to throw money at problems, without conceptualizing real solutions that connect to the individuals involved. The lyrics contrast that some are left without any, and others are only left with the option of living on junk food.” Anthony posted.
If he has to use a conservative opinion about “the obese milkin’ welfare” to make a lyric about punching up, then it’s a confusing line. It will inevitably get lost in translation and defending the lyrics on social media is fruitless.
I will defend Anthony on one point: I don’t believe he is cynical. If he were, he wouldn’t need to upload a video re-triangulating his message so people can understand it. Instead, Anthony would have done what Tom McDonald did and created more economic populist songs to please the far right.
debelljb22@bonaventure.edu
