Oliver Anthony and the ‘mainstreaming’ of conspiracy theories

If you had asked someone at the beginning of the month whether they had heard of — let alone listened to — Oliver Anthony, you probably would have gotten a blank stare in return. Now, the singer from Farmville, Va., with a fiery beard and big voice is everywhere because of his viral song, “Rich Men North of Richmond.”

Since its debut on Aug. 8, Anthony’s performance of “Rich Men North of Richmond,” shared on the YouTube channel Radiowv, has been viewed more than 17 million times and became the No. 1 song on the U.S. iTunes chart. According to Billboard, the song is now on pace to enter the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 next week.

This feat is virtually unheard of for a newcomer like Anthony, an unsigned talent without any substantive following or known industry connections. But Anthony’s ascent isn’t just remarkable for its scale. The song, which alludes to politicians and other nefarious powers-that-be, has been boosted predominantly by far-right influencers and outlets, who have hailed “Rich Men” as a new working-class anthem.

But with lyrics such as “I wish politicians would look out for miners, and not just minors on an island somewhere” — an apparent reference to the late financier Jeffrey Epstein, who was charged with sex trafficking — “Rich Men” also nods to conspiracy theories and grievances that are deeply rooted in far-right circles. (QAnon believers often cite Epstein as proof that a global cabal of elites has been trafficking children.)

Some believe the success of the song, particularly on the heels of “The Sound of Freedom,” a box-office smash that echoed QAnon propaganda, signals a mainstreaming of ideas that were once fringe.

In the weeks before Anthony’s viral success, Jason Aldean’s “Try That in a Small Town” rocketed to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 after conservatives rallied behind the controversial single. Critics accused Aldean of advocating for vigilante violence and said the music video contained coded threats against Black people.

But Anthony’s rise arguably is even more notable. Aldean was already an established country music star with a large and loyal fan base. Anthony seemed to come out of nowhere.

“Rich Men” is credited to a songwriter named Christopher Anthony Lunsford, believed to be Anthony’s legal name. His social media presence is relatively spare: Anthony recently joined Twitter, and his posts on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube focus on his music, his land and his dogs.

According to Anthony, he used to work in a factory in western North Carolina but now lives “off the grid” in the Piedmont region of Virginia, on 90 acres of woodland he hopes to convert to a farm on which he can raise livestock. In a recent YouTube video, shared the day before his viral performance was released, Anthony said he began writing songs in 2021, and considers himself “pretty dead center” when it comes to politics. “It seems both sides serve the same master, and that master is not someone of any good to the people of this country,” Anthony said.

The most revealing window into Anthony’s worldview may be a YouTube playlist he curated, “Videos that make your noggin get bigger.” The list includes performances from Luciana Pavarotti and Hank Williams Sr., but it also features several talking heads popular among the far-right — Jordan Peterson, Ben Shapiro, Joe Rogan — as well as multiple clips putting forward the conspiracy theory that Jews were responsible for 9/11.

Mike Rothschild, a journalist and author who covers conspiracy theories, doesn’t think these connections are incidental:

“If you are plugged in enough to the conspiracy world to drop a reference to Epstein island into a song you’ve written, that’s not the only thing you’re consuming.” (Anthony did not respond to multiple requests for an interview.)

Even if most people don’t pick up on the reference — or skip right over it — it’s significant to fans who harbor similar beliefs, Rothschild said.

“The people who do know … it’s the only thing they care about,” he said.

The song has won plenty of conservative fans north, south, east and west of Richmond.

Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) were quick to applaud “Rich Men North of Richmond.”

“You’ve created an anthem for our times. Congratulations, Oliver!” Boebert tweeted Sunday, while Greene called the song “the anthem of the forgotten Americans who truly support this nation.”

Megyn Kelly discussed the song on her show with former House speaker Newt Gingrich, saying the song reminded the country of “the importance of economic issues.”

An early champion of the song was Jason Howerton, a right-wing journalist who co-founded Reach Digital, a conservative consulting firm based in Texas.

Howerton, a self-described multimillionaire, seemed to suggest last week that he had helped Oliver produce the song, tweeting: “When I offered to cover the cost for Oliver to produce a record, I had NO idea what would transpire, nor did I know just how powerful his story was or the situation that God was inserting me into.”

When asked about his connection to Anthony this week, Howerton responded that he is “not working with Oliver in any official capacity” and is “not really the guy to talk about country music.”

Anthony’s meteoric rise has provoked its fair share of skepticism — and other theories. Some have accused him of being an industry plant, an artist who presents as independent but is secretly backed by rich and powerful insiders. Others have speculated that “Rich Men” was the product of “astroturfing,” a coordinated marketing or PR campaign pretending to be a grass-roots movement.

Rothschild doubts that’s the case. For one, it’s hard to purposefully make something go so viral, so quickly. And if the country music industry did have this power, they would probably go for someone “more marketable” than Anthony, he said.

“I don’t think there needs to be some kind of scheme or a scam to make this guy popular,” he said. “I think this just the right thing, at the right time, for the right group of people.”

The arc of the song’s rise supports that line of thinking. Right-wing influencers quickly picked up the video across different social media platforms, including Telegram and Twitter. As “Rich Men” gained traction online, more people tried to capitalize on the song’s popularity: YouTubers posted reaction videos; detractors dunked on it; country music blogs and entertainment sites wrote about it — all expanding the song’s reach.

But the song has an undeniable appeal to audiences beyond its right-wing talking points, country music experts.

Protest anthems — anti-establishment missives on behalf of a forgotten, rural working class — have a long history in folk music and country music, noted Ted Olson, a professor at East Tennessee University who studies country music and Appalachia.

“Rich Men” is also just general enough in its message that many listeners are able to project their lives and experiences onto it, he said. Many fans may skip over the song’s contradictions — with its lyrics that advocate for the working man while mocking “the obese milking welfare.”

“Unpacking a song involves a lot of these layers of analysis, which maybe a lot of listeners are not wanting to do,” Olson said.

Don Cusic, a professor of music industry history at Belmont University in Nashville, credited the song’s popularity to Anthony’s style of singing: straining and sincere, full of emotion and conviction. This pared-down appeal is a far cry from Aldean’s slick Nashville production.

Anthony’s “got a voice that just cuts through,” Cusic said.

For Rothschild, the popularity of “Rich Men,” like “The Sound of Freedom” before it, signals a major turning point for “conspiracy culture.” Not only is there more acceptance of these ideas in mainstream discourse, but the far-right is gaining ground in the world of pop culture, a world that has long been dominated by leftist personalities and values.

Even if conspiracy theories have long flourished in conservative news outlets and podcasts, this crossover moment is significant, Rothschild argues.

It demonstrates the power and influence of right-wing networks, he said: “When this community puts its muscle behind — particularly marketing — something, it could be a big hit.”

It could also further expand the scope of the far-right’s reach, into places where people may not be expecting to hear those ideas. Rothschild said he believes more people are likely to hear “Rich Men” or watch “Sound of Freedom” than listen to the vast majority of conservative podcasts.

In the meantime, Anthony is making plans to go on tour and release an album. This week, an upcoming Anthony show at a Farmville restaurant sold out in just three minutes. The 300-person venue originally had an open mic planned for that night, which Anthony signed up for.

A manager for the restaurant, Jessica Dowdy, told the Roanoke Times that fans as far away as Ohio and New Hampshire were coming to hear Anthony perform.

“One guy said he’s driving 10 hours.”