aving Country Music founder Kyle ‘Trigger’ Coroneos examines Oliver Anthony’s success
‘I've definitely never seen something on the scale of virality,’ Coroneos said
Viral sensation Oliver Anthony was given a boost by conservative social media influencers who helped push "Rich Men North of Richmond" atop the cultural zeitgeist, but a prominent country music journalist believes the song was going to explode under its own volition either way.
"I've definitely never seen something on the scale of virality that Oliver Anthony has experienced," Kyle "Trigger" Coroneos told Fox News Digital.
Coroneos, who founded Saving Country Music in 2008 to help promote independent musicians, has seen other "earnest acoustic songwriters" go viral after posting videos, sometimes even piling up millions of views, but the success of the "Rich Men North of Richmond" singer blows away other artists Coroneos has covered.
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Musician Oliver Anthony went viral this month for his original song, "Rich Men North of Richmond." (Screenshot/RadioWV YouTube channel)
"[They’re] nothing like what we've seen with Oliver," he said. "Where it shoots it right up to the straight, you know, straight to the top and No. 1 on the Billboard charts."
Coroneos is known to be harshly critical of country music acts that steer away from the genre’s roots to embrace a larger mainstream pop audience, and feels the raw look and sound of Anthony is driving his success.
"Oliver Anthony has only been a professional musician, so to speak, for two weeks at this point. So, expecting a lot of things from him or from the recording is probably a little bit unfair. He says himself that he doesn't consider himself a great musician. But I think that that's part of the appeal that people are finding in his music is it's real, it's raw, they can connect with it," Coroneos said.
"When you look at overall popular music right now, much of it is done via computers. You know, the performers use Auto-Tune. There's lots of production behind it. This is just one guy standing in front of a microphone in the middle of the woods, you know, singing his guts out," he continued. "There is this search for things that are real and things that are authentic that I think is going on throughout culture. And I think that that's one of the reasons that he resonated so deeply… the amateurish nature of the video and his music is actually endearing to people as opposed to a turnoff."
Coroneos has chronicled accusations that Anthony’s sudden success wasn’t truly organic, as online critics have suggested he’s some sort of "industry plant" or that his rise wasn’t exactly a product of grassroots support. He found that conservative social media influencers helped propel Anthony, but doesn’t believe anything fishy has occurred.
"I do believe that the song was going viral under its own volition to begin with, but no doubt these right-wing people coming in to help boost the song is a major part of what happened," he said.
"But at the same time, I don't think that you need a conspiracy theory to believe that that's how it went viral. You know, the fact that people that happen to be right-wing influencers like the song, that that's not a conspiracy theory. But we're definitely seeing people say that, ‘Oh, he's an industry plant,’ that he's a product of astroturfing… being where you create the specter of grassroots support behind something, but in reality, there's like a big corporation or a big individual or big money behind it," Coroneos explained. "Going on two weeks of this phenomenon, there is absolutely no evidence that anyone in the music industry is behind this or that there's any astroturfing that has all that is actually happened."
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Oliver Anthony performed in front of thousands of fans in Moyock, North Carolina, as part of a free concert on Saturday. (Fox News)
Coroneos has discovered signs that Anthony is authentically raw, such as his use of an independent digital music distribution service called DistroKid that he feels is "great" for independent artists but wouldn’t be used by anyone in the industry.
Coroneos also believes timing was perfect for Anthony to explode in popularity, as many conservatives recently embraced country music when Jason Aldean’s "Try That In A Small Town" sparked backlash earlier this summer.
"The seeds were sort of planted for the success of Oliver Anthony with the backlash that happened when they attempted to cancel Jason Aldean song," he said. "I think that this mobilized conservative voices to say, ‘Hey, wait a second here. We want to let our voices be known, too.’"
The song's video, posted on August 8, has already reached over 33 million views on YouTube and has made headlines in news outlets across the political spectrum. The video's description said the intent behind the song was to "give hope to the working class and your average hardworking young man who may have lost hope in the grind of trying to get by" and it indeed has become widely viewed as a blue-collar anthem across the United States.
The mainstream media has attempted to throw a wet blanket on Anthony’s success. Coroneos has covered The Guardian and the Washington Post both suggesting Anthony’s lyrics embrace conspiracy theories, which the Saving Country Music founder said are "irresponsible and dangerous" claims.
"Anthony line has to do with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and his Little St. James Island in the Virgin Islands where he brought young underage women who were sexually exploited by men of power from across the world of politics, business, and academia. This is not a conspiracy theory. Little St. James existed, and Jeffrey Epstein was a convicted sex offender," Coroneos wrote.
Other outlets have harped on the fact that conservatives embraced the cultural phenomenon.
The New York Times wrote that his "quick trip to No. 1 relied on tactics that help pop stars go viral," and that Anthony’s newfound fame was at least partially a product of clever conservatives.
"But the stunning success of Mr. Anthony… testifies not only to the potency of confrontational works that cater to an audience that believes it is underserved, but also to something else: the increasing savvy of promoters and fans — including conservative ones — who have mastered digital platforms and guerrilla marketing tactics to dominate the very culture industries that they say have marginalized them," Times reporters Joe Coscarelli and Marc Tracy wrote.
CNN’s far-left media reporter called Anthony’s success part of a trend in which artists are" tapping into an environment in which millions of Americans, primed to loathe mainstream pop culture and media, are willing to open their pocketbooks to champion their politics."
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Coroneos said the left has been trying to focus on country music as a vehicle to "turn the American electorate from red to blue" ever since former President Trump won the 2016 election. He said they figured that if country music would go the same route as Hollywood, and push liberal talking points and ideology, it would benefit the Democratic Party. But unfortunately for the political left, country music stars know better and many have shied away from politics since the Dixie Chicks got into hot water for criticizing then-President Bush in 2003.
"They don’t want the drama that comes with politics," Coroneos said of most country stars.
That could change, as the success of "Try That In A Small Town" and "Rich Men North of Richmond" have shown that conservative audiences will embrace music they can relate to.
"What I believe is that country music is more right leaning now than it's ever been. And my guess is, since it's such a copycat industry and there's been so much success with these right-leaning songs, we're going to see much more of this in the coming future," Coroneos said.
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Fox News' David Rutz and Alexander Hall contributed to this report.
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