Viral sensation Oliver Anthony has legitimate staying power if he continues down his current, authentic path, as long as he wants it, according to a longtime music marketing guru.
“I think he has a really, really bright future, but it depends on whether or not that’s what he wants for himself,” Dr. Marcus Collins told Fox News Digital.
Collins, a marketing professor at University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, got his start in the music industry with stints at Apple and running digital strategy for Beyoncé during her wildly successful “I Am… Sasha Fierce” era. Collins penned the recently released “For the Culture: The Power Behind What We Buy, What We Do, and Who We Want to Be,” which details the power of cultural engagement.
“Oliver Anthony has captured the outlook that people have, by and large, far and wide. The song really speaks to the economic disparities that are in the country and people from different walks of life to people who transcend demographic make they see themselves in the song, in the music. And that’s what music is supposed to do. It is cultural production. It’s a way by which a community expresses how they see the world and reflect who they are,” Collins said.
OLIVER ANTHONY SAYS ‘RICH MEN’ HAS ‘TOUCHED PEOPLE GLOBALLY’: ‘DON’T HAVE TO BE BLUE-COLLAR’
“And what the song really captures is the pain, the angst that people feel. And when they hear the music, it resonates with them in such a way that they feel seen, they feel heard, and as a result, they not only listen to the music, but they go share it with people who are just like them, and they share with people who are just like them,” he continued. “And it begins to propagate and becomes what was once a small, independent singer-songwriter to what has now become this national sensation, not necessarily because of what it is, but because of who these people are and how the music reflects how they see the world.”
Anthony’s blue-collar anthem, “Rich Men North of Richmond,” gained internet fame earlier this month after YouTube channel Radio WV shared Anthony’s passionate performance on their channel. The politically-charged song, explaining the frustrations felt by blue-collar workers over corrupt politicians in Washington, racked up millions of views on YouTube and X, the platform previously known as Twitter.
Collins believes Anthony “is speaking a point of view of the people because he is from the people,” as a former factory worker who has struggled like so many other Americans. The red-bearded, high school dropout described himself on Facebook as “just some idiot and his guitar” who couldn’t have imagined he’d become so well-known.
“He knows the pains that these people are feeling with great, great intimacy. And we’ve seen this in like all music that is reflective of people’s point of view in such a way,” Collins said, adding that many hip-hop artists resonate because they share “common marginality” with listeners.
“I think that [Anthony], as individual, is representative of these people, not just White people, not just from rural areas, because there are people in urban areas who look more like me, who are Black, who can see themselves in the anguish, see themselves and the frustration he’s expressing in the song,” Collins said. “So, as a result, as we think about what his impact might be on the industry, so long as this man stays authentic to who he is, I think that there’s just so much more upside for what can happen, so long as he continues to be himself.”
Anthony – whose real name is real name is Christopher Anthony Lunsford and uses his grandfather’s name as a tribute — hasn’t done much press since bursting onto the scene. Collins said the way Anthony “uses his beautiful voice to capture the ethos” of what Americans are feeling could lead to a prosperous career, if he decides to take that path.
“He made a social media post where he expressed that he’s not really in it for music to be a long-time job for him. Instead, he said that he did this as a form of therapy. It’s cathartic for him to deal with some of the mental issues he was struggling with, some depression he was struggling with,” Collins said, noting that mystique surrounding Anthony has created intrigue.
“I would advise him to do what feels the most authentic and the most natural. And it appears to me that staying out of the public limelight, and letting the music speak for itself is really at the apex of who he is,” Collins continued. “If he stays true to who he is, it will help him last longer in the media zeitgeist, in the short windows of attention that we give things when it comes to media windows. But more importantly, if he sticks to who he is, his music will resonate closer with people because people will see themselves in him.”
Last week Anthony said he’d never had any interest in being famous, turned down seven-figure offers from stunned music industry reps and lamented the divided state of the internet in a Facebook post.
“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 charts,” he wrote. “I wrote the music I wrote because I was suffering with mental health and depression. These songs have connected with millions of people on such a deep level because they’re being sung by someone feeling the words in the very moment they were being sung. No editing, no agent, no bulls–t. Just some idiot and his guitar. The style of music that we should have never gotten away from in the first place.”
On Saturday, Anthony performed in front of thousands of fans in Moyock, North Carolina, as part of a free concert. Following the show, the “Rich Men North of Virginia” singer-songwriter said that while he feels appreciation from people with whom the song resonated, he would rather people appreciate each other and their individual struggles. He said that, hopefully, people can find the energy he put into the song and manifest it in their personal lives.
“You know, talking to their neighbors again and their coworkers and just trying to find similarities with each other instead of division—that’s really all I want,” Anthony told Fox News in a rare public comment. “Really, what I believe is God put this message out for people just to give them some hope.”
The music video for “Rich Men” has amassed 29 million views on YouTube and sits at number one on the iTunes music charts. The song unseated “Small Town” by Jason Aldean, another country anthem that spoke to the cultural turmoil in America.
Fox News’ Nikolas Lanum, Kristine Parks and Davis Rutz contributed to this report.
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