I said it two weeks ago on the morning show and I’ll say it again now: I’ve never seen anything go viral the way Oliver Anthony went viral a few weekends ago. Literally NO ONE knew who he was, then all of a sudden his song, “Rich Men North of Richmond,” hit Twitter/X and did bananaland numbers in less than 24 hours. We’re talking hundreds of millions of views in a day. Super viral. Mega viral. The Pfizer is developing a vaccine viral. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, here’s the song:
Obviously the lyrics and song resonated with a LOT of people, but I also think people related to how raw the production is. As Oliver Anthony (not his real name) himself has said, he doesn’t consider himself a technically sound musician. But there’s something about his delivery and the passion on his face that hit home with so many people.
Anyway, whether you like the song or you don’t, the overall story boggles my mind. When I say he was totally unknown, I mean TOTALLY unknown. He had other songs on his Youtube page that he posted months ago that had maybe a few hundred views. Then that song hits, and some massive Twitter accounts share it, and it spreads and spreads and spreads. To the point that he ends up on the biggest podcast in the world 14 days later.
Again, whatever your opinion of him is, he seems to be a pretty genuine person who is taking the whole thing in stride. I can’t imagine living in obscurity (well that I actually can imagine) and then in the span of 3 days hundreds of millions of people are aware of who you are and have an opinion on you, both good and bad. That would send me reeling, but he seems pretty calm about the whole thing. I’ve worked in radio and social media for almost 20 years and this is something I’ve never seen before. Wild.
PS: That song took off so quickly that the tinfoil hats were out in FORCE last week claiming that he’s an industry plant, the Illuminati manufactured him, the whole nine yards. I’ve read a few articles on his background and based on the evidence gathered he is, A) A real person, and B) Not a plant. I can understand people thinking that record labels or political PACs are behind him because how does a nobody have this happen, but it appears that he truly was just an everyday person two weeks ago.
