Oliver Anthony's hit soars above Jason Aldean, other top country artists as media labels it 'right-wing'
Viral country musician Oliver Anthony is a ‘voice’ for struggling Americans: Dr. Nesheiwat
‘Outnumbered’ co-hosts discuss Oliver Anthony’s viral hit ‘Rich Men North of Richmond’ and react to critics of the song.
Many liberal media outlets appear to be "out of touch" with Americans after labeling viral country song "Rich Men North of Richmond" a "right-wing," "conservative anthem."
Despite the labels, the viral song has topped the Apple Music charts, even surpassing country singer Jason Aldean's hit "Try That in a Small Town."
"According to the media, this is a viral right-wing anthem. It's offensive, it's fat-phobic, it's controversial, it's championed by the right, it's obscure. He punches down. I can go on and on. But I mean, how out of touch can you be?" co-host Kayleigh McEnany asked on "Outnumbered" Friday.
Red-bearded, high school dropout Oliver Anthony's song "Rich Men North of Richmond" has been viewed more than 21 million times on YouTube as of Friday afternoon, serving as both a screed against Washington greed and a lament for working-class ills like suicide, despair, high taxation, and working long hours for "bulls--- pay."
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Musician Oliver Anthony went viral this month for a performance of his original song, "Rich Men North of Richmond." (Screenshot/RadioWV YouTube channel)
Many immediately resonated with Anthony’s song and the sentiments he shared while strumming his guitar. Some fans even shared personal stories of what the song meant to them.
One person responded to Radio WV’s video, saying, "I’m a 39-year-old Iraq vet and Construction worker, struggling like a dog to take care of two kids and keep a farm going when I’m not working 11-hour days. This hit so hard today I had to stop my old Peterbilt and tear up. Preach brother."
Another person called the song "an anthem for 80+ million Americans who have been smeared, ignored, mocked, slandered, and robbed by their own government."
"One of the reasons that he said he wrote this song was not for fame, not for glory, but he was feeling a sense of mental illness, depression and anxiety because of the state of our economy. And so many Americans resonate with that," Fox News medical contributor Dr. Janette Nesheiwat said on "Outnumbered" Friday.
"That's why he shot up to number one, because he understood and acknowledged the pain, the suffering and the struggling that so many Americans are dealing with on a daily basis. he is a voice for all of those who aren't able to express what they're feeling, what they're going through, and be able to say, we need change now."
"Luckily for him, his spiral has been turned into art that is so authentic and people really, really identify with what he's saying because he's lived it," FOX Business' Kennedy said.
FOX Business' Dagen McDowell added that the song resonated with her even more because she was born and raised near where Anthony is from. She noted that the music, even more than the lyrics, impacted her.
"What connects with folks, for me, it's not the lyrics, but it's the actual music. A man playing a resonator guitar, it can also be played like a slide or a dobro," she said, adding that Aldean's song did not resonate with her in the same way.
"When he says ‘living in the new world with an old soul,’ the truth of those words are that music that he's playing is the music born on front porches and born in churches, up in the mountains, up in hollers. And it's not made by some big machine down in Nashville being shoved down people's throats."
"So go listen to Doc Watson and go listen to Bill Monroe and go listen to Ricky Skaggs and you will know why this man is connecting with you."
MEDIA OUTLETS LABEL VIRAL COUNTRY SONG ABOUT THE WORKING CLASS AS ‘RIGHT-WING’
McEnany said the move by liberal media outlets like Rolling Stone, Forbes and NBC News to label the song as "right-wing" resembles attitudes ahead of the 2016 election.
"You'll remember the Carrier workers who lost their jobs. A man in a corporate suit stood up and he said to them, the best way to stay competitive and protect the business for the long term is to move production from India and Indianapolis to Mexico. And the video went viral," McEnany said.
"You just see the absolute horror on the faces of these employees. And amazingly, one of the only Republicans to ever mention it was Donald Trump, specifically the Carrier workers. And on the Democrat side, it wasn't Hillary Clinton talking about the Carrier workers. It was Bernie Sanders. Both hitting the same note, and I think that sentiment is alive and well today."
Hudson Institute senior fellow Jeremy Hunt added similarly that progressive politicians should be "paying attention" to the response from Americans rather than liberal media.
"A lot of these kind of progressive politicians should be paying attention and trying to understand what's going on in this cultural moment. Why are people so upset and willing to listen and to see what made this hit go viral?" he said.
Hunt even pointed to remixes and shares of the song across social media, connecting "different people from different walks of life."
"When you have people coming together, multiracial, working-class coalition people coming together, anyone who's worth their salt in politics will say you need to be listening and saying, look, we need a government and political leaders that respond to that and respond to the cultural moment," he said.
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Fox News' Amy Nelson, David Rutz and Kristine Parks contributed to this report.
Madeline Coggins is a Digital Production Assistant on the Fox News flash team with Fox News Digital.
