Why Are Controversial Country Songs Dominating the Charts?

Just a few weeks ago, it seemed like the internet’s most popular song was a screwy, satirical ode to ’90s Eurodance. (R.I.P. song of the summer contender “Planet of the Bass.”)

Now, the No. 1 entry across Billboard and other music charts this week, an unexpectedly viral song called “Rich Men North of Richmond,” tells a completely different story. It’s a tale of two Americas, you could say.

On Aug. 21, a formerly unknown, independent country singer named Oliver Anthony landed at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Rich Men North of Richmond,” dethroning fellow country crooner Morgan Wallen’s record-breaking single “Last Night.” Not only was it the first song the Virginia native had recorded on a professional microphone, but it was also the first time an artist who had never previously shown up on any Billboard chart debuted in the top spot.

The surprise smash only got bigger from there, rising to the top of Apple Music’s Top 100 USA charts, where it usurped Jason Aldean’s controversial “Try That In a Small Town.” And on the iTunes Top 40 USA chart, it beat out another country megahit, Luke Combs’ cover of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car.”

Overnight success stories like Anthony’s are often viewed in an inspirational light. However, the subject matter of the viral song has given some listeners, particularly those on the left, a cause for pause—especially after right-wing public figures like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Joe Rogan gave the working-class anthem their seal of approval. Oddly enough, in the aftermath, Anthony has left many of his fans confused and disgruntled for claiming that he supports diversity.

As alluded to in the title, “Rich Men North of Richmond” is a soulful ballad about economic frustration, rooted in Anthony’s experiences as a former factory worker and specifically targeted at Northern elites.

“I’ve been selling my soul workin’ all day/ Overtime hours for bullshit pay,” he passionately sings in the opening lines. He also takes aim at welfare recipients, using one verse to conjure the racist, Reaganite image of “welfare queens.” (“If you’re 5-foot-3 and you’re 300 pounds / Taxes ought not to pay for your bags of fudge rounds.”) The song is also maybe the first American chart-topper to seemingly feature a Jeffrey Epstein reference. (“I wish politicians would look out for miners / and not just minors on an island somewhere.”)

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At another time, the overnight popularity of the song may have seemed like a reactionary, post-Obama, or even post-Trump, fluke. Although, as writer Josh Levin pointed out in Slate, an eagerly embraced anti-welfare song isn’t necessarily unprecedented in the country world, nor is the track’s blue-collar angst uncharted territory within the genre. Still, 2023 has been a banner year for mainstream country, with the aforementioned tracks from Aldean and Combs dominating the charts, and with Wallen’s “Last Night” spending an astonishing 16 weeks at the top before Anthony knocked it off its perch.

All three songs—“Last Night,” “Try That In a Small Town,” and “Fast Car”—have garnered a degree of scrutiny for separate but broadly related reasons, harkening back to the genre’s historical (and persisting) throughline of anti-Blackness. Ever since a 2021 incident where Wallen was captured on camera calling a Black man the n-word—which resulted in a suspension from his record label—his career has skyrocketed, with stadium tours, blockbuster albums, and heaps of awards and recognition from the Country Music Association, the American Music Awards, and more. The long-running success of “Last Night,” in particular, demonstrated a new level of devotion from his fanbase, which seemed galvanized by previous attempts to “cancel” him.

Similarly, Aldean’s “Try That In a Small Town” seemed to benefit from a wave of racist backlash due to its supposed “pro-lynching” messaging—including a music video with direct nods to Black Lives Matter protesters. Once the song and its video caught the attention of liberals on Twitter and TikTok nearly a month after its release, CMT pulled the video from the network—but soon after, the song reached No. 1 on the Hot 100.

Meanwhile, the dialogue surrounding Combs’ rendition of “Fast Car” has raised questions about cultural appropriation and who’s allowed it to thrive in mainstream country, a genre that’s systematically excluded Black women and queer people (despite Chapman publicly expressing excitement over her song’s resurgence). Notably, though, Combs differs from someone like Aldean—who’s defended “Try That In a Small Town”–by speaking out about racial inequality within country, including his own past missteps. In 2020, Combs spoke on a Country Radio seminar panel with progressive country star Maren Morris about the industry’s legacy of racism, the Wallen incident, and his past use of the Confederate flag in a music video. Still, he finds himself situated in a cultural moment highlighting the genre’s race problem and our post-Trump culture wars—the latest example being the unlikely explosion of “Rich Men North of Richmond.”

The question now is whether this current stream of “controversial” country songs, seemingly driven by online right-wingers wanting to “stick it to liberals,” has created a path for certain artists to achieve immediate success. Again, it’s hardly the first time white, male country musicians have been rewarded for embracing extreme patriotism or conveying racist messages—the wave of post-9/11 songs being a notable past trend. Likewise, music theory professor Philip Ewell, whose studies include race in American music, says the genre has long been emblematic of America’s bipartisan tensions.

“I think country music, like other musical genres, frankly, is a battlefield for hearts and minds of the country,” Ewell tells The Daily Beast. “With Morgan Wallen, for instance, he used the n-word. And then he showed some contrition. But then he realized that a lot of his fans were essentially saying, ‘You don’t need to apologize. We’re good with this.’ And I think he kind of toned it down a little bit after that. But generally, I suppose there probably are some artists who are kind of taking advantage of this.”

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Even so, Ewell maintains that right-wing listeners and “problematic” artists like Aldean aren’t representative of the genre as a whole—even though openly leftist, typically female artists like Morris, Mickey Guyton, and Kacey Musgraves aren’t enjoying the same radio play on country stations or being rewarded in the same fashion as the Wallens and the Aldeans of the world.

“There are obviously a lot of really great progressive country artists,” Ewell says. “There are gay country artists, relatively progressive artists, like Faith Hill and Tim McGraw, or icons like Dolly Parton and Willie Nelson. So it’s kind of convulsing, country music—and in a way that the country is kind of convulsing. I think it’s just reflective of that.”

But, at least this week, the country is “convulsing” all the way toward “Rich Men North of Richmond,” backlash be damned. And if this year’s charts are any indication, it won’t be the last divisive single to become a certified, head-scratching smash.

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