Oliver Anthony has always walked to the beat of his own drum. In some ways, he reminds me of a modern-day, country version of Bob Dylan. The singer recently released a video where he shared his thoughts on the music industry.
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It's safe to say that Anthony isn't a fan of Nashville and how it treats its artists.
He said, "Find some guy that you can build a character around. Prop him up through your label. Give him a bunch of songs that some kids over at The Hick in Nashville wrote while they were wearing their Crocs and drinking White Claws and hitting golf balls."
He continued, "Nobody that's either written the song or sung it really knows or understands the words to the song that their singing, but it sounds good and it's catchy and it fits the model. And it sounds like every other big song that's been out in the last five years. It's just a rinse-and-repeat model. It serves no purpose, other than it's just a business."
Oliver Anthony Talks
Anthony revealed that labels will spend millions to push their songs up the charts. Anthony says they artificially inflate the success of their songs.
He said, "Around the time 'Rich Men North of Richmond' came out, there were other songs that it knocked out of the way that had millions of dollars invested in for marketing. A lot of the music that goes on the charts, the companies actually buy their own song however many times. They'll spend a million dollars just to jump it up the charts a certain amount where people start to see it.
However, Anthony said that it ultimately just comes down to money. He's not calling the music industry evil but it can be soul crushing.
He said, "These are all just systems. They're not inherently bad. It's not like there's a bunch of people sitting around who are evil thinking about how to trick you into making you listen to a certain kind of song.
But it's just a business model that they've followed and adapted to. It was evident talking to all these people, and every time I go to town and talk to people in Nashville, I realize how scary this new era is."
