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Oliver Anthony Eviscerates Beyonce’s ‘Cowboy Carter’ Album: “Complete Trash… Makes Me Want To Throw Up”
Tell us how you really feel Oliver Anthony.
Strangely enough, two of the biggest moments in country music during the past couple of years have involved Oliver Anthony and Beyonce. Not together obviously (that would be quite the duet), but in 2023, "Rich Men North of Richmond" and the artist behind it dominated the country music world. In 2024, Beyonce's Cowboy Carter made its mark - even though it was relatively short-lived and wasn't even nominated at the CMA Awards.
One could argue that both shook up the country music industry, all while being polar opposites. Anthony was as country as country gets, and people loved him for it. Beyonce was a non-country artist dipping into the genre, and a lot of people appreciated what she did with her country album, even though she explicitly said it "wasn't a country album." Two completely different approaches, yet they both shined a spotlight on country music.
I'd say that common ground would give them plenty to talk about if they ever collaborated, but I can almost say with 100 percent certainty that won't ever happen. Not with how Oliver Anthony described and eviscerated Beyonce's Cowboy Carter project in a video he posted to YouTube about what he's learned about the music industry so far.
The Virginia native spent most of the video speaking in generalities, discussing the flaws of the Nashville music machine and explaining why he wants no part of it. As he explained it, big labels don't actually care about the people or the music - they just care about the money:
"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.
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."
Later on in the video, Anthony started to get into some specifics, with one story being about how he hired a management company and they immediately wanted to "make him cool" so that he could appeal to more music fans. They first allegedly encouraged Oliver to cut all ties with those who had helped him to that point and shared his vision, and then apparently tried to get him to do things he would never do.
Like share a positive message about Beyonce's latest album:
"One of the guys I worked with, he wanted me to make some stupid f**king post about Beyonce's country album. About how it was good... even though it was complete trash. It makes me just want to throw up, trying to listen the beginning of her version of 'Jolene.'
Just total cringe. It represents how degenerative our society has become that a song like a Beyonce version of 'Jolene' can come out and anybody actually listen to it and think it not's complete f**king trash."
Excuse my French, but holy sh*t.
I've heard people complain here and there about Beyonce's country album, but Oliver Anthony absolutely hates it - seemingly with a passion. Didn't Dolly Parton say she loved what Beyonce did with her version of "Jolene?" Apparently that didn't mean much (if anything at all) to Oliver Anthony. And to be fair, a manager telling him to disingenuously promote Beyonce's album to gain some "cool points" is SO on brand for the mainstream music industry... just so out of touch with reality.
He continued by saying that stuff like that happens all the time in the music industry, and that music fans should always be skeptical when interacting with and taking to heart what artists say through social media:
"I was supposed to make a post... basically trying to associate myself with Beyonce in hopes of us doing some kind of song together.
How many people do that? How many artists do you follow on social media that have never even looked at their social media and you are just reading words and posts and things that were written by somebody you've never even met that aren't the artist?"
Translation: don't hold your breath waiting for a collaboration between Beyonce and Oliver Anthony. That ship has sailed, and with those fiery comments from Anthony, it's never coming back. And that doesn't seem to bother Oliver Anthony one bit.
You can hear more from the "Rich Men North of Richmond" singer in the video below:
https://youtu.be/1rrx1cJuiTk?si=jCA-wSkMFdkjLWTN&t=557
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