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The Internet Thinks They’ve Figured Out Which Mainstream Artist Oliver Anthony Called Out For Using Autotune And Backing Tracks During A Festival
Didn't call 'em out by name, but gave some pretty good clues.
Oliver Anthony made headlines this week when he released a video on "what he's learned from the music industry so far." And, as expected, it's safe to say he's not a fan of the business.
The singer from Virginia, whose real name is Christopher Anthony Lunsford, shot to fame last year with the release of his viral song "Rich Men North of Richmond." It turned out to be one of the biggest songs of 2023, and naturally record labels began throwing money at him to try to lock him down into a recording contract.
But Oliver Anthony decided to stay independent, even reportedly turning down an $8 million record deal, and released his debut album Hymnal of a Troubled Man's Mind back in March. He's also been on tour quite a bit, no doubt after promoters were quick to book him following the viral success of his first song and assuming that he would ride the wave to become the next big country superstar.
That's not exactly what happened though. Anthony has never been able to replicate the success he had with "Rich Men North of Richmond." And it sounds like he doesn't really want to.
Earlier this year, the singer announced that he would be stepping back from the music industry to focus on work with his traveling ministry. During that announcement, he called the music industry "a big joke," and said that while he'll still be releasing music, it will be as a traveling ministry and not as a country music artist.
Confusing? Maybe. But he's obviously right about the country music industry being a joke.
And recently, Anthony released a 15-minute video elaborating on his thoughts on the industry - and he didn't hold back.
"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."
He also blasted the Nashville machine for stripping away authenticity from artists and trying to turn them into a character that they can market:
“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.”
And he's definitely not wrong about that. I mean, look at Chase Rice and his recent transformation after he decided that he was done playing the Nashville game and chasing radio hits. The music got so much better, and he seems genuinely happier about what he's able to do. Nashville has sucked the soul out of a lot of artists, all in the name of profit.
But anyway, I digress.
In one part of his rant that caught people's attention, Oliver singled out one country artist in particular for being less than authentic with their live shows - though he didn't name them by name:
"A lot of these mainstream acts...everybody runs backing tracks. Like I'll never forget, I won't say who the act is, but I think it was at South Carolina at the Myrtle Beach one, the band who played after us, that dude had six autotune modulators on a pedal board on stage, just to help him with vocal pitch live. And they had backing tracks running, drum loops running.
It's like, for somebody to pay hundreds of dollars to go listen to like a fake performance...nobody talks about that stuff."
Interesting.
Now, is it really a surprise that artists are using autotune and backing tracks on stage? Of course not. If you think they don't, you're fooling yourself. There's too much on the line for these artists, and they can't risk putting on a bad show for their fans.
And while Anthony didn't drop the name of the artist he was calling out, the internet quickly did some research, and folks think they've figured out who it is.
The only music festival in Myrtle Beach is the Carolina Country Music Fest, and Oliver Anthony played the Thursday night kickoff for the festival this year. He was the second to last artist on the lineup, meaning there was only one artist who played after him: Parker McCollum.
Now, could this be an exaggeration for Oliver Anthony, or could he have his festivals mixed up and be thinking about somebody else? For sure. But is it a safe bet that a lot of the big mainstream country artists are using autotune, backing tracks and drum loops at least to some extent during their live shows? Absolutely.
And the internet is convinced that, in this case, it was the Limestone Kid that Oliver Anthony was singling out.
https://www.tiktok.com/@jmdeal85/video/7445454537537850670
If you want to check out Anthony's entire 15-minute video, you can watch it here:
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