To no surprise at all, Oliver Anthony is anti-establishment. He's made that very clear ever since he burst onto the country music scene with songs like "Rich Men North of Richmond" and "I Want To Go Home." That's why so many music fans connected with him - because he was standing up for the little man, and no one was in his pocket. People were expecting him to skyrocket into fame and be the next big country music artist. There wasn't a song bigger than "Rich Men North of Richmond" for quite some time. The moment it had is every big music label's dream, and though Anthony could have stepped right into that realm, he was hesitant. If he was going to be in the music industry, he wanted to be in it for the right reasons. As he explained in a recent "What I've Learned From the Music Industry So Far" video that was posted to his YouTube page: "At the very beginning, our focus was just trying to figure out what we felt like God's purpose was for our lives and trying to figure out how to pursue that. I think it was just being around all those people that weren't of that mindset. There's no way to create something that's focused around God when you're working with people who are just focused around making money. And just using you for whatever they can." The Virginia native went on to elaborate how the music industry sees new artist, comparing them to oil wells where they get every last drop until they've emptied it out, thus moving on to the next profitable venture. Oliver explained that through that process, the music itself ends up not mattering to the artist, and he questions why anyone would be in the business if their heart wasn't in it. That, along with how Nashville labels try to create an artist's image rather than just let the artist be themselves, is what Anthony finds especially bothersome about the modern day Nashville music machine: "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 to prove that the music industry is really just a business, the country singer provided an anecdote about how his hit song shook up how the music charts usually work: "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. So according to Oliver Anthony, there's nothing authentic about really any aspect of the music industry. Though he spent a lot of time bashing anything and everything Nashville - and the music industry as a whole - he did concede that not everything about how things work is bad. He just draws it up as a business that needs to make money, just like every other business out there: "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." You can hear more on Oliver Anthony's opinions and viewpoints on the music industry in the video below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rrx1cJuiTk