Apparently this guy exploded within 48 hours and the data suggests his streams vs download numbers show the numbers were cooked. Seems like his song has quickly become a conservative and alt-right anthem of sorts, leading to the speculation.
This guy seems to be the most vocal one looking into it, finding fake 1 day accounts, the background of those involved, etc: https://twitter.com/mattmoran_music
Though I would have thought artificially boosting numbers was a common practice in music to try and get some viral hits.
Oh yeah, 100% industry plant and we'll see more and more of them.
It's funny because I had this forwarded to me by three of my right wing/qanon friends as this amazing new song by an amazing new artist. These are guys that have never once shared songs, just the usual far right news/posts/conspiracy stuff.
I was like "hmm for some reason this is being pushed heavy thru far right algorithms" haha.
What's weird to me is that his voice is decent, his song is good, but neither are above a ton of artists and songs released in an increasingly deep pool of new artists with new avenues to reach audiences.
The only difference I see is the proven bots behind promoting his viral success that wenr far beyond whst genine vital success could achieve in terms of time, and a couple unique lines in the song that appeal to conservative values (health care is wrong) that appear to oppose his overall message.
what's weird to me is that his voice is decent, his song is good, but neither are above a ton of artists and songs released in an increasingly deep pool of new artists with new avenues to reach audiences.
The only difference i see is the proven bots behind promoting his viral success that wenr far beyond whst genine vital success could achieve in terms of time, and a couple unique lines in the song that appeal to conservative values (health care is wrong) that appear to oppose his overall message.
It was a pretty ugly song that has him playing in front of alt right crowds all over America. Everyone knows what he was doing, and that there was clearly something behind it.
On top of that the song is just really isn't that great. It's anger being shouted out over simple chords with a capo. Which would be fine, but the lyrics show how odd and misguided the target is in his words and who it's obviously directed at.
When I first heard the Oliver Anthony song I didn’t interpret it as the alt-right rallying cry it has become. I just thought it was an angry young man in the woods who hated the government and had some unrefined thoughts about it. It’s pretty crazy how it’s blown up.
On top of that the song is just really isn't that great. It's anger being shouted out over simple chords with a capo. Which would be fine, but the lyrics show how odd and misguided the target is in his words and who it's obviously directed at.
To be fair, anger and simple chords describes almost the entire punk rock genre.
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Meh. Its just another song, this will be forgotten about in a few months. Unless he's able to keep writing songs that keep people engaged, this will just fade away.
And those saying its a plant, who and why would they do that? I dont get it. K-pop bands, the Spice Girls, boy bands, etc. are all manufactured to make money. What purpose would it serve for this to be an industry plant?
Post Malone was blowing up within hours of him posting his first single "White Iverson" to Soundcloud, famous people were getting in contact with him in the following days and he had a major label contract and video shoot 6 months later. He basically started at 0.
There is no organic way to make a musician blow up, the industry can put rocket-boosters on someone but 99/100 it doesn't work out. When it does work it out, it seems so simple and obvious that it fools people into thinking they can blow up anyone.
Post Malone was blowing up within hours of him posting his first single "White Iverson" to Soundcloud, famous people were getting in contact with him in the following days and he had a major label contract and video shoot 6 months later. He basically started at 0.
There is no organic way to make a musician blow up, the industry can put rocket-boosters on someone but 99/100 it doesn't work out. When it does work it out, it seems so simple and obvious that it fools people into thinking they can blow up anyone.
Counterpoint: The target crowd for Rich Men is insanely credulous and extremely easy to manipulate, and has literally 0 capacity for detecting astroturfing
Counterpoint: The target crowd for Rich Men is insanely credulous and extremely easy to manipulate, and has literally 0 capacity for detecting astroturfing
I suspect you may have a biased perspective on the matter. If they could pull that off they'd be doing it every week, there is big money to be made here. Off the top of my head I can think of about 2 alt-right songs that went big in the last few months, this one and "try that in a small town". I'm trying to think of a 3rd but nothing is coming up in my memory.
A large amount of white ruralish right wingers eat up his message, even if it is misguided. For all their talk of personal responsibility and working hard, nothing unites conservatives like blaming others for their problems.
I doubt very much he is any kind of plant. Right wing Americans can certainly get their numbers behind their cause du jour and have some beefy social media techniques to push their agenda. It's just a similiar situation to their quickly successful boycott of Bud Light over an obscure instagram post. It obviously works a lot better with light beer and country music than it does with a Barbie movie though!
It is way harder to unite the right than the left, fundamentally the right embraces individualism where the left embraces collectivism. The bud light boycott was sold as a way for the right to assert themselves in the marketplace the same way the left has (aunt jemima, cancel culture, etc.) and how the marketplace has been influenced to cater to values on the left. Up until Elon bought twitter, every social media leaned to the left. Every major media company leans to the left, except fox news but they have been drifting more to the center. ESG ratings are financially incentivizing large corporations to be left-leaning as well. The winds are very clearly blowing one way in our culture.
