The Politicization of the Billboard Hot 100

“Young men are puttin’ themselves six feet in the ground ‘cause all this damn country does is keep on kickin’ them down” – excerpt from “Rich Men North of Richmond” by Oliver Anthony

Overnight, the first Republican National Committee Debate launched country singer-songwriter Oliver Anthony into the spotlight after opening with a question about this song’s relevance to the concerns of the American people. Anthony sings about the contrasting lives of the rich and elite and blue-collar workers, blaming the “rich men north of Richmond” for the mistreatment of the working class. Florida Governor DeSantis responded by saying that “we cannot succeed as a country if you are working hard and you can’t afford groceries… while Hunter Biden can make hundreds of thousands of dollars on lousy paintings.” Within a week of release, “Rich Men North of Richmond” had been streamed over 17.5 million times and Anthony became the first artist to ever have their first song debut at #1 on Billboard. 

The Billboard Hot 100, America’s premier singles chart, was established in 1958 as the first chart to combine sales and plays in their ranking system. Billboard staff would contact record stores weekly to track what was selling and playing the most. However, this method had a wide margin for error. In 1991, Billboard began using Nielsen SoundScan data, which compiled sales and streaming numbers, to inform their ranking. Despite updates, Billboard continues to face controversy over the potential inaccuracies in its portrayal of popular American music. For example, how often a song plays on the radio contributes to its ranking, but radio stations often favor artists who uphold Western values; they are more often white and considered conventionally attractive. This can also present challenges for artists who perform in a language other than English, therefore disadvantaging minority musicians. Earlier this year, Maren Morris, a country singer, announced she was distancing herself from the country music industry due to concerns about racism and misogyny evident in the genre. 

In recent months, many country songs caught national attention due to their obvious political statements. Research has found that music taste often predicts a person’s political affiliation. Someone who listened to country was more likely to live in a Republican district, while someone who listened to jazz, reggae, or electronic music was more likely to live in a Democratic district. So if music taste corresponds to political beliefs, could music charts give an insight into the current political perspectives in America? Anthony’s song, “Rich Men,” resonates with Americans who feel disenfranchised by the American political system, lauded as a working-class anthem. Complaining about people who live off of welfare, the song echoes the Reagan-era idea of the “welfare queen,” a woman, typically a woman of color, who collects welfare payments fraudulently to sustain their lazy lifestyle. The song goes on to lament rising inflation and taxes as wages plateau. Although Anthony has criticized Republicans and Democrats, his song expresses anti-establishment and populist viewpoints, contrasting the wealthy elite with the downtrodden ordinary people. Under a Democratic president who has advanced equity in policy, many voters have voiced concerns over the theorized zero-sum nature of politics; as marginalized groups are given governmental support, they will displace working-class Americans. The lyrics allow the Republican Party to frame their conservative platform as a love letter to the “ordinary” people of America, who perceive themselves as abandoned by liberal welfare policies, as an effort to invigorate voters. 

The Billboard Top 100 has long offered insight into salient political issues and perspectives. For example, researchers found that the presence of Black artists in the Billboard Top 40 increased by 6.7% every year from 1957-1972, reflecting the changing perspectives of white Americans during and after the Civil Rights Movement. Similarly, chart-toppers like “Black or White,” “Born This Way,” and “This is America” reflect the political context in which they were written and released. However, compared to the 1960s and 70s when political messaging in popular music was more prevalent, overtly political music rarely appears in the Billboard Top 40 nowadays. As the country becomes more ideologically divided, songs that include apparent political expression face difficulty gaining broader support. 

Although music can be a form of political expression, it is also a form of political persuasion. Written to galvanize a movement, protest songs have been in American history for centuries. “Yankee Doodle” was originally written during the Revolutionary War by British soldiers to lampoon their American foes, but the Continental Army later took up the tune ironically to throw it back in their faces. During the height of slavery, African-American slaves also wrote spiritual protest songs to promote the abolition of slavery. Drawing on the First Testament, the songs, which likened their experiences to those of Moses and the Hebrew slaves, spoke of African-American slaves finding freedom and salvation. In the 1960s, Pete Seeger wrote “Bring ‘em home” with his message to America abundantly clear, “bring ‘em home”, one of many songs protesting the ongoing Vietnam War. A recent study found that anti-war songs were more effective in changing people’s opinions on conflict and the potential for peace than pro-peace songs, suggesting that negative messaging is more successful in persuading people. Whether anti-slavery, anti-war, or anti-police brutality, music has encompassed a variety of political contexts where artists verbalized their concerns about political transgressions. 

As music consumption patterns have trended away from protest music, it is easy to forget that popular music can be for more than pleasure. Although the success of songs such as  “Rich Men” has been rare in recent years, the Billboard Hot 100, and by extension, popular American music, have been a method of political expression and persuasion for centuries. However, today Anthony’s success is likely indicative of the deep-seated resentment among more conservative Americans. In an era where diversity and inclusivity have taken center stage in politics, there is a growing perception among blue-collar workers that everyday people are overlooked and marginalized by the affluent and influential political class. The feelings expressed in “Rich Men,” should not shock Americans, but this song, and the response it elicited within the Republican Party, could provide crucial insight into the future of American politics.