Oliver Anthony’s ‘Rich Men’ Is Mostly a Non-Starter at Country Radio. Could the Format Still Embrace It?
variety.comChris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic If you look at Billboard’s latest charts, there’s an anomaly: Oliver Anthony’s “Rich Men North of Richmond” is No.
1 on the Hot Country Songs chart … but nowhere to be found on the Country Airplay chart, or Mediabase’s radio rankings. It’s hardly the first time a song identified as country has taken off crazily in streams or downloads without getting much in the way of airplay — see Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” for a prominent previous example — but it does beg questions about whether the format will embrace the biggest musical phenomenon in the nation at the moment or has good reasons for staying hands-off.
Singles typically start out slow on the country airplay charts and take months to make their way into the radio format’s top 10, even with superstars.
But looking at adds for the latest chart week, there wasn’t much sign of radio looking to put the song into even the lowest level of rotation. “Rich Men North of Richmond” got eight adds among the country stations that report their playlists to Billboard and Mediabase.
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