Populist protest music now targets cultural grievances alongside economic frustration

Evidence

Meanwhile, another unlikely hit—Oliver Anthony’s “Rich Men North of Richmond”—mined economic frustration with raw, folky populism. The song took aim at Jeffrey Epstein (looking out for “minors on an island somewhere”) and food stamp recipients (“God, if you’re five foot three and you’re 300 pounds / taxes ought not to pay for your bags of fudge rounds”). The online right quickly embraced it, though Anthony later distanced himself from partisanship, describing the song as broadly antiestablishment. — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 811

Categorization

• QUESTION: Whether ‘Rich Men North of Richmond’ is genuinely antiestablishment or an instance of aestheticized political grievance is contested, which matters for judging whether it signals blankness or substance.