Oliver Anthony Music: A PR Blueprint

A young man from Farmville, Virginia has bypassed the "necessary" Nashville record labels, publicists, and marketing gurus to become the hottest thing in music. Heck, he never even tried out for America's Got Talent! 

Was it all a clever PR ploy devised by a radio station and a guy that lives in a trailer? Well, sort of. His sudden fame involved two secret ingredients to great PR: authenticity and honesty.

You might think to yourself, "Isn't being authentic the same as being honest?" I wish that were true, but I can assure you, they are mutually exclusive. You can be authentic without being honest and vice versa. But when you are both, people know it. They sense it. They feel it. 

In an Artificial Intelligence culture where people hardly believe their own eyes anymore, authenticity and honesty are dying traits. As a result, our music has become less provoking and, ultimately, less relevant to us. Can you name the top hit on the pop charts from a month ago? Probably not.

​But even if country or bluegrass music isn't your thing, "Rich Men North of Richmond" will stay with you for a while. Because it is real.

And boy, are we starving for that.

—Gina Adams
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