Conservatives have a second vote, and that vote is how they choose to spend their hard-earned money. This weekend, a song with conservative themes skyrocketed to the top of the charts within hours, thanks to conservatives and country music star John Rich’s experiment.

“This song’s success proves you don’t have to bend the knee to beat the machine.”

John Rich, one half of the popular duo Big & Rich, bypassed so-called “woke” record labels and released his new “anti-woke” song titled “Progress” directly on Donald Trump’s Truth Social and video-sharing site Rumble last Friday. Within hours, it catapulted into the #1 spot on the Apple iTunes song chart to number one worldwide.

Truth Social and Rumble have emerged as alternatives to mainstream sites such as Twitter and YouTube, which many conservatives feel have been stifling free speech from conservatives.

Here’s Rich playing “Progress” live on “Fox & Friends” and explaining its origins: [Watch the full video included below in the article]

Rich told Just the News on Friday night that the outcome of his experiment could be industry-changing.

“Here I am with no record label, no publisher, no marketing deal,” he said. “I just got a song that speaks to a lot of people, and Truth and Rumble pushed it out there. And man, I’m really proud of what we did today.”

Rich said that while most country fans and artists have remained true to the roots of country music and its values, the marketing and distribution machines have increasingly become woke. So he suspected that traditional radio station groups, record labels, and social media like Twitter would shun or shadowban his new song and its conservative-friendly theme.

That’s when the idea of trying Truth Social and Rumble as an experiment was born.

“When I’m talking about them shutting down our voices, I’m talking about Twitter and YouTube and Facebook,” Rich said. “And I thought, you know what, I’m gonna reach out to Truth Social and reach out to Rumble because they still allow free speech over there. Why would I launch this song on the platforms that I’m railing against in the lyrics?”

The payoff from Friday’s experiment, he said, could inspire other artists like him.

Rich’s song “Progress” outperformed those of top hit-makers such as Lizzo, Billie Eilish, Beyonce, Harry Stiles, and Kate Bush.

Rich told Just the News.

“Here I am with no record label, no publisher, no marketing deal,”

“I just got a song that speaks to a lot of people, and Truth and Rumble pushed it out there. And man, I’m really proud of what we did today.”

Rich said he doubted that mainstream record labels would have agreed to put out a song with conservative themes.

Rich said he was too suspicious of big tech and radio stations, so he looked for alternatives.

“When I’m talking about them shutting down our voices, I’m talking about Twitter and YouTube and Facebook,” Rich said.

“I think without a doubt, it is a path forward,” Rich said. “It is bypassing this machine that they’ve built, going right around the machine, going right to the people.

“It means that if you bring the right content, and you have people like Truth and Rumble that will get that message to your core audience, you can beat the machine that’s been put in place to keep people like me shut down,” Rich said.

free space; they want artists to be heard.”

The meaning of ‘Progress’

Rich explained the inspiration for the song after spending months watching Democrats implement policies that opened borders, worsened the fentanyl crisis, grew crime, exploded gas and food prices, infringed free speech, and indoctrinated children about issues like race and gender.

“I’m watching what I consider to be the dismantling of our country at a lot of different levels,” he said. “And when you sit back and look at it, the vast majority of it’s being perpetuated on us under the banner of ‘progress.’ Like in the name of progress, we’re going to send gasoline through the roof, so you have to buy an electric car.

“In the name of progress, we’re going to let anybody and everybody into our country, and if that means we get overrun with fentanyl and every other bad thing, well, so be it. Because that’s progressive: You need to be open-minded and open borders in the name of progress. They target our kids in the name of progress; they do all these things that are actually the opposite of that. They’re regressive. They’re not constructive; they’re destructive.”

The song’s lyrics are overtly political.

“There’s a hole in this country where its heart used to be, And Old Glory’s divided, on fire in the street…They say Building Back Better will make America great…If that’s a wave of the future, all I’ve got to say,” read the first verse.

“They invite the whole world to come live in our land…And leave our countrymen dying in Afghanistan…They say let go of Jesus and let government save…You can have back your freedoms if you do what we say.”

Take a listen:

Here are the lyrics:

There’s a hole in this country where its heart used to be
And Old Glory’s divided on fire in the street
They say Building Back Better will make America great
If that’s a wave of the future, all I’ve got to say

(chorus) Stick your progress where the sun don’t shine
Keep your big mess away from me and mine
If you leave us alone, well we’d all be just fine
Stick your progress where the sun don’t shine

They invite the whole world to come live in our land
And leave our countrymen dying in Afghanistan
They say let go of Jesus, let government save
And you can have back your freedom if you do what we say

(chorus)

They shut down our pipelines, and they shut down our voices
They shut down our Main Streets, and they shut down our choices
They bent us all over, but it’s all over now
‘Cause we’ve figured it out, we ain’t backing down

(chorus)

John Rich tweeted:

My little country song #PROGRESS is currently the #1 most downloaded song in the world! No record label, no radio (yet), and no TV, but the BEST supporters in the world, YOU! This song’s success proves you don’t have to bend the knee to beat the machine.

Rumble tweeted:

Look who just took #1 on the charts… @johnrich. He released his single on Rumble & Truth first, over a week later, he’s #1

President Trump congratulated his friend John Rich on hitting Number One on Truth Social, which played a role in the song’s success.

Rich is proud of the song and that his free-speech experiment is potentially game-changing. He said his next mission is to persuade reluctant country radio stations to play the song in the coming days.

“Here’s the problem with country radio,” he said. “It’s not your DJs at the radio station. It’s not the people on the ground at the station. It’s the people way up the food chain that run the conglomerates that have bought up 90% of all of our radio stations.

“Those people generally — there are a few good ones in there. And when I say good, I mean, you know, lean conservative. They want free space; they want artists to be heard. But a big [contingent] of them do not like anybody bucking their woke system.”

PopVortex confirms that “Progress” is indeed the top song on the American iTunes charts. Maybe, with the YUGE success of Rich’s experiment woke liberal-leaning recording and radio industry will take note of where their fans’ real chart-topping music interests lie.

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