This week, Jason Aldean’s song “Try That in a Small Town” has been making a lot of headlines. I didn’t realize, before now, that the song has been out for a few months already. The music video recently came out, which is probably what started this week-long conversation about the lyrics of the song and the imagery of the video. The lyrics are plainly pro-lynching. The music video is plainly pro-lynching, especially given that Aldean staged the video at the Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee, the site of the lynching of Henry Choate in 1927. Well, it looks like Aldean’s Git Er Done (Er being “lynching”) message was too much even for the country-music network CMT. CMT removed Aldean’s video from the air and Aldean threw a huge hissy fit about all of the backlash. Keep in mind, Aldean and his Insurrectionist Barbie wife are very MAGA.
CMT has confirmed that, after initially airing Jason Aldean’s highly controversial music video for “Try That in a Small Town,” the network pulled the contentious clip from the air on Monday, even before the furor over the tune grew greater on Tuesday. A CMT spokesperson had no further comment on the video being yanked. Reps for Aldean’s label, BBR Music Group, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Billboard was first to report the video being removed by the network.
Meanwhile, Aldean took to his social media Tuesday afternoon to defend the song from its many critics, taking a much softer tone in his messaging than he does in the hostile single itself, or a video that projects images of demonstrators onto a courthouse that was the site of a famous lynching.
“In the past 24 hours I have been accused of releasing a pro-lynching song (a song that has been out since May) and was subject to the comparison that I (direct quote) was not too pleased with the nationwide BLM protests. These references are not only meritless, but dangerous… There is not a single lyric in the song that references race or points to it- and there isn’t a single video clip that isn’t real news footage -and while I can try and respect others to have their own interpretation of a song with music- this one goes too far. As so many pointed out, I was present at Route 91-where so many lost their lives- and our community recently suffered another heartbreaking tragedy. NO ONE, including me, wants to continue to see senseless headlines or families ripped apart.”
Aldean tried to paint the song as taking a positive attitude on small towns, and downplayed the belligerent threats to outsiders that make up most of the lyrics, not to mention the stock footage of protesters that takes up a good portion of the video’s running time.
“‘Try That In A Small Town,’ for me, refers to the feeling of a community that I had growing up, where we took care of our neighbors, regardless of differences of background or belief. Because they were our neighbors, and that was above any differences. My political views have never been something I’ve hidden from, and I know that a lot of us in this country don’t agree on how we get back to a sense of normalcy where we go at least a day without a headline that keeps us up at night. But the desire for it to — that’s what this song is about.”
“Where we took care of our neighbors, regardless of differences of background or belief.” The song is literally about white guys murdering people who don’t “fit in” with his all-white, all-Christian view of small towns?? What if your small-town neighbor is a Black woman who attends BLM protests? Is the song about her right to exist as a Black woman in a small town and her right to protest? No. It’s not. It’s a song which is gleefully about murder, lynching and mythologizing a corrupt and racist police state. Anyway, I’m sort of shocked that CMT made the decision to remove the video. As Variety pointed out in the piece, it will be interesting to see if country-music radio follows suit and removes the song from rotation (hint: they will not). I imagine this controversy will make the song climb up the country music charts too.
Variety’s music critic didn’t hold back this week: “Jason Aldean Already Had the Most Contemptible Country Song of the Decade. The Video Is Worse.” Yeah, I’m not posting the video.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
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- Jason Aldean at the 2018 iHeartRadio Music Festival at the T-Mobile Arena. Las Vegas, Nevada – Friday September 21, 2018. Photograph: © CPA/PacificCoastNews. Los Angeles Office (PCN): +1 310.822.0419 UK Office (Avalon): +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 sales@pacificcoastnews.com,Image: 534023632, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: WORLD RIGHTS – Los Angeles Office (PCN): +1 310.822.0419 UK Office (Avalon): +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 sales@pacificcoastnews.com, Model Release: no, Credit line: CPA/PacificCoastNews / Avalon
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- LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, USA – APRIL 07: Jason Aldean and Brittany Kerr Aldean arrive at the 54th Academy Of Country Music Awards held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on April 7, 2019 in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States.,Image: 535803169, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: WORLD RIGHTS – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Avalon.red – sales@avalon.red London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles: +1 (310) 822 0419 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251 Madrid: +34 91 533 4289 – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Avalon.red – sales@avalon.red London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles: +1 (310) 822 0419 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251 Madrid: +34 91 533 4289, Model Release: no, Credit line: Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency / Image Press Agency / Avalon
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- LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, USA – APRIL 07: Artist of the Decade award winner Jason Aldean poses in the press room at the 54th Academy Of Country Music Awards held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on April 7, 2019 in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States.,Image: 535803889, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: WORLD RIGHTS – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Avalon.red – sales@avalon.red London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles: +1 (310) 822 0419 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251 Madrid: +34 91 533 4289 – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Avalon.red – sales@avalon.red London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles: +1 (310) 822 0419 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251 Madrid: +34 91 533 4289, Model Release: no, Credit line: Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency / Image Press Agency / Avalon
He’s no different than Kid Rock. Dude didn’t grow up in a small town. Not even close. He’s just a pos who wants credit amongst his racist white fans.
Totally agree!!!
Weird Fact: I grew up with Bob Richie aka Kid Rock. He was a local party dj and was a wannabe rapper. When his rich daddy tossed him out, he couched surfed with kids in my neighborhood who embraced him as one of our own.
When hip hop didn’t work out, he morphed into the idiot you see today. The ultimate poser.
For anyone like me who didn’t know where this poser is from, he was born in Macon, Georgia, population roughly 150k. This man has no clue what happens in a small town. Between that and the location of the video, it’s just implausible that the song is about anything other than racial violence.
If there’s anything I’ve found most exhausting over the past few years, it’s the shoddy attempts at gaslighting. I’m tired of these bigots trying to claim that they’re being misinterpreted. Have the courage of your convictions enough to say it loud and then deal with the consequences. But no. At heart they’re a bunch of schoolyard bullies who get their jollies going after vulnerable people.
If Jason really wanted to promote the values of small town living, he should have modeled his video after John Mellencamp’s “Small Town.” That video promotes exactly what Mellencamp loved about growing up in a small town in the Midwest. Yeah, Jason’s racist POS.
In case you haven’t seen John’s video homage to Seymour, Indiana:
https://youtu.be/0CVLVaBECuc
P.S. Don’t even get me started on Kid Rock.
Mellencamp’s song, and more important-his video, are what I was thinking of too.
JA is just a terrible person.
Motherfu**er you ain’t from a small town. You’re a punk a** poser peddling a pathetic, putrid, phony “good ol’ boy from the boondocks” shtick to sell records. Stop it.
So don’t know him or his music really and I’m listening to country fairly often these days. I went to look up the lyrics to this song and am floored by the amount of songs he has titled with some form of ‘small town’ if he isn’t from one. Kinda ticked me off. Such a poser.
Nailed it
What in the world?
How did any of this get produced?
No idea who this fella is but he should be fired and his contract canceled.
Unreal.
And if your song isn’t about race, or lynching, then why was the video set where a man got lynched cause of his race?
Exactly Rapunzel! The gaslighting is just OTT on this one! He and that Karen wife of his really need to take all the seats.
Not an example of gaslighting there but I know what you mean
and if he really wanted to send a message about violence he could have chosen any number of nazi rallies, january 6th, white shooters who target people of color, cops who kill black people because they are black, etc. etc. etc.
he just wanted to dog-whistle his fellow nazis
He’s a racist baby. I didn’t know the story about him running of stage without even warning his fans about a shooter until yesterday. But now he’s making himself out to be some sort of defender of small towns. Okaay. Compensating and racist. Small dick energy.
He’s from MACON! That’s not a small town! It’s not Atlanta, but its not a small town.
And this song is literally about not accepting differences and banding together against outsiders (and I think we know what those outsiders look like in his mind.)
Yep.
Yeah. I’m from a small town. Anyone from a small town knows you can’t even tell people where you are from, you have to give the name of the nearest City. In my case, it is Knoxville or Oak Ridge Tennessee. Why? Because legit no one outside of Tennessee, and frankly in large sections of Tennessee, has heard of my small town. Also, banding together? Nah, man, it is like every man for himself in a small town for the most part, lol, that is how you know he is from “off”. I’ve come across just as many people with a sense of community and willingness to help you out in DC as I did in TN. The decency proration is pretty even.
The community splits on everything from a local splash pad to whether to support a new Arby’s. Like…. I don’t know how all these people got this wistful idea that human nature is any different based on density.
Allll of this, superashes! Finally someone said it. Who cares about whether he’s from a small town or not—the issue for me is romanticizing small towns (which were often, historically, sundown towns) while demonizing cities as if neighborhood, boroughs, and communities don’t exist in urban environments.
For the average romance reader, it’s from books, but this dude is clearly just awful, and not inclined to find love anywhere.
I grew up in Oklahoma, in a college town, and it’s nothing like the actual small towns in Oklahoma. I have more sense of community in my tiny part of LA than I ever did in Oklahoma.
This dude has always been trash. I remember when he got caught cheating on wife #1 with wife #2 in broad daylight and then filed for divorce before the wife could. His music is awful. I cannot believe he’s still popular after all this time. It’s why I don’t listen to country music anymore. The radio is full of that sh*t.
I loved country in the 90s- amazing talent. Garth, Shania, Brooks & Dunn, George Strait, Martina McBride, Dixie Chicks. The list goes on. Country radio suuuuucks now. It’s so dull and cookie cutter with the same tired tropes.
Same, Greenturtle!
IMO, the education system in the South presents an unconscionably sanitized view of racism there since forever (I mean, you could easily argue that the education system across the nation does this, but it is particularly bad in the region of Confederate “heroes” monuments where, I kid you not, I have been repeatedly told that Robert E Lee was akin to Alexander the Great. No. NO.). Thus white ppl from there can be extra recalcitrant, extra resistant to scratching the surface of anything even just a tiny bit. They’ve never encountered that expectation before: “What do you mean, I have to position what I did/said within a larger context?” Like, the country exists in a larger context. You have to consider it. Get over it.
You are so right about the education system down here.
Yes. It was a coordinated effort led by groups like the Daughters of the Confederacy. There is a great YouTube feature on it
https://youtu.be/dOkFXPblLpU
I actually had a bizarre encounter with one of those people when I visited Charleston, South Carolina. I signed up for a garden tour. While the gardens were beautiful, the lady kept telling her twisted Confederate view on the Civil War. She didn’t appreciate my father, a judge with a masters in history correcting her false statements. It was one of the most bizarre experiences I ever had.
I used to live in the shallow (vs the deep) South in a subdivision that had previously been owned by the same family for at least 200 years. The main road that passed the house had to take a funny little dogleg to go around the family cemetery, that kind of thing.
Anyway I drove out one day and passing the last few houses there was a tour bus, which was odd, and about 30 African American people were standing listening to someone give a talk. Now these townhouses we all lived in and their yards weren’t old to be historic or beautiful, so I don’t think they were there for a garden tour, but for something historic that had happened on that spot.
It so happened that the last family owner of the land lived near me and so when I saw him, I asked if he knew what they would have been talking about – clearly some kind of historic event or person or something like that of enough importance that a tour bus would have been rented and this would have been a stop on the trip.
A funny little look came over his face and he smiled and just said, “well I don’t know anything about that but let me tell you about my ancestors who fought in the Confederacy; they’re buried down the street. Did you ever notice the cemetery?” He knew exactly what they were having a speech about but he for damn sure wasn’t going to tell me anything about it. Heaven forbid that the real history get out.
I spent so much time trying find out what had happened there and I couldn’t find anything.
@Snuffles, yes and thanks for the link. Of course there is white washing of slavery across the entirety of the US but the south in particular has always had a major issue with it and are STILL to this day fighting to wipe anything negative and truthful about it from the history books.
Someone pointed out the private school (I’m assuming white-only and Christian) Aldean attended in his not-so-small hometown was founded the year after the local school district was integrated. I’m guessing the American History curriculum was highly sanitized.
Can confirm. Grew up in TN, went to college, later got a doctorate, and never knew anything about the Tulsa Race Riots until I saw The Watchmen. Super embarrassing and super sad.
Following up to correct the reference to the Tulsa Race Massacre.
An enterprising person should play this song over clips of the Jan. 6th insurecctionists destroying our capitol and attacking the capital police.
Then we can all enjoy the wailing and gnashing of teeth as they howl on about how that is different.
I love this idea Happyoften!
Pulling that song will only fuel his popularity. He and his hateful wife thrive in that hateful MAGA culture and watch Trump use that song for his Klan rallies. Horrible, horrible people.
He probably wrote it specifically for Trump to use – he’s such an embarassing little boy pining away for his fellow little-dick energy small hands dictator
Yeah, this whole thing just feeds into the typical MAGA grift, where they manufacture outrage with racist dog whistles, then pretend not to know what’s plainly obvious to see, and rake in the dough from the cult members because the “woke mob” “canceled” them.
I wish the same fate for him and Insurrectionist Barbie that I do for Trump, i.e., irrelevance.They crave attention so much that their worst nightmare is running into a wall of indifference. Seriously, give them all a long timeout to contemplate their own utter uselessness.
He and his wife are also maga supporters, and anti vaxxers. I believe they also supported the Jan 6 insurrection. There’s a subreddit dedicated to them and they have all the receipts. They sound like really terrible people.
They’re anti-trans, too. I mean, obviously.
Yeah I could not finish the song or video and I am a big music fan, country included. I’m from a small town which I absolutely adore. I don’t think this is gonna be my big summer jam, fam.
I prefer a happier ditty. 🎵
Well, I was born in a small town
And I live in a small town
Probably die in a small town
Oh, those small communities
🎶 I have faith songwriters ✍️ 💕 can come up with a fun and festive kick ass (country, ?) ode to our small towns and lives.
Whew boy! His description of the song’s message is incredible gaslighting. Does he think we can’t read and understand English? If the song had some of kind of progressive sentiment, it never would have made country music playlists in the first place.
“There is not a single lyric in the song that references race or points to it”
Which is why you used a dog whistle the size of your ego to get your message across, you cowardly wanker.
Exactly. Aldean is just mad that humans heard his dog whistle and told him to stop whistling.
Right. He expected bigots to understand his dog whistles. He is mad that the non-racist humans heard and understood too.
“There is not a single lyric in the song that references race or points to it” – I’m just going to record my inflammatory video directly in front of the site where a fairly famous lynching of a young black man took place. NOTHING TO SEE HERE!
An anthem to hate. I really think these…people…get orgasmic over hate. It excites them in a very unhealthy way.
Jason Aldean looks like a fat rat who just climbed out of a hot sewer. I never had any knowledge or thoughts about him at all prior to now, but it’s the racism that makes people ugly.
The Emmitt Till Anti-Lynching Act passed last year makes lynching a Federal Hate Crime. Conspiring or attempting to commit the act of lynching is punishable for up to 30 years under Federal Law. I hope the FBI pays this guy a visit.
Let’s say for the sake of argument that we want to accept his explanation… in that case, what exactly does he mean by “see how far ya make it down the road?” How explicitly does that line demonstrate reference “to the feeling of a community that I had growing up, where we took care of our neighbors?” Eff off, you racist toad.
His wife is very anti trans. And on January 6, she accused ANTIFA of the riots. I was a fan before they became Trumpers. He actually has some great songs. But I erased them all from my playlist ages ago.
CMT pulling his video is a huge surprise to me. I’ve always felt that the subjects of racism, racial violence, and murder based on skin color were popular in country music culture, in addition to the ubiquitous “my lady left me with hungry kids to feed and crops in the fields.” I feel that the vast majority of country fans understood the song’s message and were on board with it.
A quick google search shows that both the Country Music Association and individual artists have had to address blatant racist comments and actions of their community, not just in the days of Charlie Pride but recently with Lil Naz. And country star Morgan Wallen had to explain himself after a video emerged with him uttering the n-word.
This IS country music, which may explain its lack of popularity among Black people like me.
Pulling the video now indicates that CMT has always known exactly what that song was about. It is still popular with their demographic. It became problematic only when the mainstream caught wind of it and called it out for its pro-lynching message.
Country music is so much more than that. There are a large group that are your typical awful Trumpers. But there is also a huge cohort of country music lovers that stand for the exact opposite. Country music comes from folk and blues origins and people of color are part the very core people that it was developed from. I hate that it has been ruined for people who could enjoy it by the awful bros and racists.
“Full of good ol’ boys, raised up right”
Let me tell you something – I live in a rural small town area, and I work at a sexual assault center and Child Advocacy Center and a very high percentage of those who harm children by victim-reported statistics are “Good ol’ boys”. Obviously, not all, but a large portion (white, middle-class-ish, male, adamantly heterosexual (even the ones who hurt young boys), and usually VERY “religious”). The vast majority of the victims we serve are themselves very conservative, rural, and deeply religious so there isn’t an inherit bias in their reporting. I’m so over the romanticizing of small towns – it just means a smaller group of people to control. Gah.
All of us who grew up in the South know exactly what a “Good ‘Ol Boy” is and what kind of person it’s referring to lol. Anybody who pretends otherwise is being disingenuous.
I haven’t seen the video or heard the song but I already found him repulsive.
The song is vile. The sickos who chased down and murdered Ahmaud Arbery would have loved to have had this song playing. Just no. There’s no excusing it’s meaning.
I forced myself to watch the video. Yes, it’s MAGA-ey. But also an absolutely lousy song. Small town cops can handle more than city cops? Hah.
This guy is so full of shit. If the song was actually about showcasing the benefits of have a close community in a small town, then showcase THAT in the vidoe. I grew up in a small town in Southern Illinois. Show the towns people pitching in to clean up their neighbor’s yard after a big storm or tornado. Show people volunteering to cook meals for family’s in the neighborhood who have just experienced a tragedy or death. Show the way everyone is welcomed at neighborhood barbeques, locals AND out-of-towners. Show ANY of that. But that’s the point, right? His revolting song and views on small-town living aren’t actually about any of that. Ironically, this asshole doesn’t even come from a small town, so how the hell does he know? Instead he chose to make a hate-filled screed that promotes racism, brutalily, lynchings and vigilante justice. He’s not fooling anybody.
Sadly, the Aldeans have been all over social media hyping that his song has hit #1.
Predict the wicked Mrs Aldean will be out with tee shirts and hats in response to his garbage song. They continue to make money off their MAGA supporters laughing all the way to the bank.
He didnt even write this song…its someone elses lol. This guy is not a songwriter…the tone of if just fit his wannabe niche.