Jason Aldean’s controversial song “Try That in a Small Town” is gaining popularity.
According to Luminate, which tracks music sales and streams, the song’s on-demand audio and video streams surged 999 percent — from 987,000 to 11.7 million — in the week after discussion of the song exploded online.
Sales of the song have also increased: the track sold just 1,000 copies in the week leading up to the controversy; According to Luminate, 228,000 units were sold last week.
CMT pulled the music video for the song last Tuesday when the clip only had about 350,000 views on YouTube. It has since been viewed 16.6 million times.
The success has helped the song reach #2 on the multi-genre Billboard Hot 100 chart and #1 on the Hot Country Songs chart. It marked Aldean’s highest-charting single on the Hot 100, beating out songs like Morgan Wallen’s “Last Night,” Luke Combs’ “Fast Car,” Rema and Selena Gomez’s “Calm Down,” Olivia Rodrigo’s “Vampire,” and Taylor Swift’s “Cruel Summer.” Aldean’s previous Hot 100 best was “Dirt Road Anthem,” which peaked at #7 in 2011.
Aldean released “Try That in a Small Town” in May, but the accompanying music video was dropped on July 14. The clip features the burning of the American flag, protests, looting and more, and some have criticized it for promoting gun violence and targeting the Black Lives Matter movement.
In the video, Aldean appears outside the Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee — the site of the 1946 Columbia race riot and the 1927 mob lynching of Henry Choate, an 18-year-old black teenager.
Aldean didn’t write the song, but it includes the lyrics, “Follow a cop, spit in his face / Step on that flag and set it on fire / Yeah, you think you’re tough / Well, try that in a small town / Look how far you can make it on the street.” Aldean later sings the song, “I’ve got a gun my grandfather gave me / They say they’ll be rounded up one day / Well, that shit might fly around town, a lot.” lucky.”
Reactions to the song were divided; Sheryl CrowJason Isbell and Margo Price have criticized the track and video, while Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis, Blanco Brown, Cody Johnson and Brantley Gilbert have expressed support for Aldean.
Aldean, one of country music’s top stars, defended the song in a lengthy statement, calling the claims made against the title “not only baseless, but dangerous.” The singer also defended the song during a concert this weekend in Cincinnati, where he performed the song and received cheers and shouts of “USA” from the audience.
“For the last 24 hours I’ve been accused of releasing a lynching song… and faced with the comparison that I wasn’t too happy with the BLM protests nationwide. These references are not only unfounded but also dangerous,” he wrote. “There isn’t a single lyric in the song that references or hints at race — and there isn’t a single video clip that isn’t actual news material — and while I can try to respect others to have their own interpretation of a song with music, this one is taking it too far.”
On social media, some users have been offended by the lyrics, particularly since Aldean was performing on stage at Las Vegas’ Route 91 Harvest Music Festival in 2017 when a gunman opened fire, killing 60 concert-goers and injuring hundreds more. In his tweet, the Grammy-nominated star referenced the tragedy: “No one, myself included, wants to continue to see pointless headlines or families torn apart.”
During his weekend concert, Aldean spoke to his audience about “abandon culture.”
“Abandoning culture is one thing…which means you’re trying to ruin your life, ruin everything,” he was quoted as saying. “One thing I saw this week was a lot of country music fans who could see through a lot of the bullshit, right? I’ve seen country fans gather like I’ve never seen it before and it was pretty badass to watch I have to say.”
Luminate, the new name for the collection of data brands formerly known as Nielsen/MRC Data and Variety Business Intelligence, is owned by Penske Media Eldridge, the joint venture between Eldridge Industries and Penske Media Corporation, which also owns .