In May, country music star Jason Aldean released a single entitled “Try That in a Small Town” with lyrics that depict contemporary city life as a hellscape of crime and anarchy: “Sucker Punch Somebody On A Sidewalk/Carjack An Old Lady At A Red Light.”
“You think you’re tough,” sings Aldean. “Well, try that in a small town.”
Initially, the track received relatively little attention, landing at number 35 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. That all changed last week after the music video for the song became the battleground of the Kulturkampf. Some accused Aldean – one of the country’s biggest hitmakers for nearly two decades – of using racist underhand tactics, and the singer defended himself as the latest victim of a runaway “abandonment culture”.
The controversy prompted a rush for Aldean’s song, with both streams and downloads skyrocketing over the course of the past week. “Try That in a Small Town” debuts at #2 on the Hot 100, Aldean’s all-time high on Billboard’s all-genre pop chart, and beats recent hits by Olivia Rodrigo and Morgan Wallen. Aldean was only surpassed this week by South Korean supergroup BTS’ Jung Kook, whose debut solo single ‘Seven’ debuts at No. 1.
The video for “Try That,” released July 14, begins with Aldean performing in front of a stately building adorned with an American flag; The building was quickly identified as the Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee, where in 1927 a young black man named Henry Choate was lynched by vigilantes after being accused—falsely, historians believe—of raping a white girl.
The video shows montage after montage of violent street protests, robberies and people antagonizing police officers in riot gear. These scenes are juxtaposed with images of hoisted American flags, children at play, and what appears to be a television news program about farmers helping a neighbor.
Three days after its release, the video was pulled from Country Music Television’s rotation without explanation. But it has been widely criticized as a thinly veiled attack on the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020.
Justin Jones, a representative of the state of Tennessee, wrote on Twitter that lawmakers “have a duty to condemn Jason Aldean’s vile song inciting racial violence.” What a shameful vision of gun extremism and vigilantism.”
Aldean, 46, has denied that race plays a role in the lyrics or that “Try That” is a “pro-Lynch song”. saying on social media“These references are not only unfounded, but also dangerous.”
Several artists have defended him, including country singer Cody Johnson, who said at a concert, “If patriotism makes you an outlaw, to God I’ll be an outlaw.” Ted Nugent, who enjoys any argument with liberals, said on Fox News, “The idiots hate this Jason Aldean song because they hate when we stand up to violence.”
At a concert in Cincinnati on Friday, Aldean was defiant. “Abandonment culture is one thing,” he told the crowd at the Riverbend Music Center. “If people don’t like what you say, they try to make sure they can fire you, which means they’re trying to ruin your life, ruin everything.”
“What I am is a proud American,” he added. “I love our country, I want it to go back to how it was before all this [expletive] started happening to us.” “USA” chants rang out in the amphitheater.
Aldean is no stranger to controversy. In the past he has appeared in blackface for a Halloween costume and wore Confederate flag t-shirts on stage.
As the debate over “Try That in a Small Town” simmered last week, the song’s consumption figures skyrocketed. According to Billboard, at the time of the video’s release in the United States, the track was averaging about 1,000 download sales and 200,000 streams daily. But it ended the week with 228,000 sales — more than 27,000 percent more than the previous week — and 11.6 million streams, according to data from tracking service Luminate.
While Aldean has a long history of releasing country hits, “Try That” is his first song to make the top 10 on the mainstream Hot 100 chart since 2011’s “Dirt Road Anthem” hit #7. (Aldean’s latest single, “That’s What Tequila Does,” peaked at No. 77 earlier in the year.)
Jung Kook’s “Seven” with Latto hit #1 on the US singles chart with 21.9 million streams, 153,000 sales – in downloads and CD singles – and a radio audience of 6.4 million.
Taylor Swift’s “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” holds the #1 position on the latest album charts for a second week and has sold the equivalent of 121,000 in the United States, including 96 million streams and 47,000 copies sold as a complete set, according to Luminate. It’s the third entry in Swift’s project of re-recording her first six albums, and each has made it to #1.
Swift has three other albums in the top 10: “Midnights,” her latest studio album, is #4, “Lover” is #6, and “Folklore” is #10.
Wallen’s latest album, One Thing at a Time, is at #2, while his previous LP, Dangerous: The Double Album, is at #5. Mexican songwriter Peso Pluma’s “Génesis” is third.