Following a controversial music video release, Jason Aldean’s “Try That in a Small Town” is now witnessing remarkable growth. The song, originally launched in May, has soared to No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart this week, trailing just behind BTS’s Jung Kook solo single “Seven,” featuring Latto. Notably, “Try That in a Small Town” achieved the highest sales week for any country song in the last decade.
Recent data from Luminate shows an astounding surge in demand for the song, with on-demand audio and video streams reaching 11.7 million between July 14 and 20. This represents a staggering 1,000% increase compared to the previous week when the track had only accumulated 987,000 streams in the U.S. The release of the music video on July 14th seems to have significantly fueled the song’s popularity and overall success.
Digital song sales for “Try That in a Small Town” witnessed a significant surge, increasing from 1,000 to 228,000 in the respective weeks mentioned.
However, the music video for the song faced controversy and was removed from Country Music Television after airing for just one weekend. The decision came as a response to public outcry over its setting and lyrics. At the time of removal, the video had accumulated 350,000 views on YouTube. Since then, the video’s popularity has skyrocketed, amassing over 16 million views and currently holding the top spot in the “music” category as the No. 1 trending video.
In the visual representation, Jason Aldean, a distinguished country music artist who received the “country music artist of the decade” accolade from the Academy of Country Music, is seen performing in front of the Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee. However, the location holds a dark history as it was the site of the 1946 Columbia race riot and the 1927 lynching of an 18-year-old Black teenager named Henry Choate.
Aldean’s music video faced intense criticism online, with some viewers interpreting it as a “dog whistle,” implying hidden or subtle messages, and others even going so far as to label it as “pro-lynching.” The controversy arose due to the video’s setting in front of the Maury County Courthouse, a location associated with historical racial violence and injustices, such as the 1946 Columbia race riot and the 1927 mob lynching of Henry Choate, an 18-year-old Black teenager.
These interpretations and reactions sparked a heated debate surrounding the video’s intentions and underlying messages, leading to its removal from Country Music Television. However, the ensuing controversy appears to have contributed to a significant increase in online views, with the video garnering millions of views on YouTube and becoming a highly discussed and trending topic under the “music” category.
In response to the intense criticism surrounding his music video, Jason Aldean took to Twitter to defend the song, stating that there is not a single lyric in it that references race or alludes to it. He also emphasized that all video clips used in the visual representation are real news footage. While he respects others’ right to interpret music in their own way, he expressed that he believes some interpretations have gone too far.
The controversial track, “Try That in a Small Town,” features lyrics that include provocative lines such as “Cuss out a cop, spit in his face / Stomp on the flag and light it up / Yeah, ya think you’re tough,” and Aldean sings about owning a gun given to him by his granddad. The song, written by Neil Thrasher, Kurt Allison, Tully Kennedy, and Kelley Lovelace, touches on themes that may have contributed to the backlash.
Despite the controversy, during a performance at Cincinnati’s Riverbend Music Center, Aldean addressed the issue of cancel culture and its potential impact on artists’ lives. He acknowledged the support of his country music fans who saw beyond the criticism. He stated that the audience had spoken loudly, and as a result, he decided to continue performing the song live.