LOS ANGELES – Jason Aldean Try That in a Small Town by Try That in a Small Town is enjoying an exponential fan base Controversy surrounding his music video.
“Try That in a Small Town,” which was released in May, debuted a close second on the Billboard Hot 100 this week Jung Kook from BTS Solo single “Seven”, with latto. The track saw its biggest sales week for a country song in over 10 years.
According to Luminate, the song hit 11.7 million on-demand audio and video streams between July 14 and July 20, a 1,000% increase over the previous week. Prior to the music video’s July 14 release, the track was streamed 987,000 times in the US
Digital song sales increased from 1,000 to 228,000 in each of the same weeks.
The music video for the song ran on Country Music Television for just one weekend before the network pulled it in response to outcry over its scoring and lyrics. When the network removed the video from its rotation, it had 350,000 views on YouTube. Now this number now over 16 millionand it’s the #1 trending video in the Music category.
Pictured Aldean – who has won country music awards Artist of the Decade by the Academy of Country Music – performs before the Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee. It was here that the 1946 Columbia race riots and the 1927 mob lynching of an 18-year-old black teenager named Henry Choate took place.
Aldean’s video drew widespread criticism online. Some claimed the image was of a “dog whistle,” while others labeled it a “dog whistle.” “Pro-lynching”.
“There isn’t a single lyric in the song that refers 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 for having their own interpretation of a song with music, this one is taking it too far,” Aldean wrote in a tweet posted Tuesday.
“Scuss a cop, spit in his face / Stomp that flag and set it on fire / Yeah you think you’re tough,” Aldean sings on the track, written by Neil Thrasher, Kurt Allison, Tully Kennedy and Kelley Lovelace. “I’ve got a gun my grandpa gave me / They say one day they’ll round them up / Well that (swear word) might fly in town, good luck / Try that in a small town.”
On Friday, July 21, during a performance at the Riverbend Music Center in Cincinnati, Aldean addressed the audience: “Canceling culture is one thing…which means you’re trying to ruin your life, ruin everything.” One thing I saw this week was a bunch of country music fans who could see through a lot of cops—right?” so “The Columbus Dispatch.”
For those wondering if he would perform the song live, he said, “The answer is simple. People were talking and you were talking very, very loudly,” he said before beginning the song.
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