Macon native Jason Aldean’s latest song, “Try That in a Small Town” is stirring controversy for what some view as violent and racist content, in both its lyrics and the accompanying video. This week, CMT announced that it was no longer airing the video, which was released July 14. (The song has actually been available since May). But the song is topping many streaming charts, and top Republicans are defending Aldean, who insists the song has nothing to do with race.
The Controversy
The video is made up largely of news clips showing protests, riots and police confrontations in cities, some of which took place during Black Lives Matter demonstrations.
Aldean’s performance is set against the backdrop Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee. In 1927, a mob hanged an 18-year-old Black man who had been accused of attacking a white girl at that very building. And in 1964, Columbia was the site of a race riot that nearly resulted in the lynching of future Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall.
CNN’s Nicole Hemmer, in an opinion piece on cnn.com, writes that there is “no evidence that Aldean and the team behind the video knew what happened on that site in 1927.” And the courthouse has apparently been used as a set for several movies and TV shows.
Even so, Hemmer writes, “the song is a celebration of vigilantism, though Aldean denies it. He defends it as an ode to small-town America, but it is really a statement of entitlement — an assertion of who is allowed to make and enforce the rules, both as a matter of law and as a matter of extralegal violence.”
The Reaction
On Thursday, Georgia’s Lt. Gov. Burt Jones defended country musician Aldean on Twitter.
“I’m proud to have grown up in a small town and to stand with my good friend Jason Aldean,” Jones said. “He’s fighting back against the liberal cancel culture — and winning!”
Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action, wrote on Twitter: “This song is an ode to a sundown town, suggesting people be beaten or shot for expressing free speech. It also insinuates that guns are being confiscated, the penalty for which is apparently death. Aldean was on stage when 60 of his fans were shot to death and 400+ were wounded.”
That last reference is to a mass shooting the took place nearly six years ago at the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas. On Oct. 1, 2017, a gunman killed 60 people just as Aldean was about to take the stage for his headlining set.
Aldean took to Twitter himself to answer the critics: “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.”
A bit of background
This isn’t the first time Aldean has faced controversy. Criticism followed the surfacing of photos of him dressed as Lil Wayne for Halloween. He and his wife Brittany have an often adversarial social media relationship with some more left-leaning country musicians, as the Twitter feeds of both Jason Isbell and Margo Price can testify.
“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.”
Lastly …
Aldean is scheduled to play Atlanta’s Lakewood Amphitheatre on Aug. 5. Tickets are available through livenation.com.
This article contains information from The Washington Post.
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