Jason Aldean's 'Try That In A Small Town' has hit the number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100 despite the controversy surrounding the song.
The 46-year-old country singer became the talk of the town after releasing the accompanying music video for the track on July 14 - two months after the song's initial release in May.
Critics have slammed the video, stating that it features racially charged imagery, such as a scene of Aldean performing in front of the Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee - which is the historic site where Black teenager Henry Choate was lynched in 1927.
Others have also pointed out that the lyrics of this song warn people about causing trouble and attacking police officers in the narrator’s neighborhood, such as: "Sucker punch somebody on a sidewalk / Carjack an old lady at a red light / Pull a gun on the owner of a liquor store," all of which he claims wouldn't be tolerated in a small town.
Some eagle-eyed viewers have also accused the singer of using videos from Black Lives Matter protests that occurred after the police killing of George Floyd in 2020 - though this was reportedly edited out in another version of the video.
Due to all the backlash, the video was eventually withdrawn from rotation by the country music channel CMT. Even fellow musicians like Sheryl Crow shared their disappointment with the singer, writing: "I’m from a small town. Even people in small towns are sick of violence.
"There’s nothing small-town or American about promoting violence. You should know that better than anyone having survived a mass shooting. This is not American or small-town-like. It’s just lame," she added.
In response to the criticism on social media, the 'Got What I Got' musician released a statement to address the "pro lynching" accusations, stating that it's "meritless" and "dangerous".
"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," he added.
Aldean explained that the song was intended to reflect "the feeling of a community that I had growing up" and contended that it contained no references to race. He also claimed that the video clips were authentic news footage - but this was contested by a woman on TikTok who went viral for calling out Aldean.
Following his denial statement, Aldean paused his performance at Cincinnati's Riverbend Center on July 22 to address "cancel culture," telling the crowd: "That’s something that if people don’t like what you say they try to make sure they can cancel you, which means try to ruin your life, ruin everything.
"One thing I saw this week was a bunch of country music fans that can see through a lot of the bulls***. I saw country music fans rally like I’ve never seen before and it was pretty badass, I gotta say. Thank you guys so much," he added.
Well, it looks like any publicity is good publicity as on July 31, Aldean rose to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 from the song's number two debut.
According to Billboard, the song drew 30.7 million streams (up 165%) and 8.8 million radio airplay audience impressions (up 21%) and sold 175,000 (down 23%) July 21-27.
Now that he has a number one song under his belt, we wonder if he still has any complaints about cancel culture in this country…
