Let’s find out. Try That In A Small Town: Everything We Know So Far. The song was first released in May by Macon, Georgia-native Aldean, 46, but the conversation didn’t pick any steam until the release of the music video on July 14 to promote his upcoming 11th album.
Aldean explained that the song depicts an “unspoken rule” for people reared in small towns in a statement that was released along with the music video. We all watch out for one another and have one other’s backs.
As has been the case for the majority of his 27 hit singles, the singer is not given credit as the song’s author. Country Music Television (CMT) has announced that it will no longer air the song “Try That In a Small Town” as a consequence of complaints that the song’s music video had lyrics that applauded gun violence and supported typically racist viewpoints.
On Thursday, a CMT representative told NPR that the change had been made but made no mention of its justification. Since the video’s release on Friday, it has become a well-known type of political litmus test, with opinions on how to interpret its meaning frequently falling along partisan lines.
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Try That In A Small Town Controversy: Everything We Know
Aldean’s singing is intercut with footage of destruction, rioting, and police encounters; many of these images are reminiscent of protests against racial injustice. While some of the scenes feature a Fox News chyron, others, as some TikTok sleuths have noted, seem to be stock footage, sometimes depicting events from other nations.
However, most of the criticism of the video focuses more on its location than on these clips: The Maury County Courthouse building in Columbia, Tennessee, which serves as the band’s and Aldean’s stage backdrop.
According to various media stories, including one in-depth description from The Washington Post, the monument was the scene of racial unrest in 1946 as well as a 1927 lynching in which a white mob released an 18-year-old black man, Henry Choate, from jail and drove him across the city.
Even though the 16-year-old white girl “could not positively identify him as the assailant,” Choate allegedly admitted to beating her “to protect his life,” according to the Post. Aldean vehemently denied on Tuesday that he was “pro-lynching,” claiming that such a claim “goes too far” and is “dangerous.”
He claimed on Twitter that not a single line in the song has any sort of racial allusion or connection. The expression “Try That In A Small Town” perfectly captures for me the sense of community I felt as a child, where we all looked out for one another regardless of our backgrounds or religious beliefs. He claimed that NO ONE, including me, wants to continue to read about senseless news stories or see families torn apart.
The video’s production company, TackleBox, defended the choice of the venue as a well-known shooting location, telling Entertainment Tonight that any “alternative narrative” about why it was selected was untrue.
For his two decades of music that reflects rural, blue-collar living, Aldean has received five Grammy Award nominations, including two for Best Country Album. He has also rarely held back from expressing his right-leaning political opinions during his career. The song’s biggest detractors include proponents of gun control who claim that “Try That in a Small Town” celebrates the perilous eye-for-an-eye mentality.
Moms Demand Action founder Shannon Watts referred to it as an “ode to a sundown town” and said it advocated “people being beaten or shot for expressing free speech.”
Others focused on the song’s depiction of protests like flag-burning and said that its violent undertones were blatantly racial dog whistles. A Democratic state representative from Tennessee named Justin Jones summarised it as a “heinous song calling for racist violence.”
Some of the musicians who have spoken out against the song include Sheryl Crow and Margo Price. Others, such as Travis Tritt and Blanco Brown, however, characterized the response as unjust social commentary. Right-wing political critics have praised the tradition of country music, and Aldean in particular, as a voice for underappreciated conservative principles
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