On July 13, 2023, a country western artist little known outside his genre stepped into the national spotlight when he released a video of a song that channeled…
a country western artist little known outside his genre stepped into the national spotlight when he released a video of a song that channeled the feelings of at least 100 million Americans. In less than a week it was ranked #1 on iTunes and as of July 25 it is the #1 trending music video on YouTube. But you won’t see it on Country Music Television, because it’s been banned.
By now the story line is well established. Jason Aldean, 46 years old, who already had 24 number 1 hits on the US country charts, has released a music video where against a backdrop of protests and rioting, he sings “don’t try that in a small town, see how far you make it down the road…” Reaction to Aldean’s alleged endorsement of vigilantism and allegedly coded racist undertones has been swift and unrelenting.
According to Variety, Aldean has released “the most contemptible country song of the decade.” From NPR, the song “contained lyrics that glorified gun violence and conveyed traditionally racist ideas.” From The Guardian, “lyrics threatening violence against protesters.” From the New Yorker, “the repellent ‘Try That in a Small Town,’ an ode to vigilantism.”
Mentioning Aldean in the New Yorker was just an aside in that magazine’s recent feature article entitled “Country Music’s Culture Wars and the Remaking of Nashville.” The article was a lengthy diatribe against “bro country” taking over the industry, dominated by “slick, hollow songs about trucks and beer, sung by interchangeable white hunks.” The article goes on to lionize an emerging counterculture, “made up of female songwriters, Black musicians, and queer artists.”
The myopia displayed by this writer is revealed in how she characterizes the industry. So-called Bro Country is commercially successful because it’s popular. People like it. The “new guard,” on the other hand, is propped up by producers and their corporate sponsors who are trying to bring woke culture to country music, presumably to transform its conservative audience into liberals who will vote for Democrats. Hence CMT bans Aldean’s song, but pushes drag queens and “non-binary” artists to the top of their playlist. And nobody is buying it.
An influential music blog “Saving Country Music,” without explicitly praising or condemning Aldean’s song, explained its inevitability. “Country music is more conservative now than it was when academia and the media decided to target the genre after the election of Trump, believing the way to enact a blue wave among the electorate was to seed politically-motivated ‘journalists’ into the industry to larp as country fans… Activists would have been much better served leaving mainstream country music alone to continue to release pallid, soft, unimaginative, inoffensive, and apolitical songs to a passive listening audience… Instead, the media and academia disrespected country artists and their fans with their down-looking, arrogant ideas that they could mold their minds through the country art form. Now it’s officially backfired.”
What Aldean’s song represents, and the reason for its popularity, is much bigger than the song itself, or the artist who sings it.
