Poor Jason Aldean, he's had a "long-ass week." At least that's what the country singer told the crowd at his show in Cincinnati on Friday (July 21) of the controversy he's been embroiled in over "Try That in a Small Town," a song he released in May but put out an accompanying video for just 10 days ago.
"Cancel culture is a thing. … If people don't like what you say, they try and make sure they can cancel you, which means try and ruin your life, ruin everything," Alden reportedly said on stage [as per USA Today]. "One thing I saw this week was a bunch of country music fans that could see through a lot of the bullshit, all right? I saw country music fans rally like I've never seen before and it was pretty badass to watch, I gotta say."
"Cancel culture is a thing. … If people don't like what you say, they try and make sure they can cancel you, which means try and ruin your life, ruin everything," Alden reportedly said on stage [as per USA Today]. "One thing I saw this week was a bunch of country music fans that could see through a lot of the bullshit, all right? I saw country music fans rally like I've never seen before and it was pretty badass to watch, I gotta say."
Said country music fans capitalized on the opportunity of the "Try That in a Small Town" music video being pulled from CMT's rotation after only two days — and the song being widely criticized by the likes of Sheryl Crow for "promoting violence" — to prove that cancel culture does, in fact, exist, and increase the song's streaming numbers by 999 percent [via The Guardian] for it to debut at No. 2 on this week's Billboard Hot 100.
According to Billboard, "Try That in a Small Town" had the biggest sales week for a country song in over a decade, selling 228,000 units with 11.6 million streams and 7.3 million radio airplay impressions. The song was only bested on the charts by "Seven," the debut solo single from Jungkook of BTS.
"Try That in a Small Town" is, as Aldean maintains, about "community" — which, yes, can mean the implication that gun-touting vigilante justice will be had if anyone who dares "stomp on a flag" or "cuss out a cop" in a small town. Notably, the artist himself is from Macon, one of the largest cities in the state of Georgia.
People have also pointed out that Aldean didn't actually contribute to the songwriting credits, which are owed instead to the team of Kelley Lovelace, Neil Thrasher, Tully Kennedy and Kurt Allison. Unlike that writing session, he was present for the 2017 mass shooting at Las Vegas's Route 91 Harvest festival, where at least 59 people died.
