Jason Aldean is taking right-wing propaganda to a whole new level with his new single and video. On Friday, July 14, the day before he canceled a concert due to heat stroke, the country singer shared a video of his new song “Try It in a Small Town,” which not only celebrates violence but is set in Tennessee. A real lynching scene.
Touted as anti-crime and pro-community, the song begins with lyrics condemning carjackings and liquor store robberies. But after the fourth line, that façade ends when Arden begins to use protests to ambiguously cover these literal crimes, which are actually not only legal but constitutionally protected.
Aldean intensified his anti-protest sentiment in a music video in which he and his band played in front of the Murray County courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee. Projected images showed anti-police brutality protests in recent years, while Aldean sang: “I suggest you don’t try this in a small town.” A tweet It has since gone viral, explaining that the courthouse was the site of a brutal lynching in 1927 in which 18-year-old Henry Choate was killed and hanged from the building.
Choate’s death serves as a reminder of the violence suffered thus far by black communities and oppressed populations in the United States. The protests, which Ardin seemed hell-bent on disrupting, called for more humane ways of organizing society. Meanwhile, Aldean advocates for self-defense “justice” at the scene of the murder of an innocent teenager by a self-defense mob less than 100 years ago.
In the lyrics, Aldean also references right-wing disinformation that the government will one day “seize” citizens’ guns and warns that while “that stuff might fly in cities,” they shouldn’t be in small towns. Let’s unravel Aldean’s bravado: Would he really use a gun to stop government officials? What, he was going to shoot them? Isn’t the song supposed to celebrate the police and condemn anti-government protests?
Among other things, it’s notable that Aldean encouraged gun violence despite being the star of the 2017 Las Vegas music festival, which featured the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.
The bottom line: “Try it in small towns” isn’t about protecting rural towns, preventing crime, or regaining “a sense of community and respect,” as Aldean claimed in a report. tweet. Instead, it appears to be a racist dog whistle that incites violence and promotes oppressive class cooperation.
The song’s only overarching moral is that Aldean has no intention of creating a better world for everyone in the community (as the Black Lives Matter protests have called for), but rather wants to protect certain people’s lives. The status quo has more rights and privileges than anyone else. Choate’s story just proves that those rights and privileges can include life itself.
renew: Arden responded to his critics in a lengthy statement posted on social media. Meanwhile, the video has been pulled from its rotation, according to CMT. billboard.
In the last 24 hours I have been accused of releasing a pro-lynching song (which has been out since May) and have been accused of not being too happy with the nationwide BLM protests (direct quote) . These references are not only worthless, but dangerous. Not a single lyric in the song mentions race or points to it – and there isn’t a single video clip that isn’t an actual news piece – while I can try and respect that other people have their own interpretations of the song plus the music – it’s just too much .
As many have pointed out, I was on Route 91, where so many lives have been lost, and our community has recently suffered another heartbreaking tragedy. No one, including me, wants to continue to see meaningless headlines or broken families.
For me, “trying it out in a small town” refers to the sense of community I grew up with, where we took care of our neighbors regardless of differences in background or beliefs. Because they are our neighbors, this is the most important. I’ve never hidden my political views, and I know that a lot of people in our country disagree about how to restore a sense of normalcy because we don’t have headlines for at least one day. We get up at night. But the longing for it – that’s what the song is about. “
In the last 24 hours I have been accused of releasing a pro-lynching song (which has been out since May) and have been accused of not being too happy with the nationwide BLM protests (direct quote) . These references are not only worthless, but dangerous…
— Jason Aldean (@Jason_Aldean) July 18, 2023