Why is Jason Aldean’s ‘Try That in a Small Town’ so much more controversial than the average hip-hop track?
There’s a lopsided expectation of behavior in music and film, depending on who the protagonist is.
For some, we’ll accept the artist’s behavior as fictional and relish the dramatization of the character’s deviant nature.
But if the character represents a force of nature we typically wouldn’t associate with violent behavior or rhetoric, we switch off our imaginations to disingenuously translate their script as being a real-life call to action.
This selective overreaction to artistry is no more apparent than in the reaction to country star Jason Aldean’s song and music video “Try That in a Small Town,” as he depicts chaotic scenes of lawlessness in American cities to hammer home the point that this behavior wouldn’t be tolerated in a small town.
Sucker punch somebody on a sidewalk
Carjack an old lady at a red light
Pull a gun on the owner of a liquor store
Ya think it’s cool, well, act a fool if ya like
Cuss out a cop, spit in his face
Stomp on the flag and light it up
Yeah, ya think you’re tough
Got a gun that my granddad gave me
They say one day they’re gonna round up
Well, that shit might fly in the city, good luck.
Singer-songwriter Sheryl Crow is one of many indignant about Aldean’s lyrical use of subtle threats and illustration of the feelings of small-town America.
“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,” Crow lectured.
Left-wing outlets have expressed similar outrage over the song suggesting there’ll be vigilantism if you bring harm against the residents of a small town.
They’ve applied the typical accusation that such a thought is a dog whistle for racists — yet they can hear it.
I don’t think they know how dog whistles work.
The left-wing outrage mob wants to convince you its motivation is to curb violent rhetoric wherever it stands, including in musical form, or else it will encourage real violence in our society.
But if that’s true, why are they so muted when it comes to hip-hop music?
They don’t say anything about hip-hop because they’re fine with the exaggerated imagery of black people being violent and proudly degenerate.
I mean, by their standards, supporting any artistry that advocates violence against black people must be propaganda for white supremacy, right?
The No. 1 music genre in the country must be destroying a plethora of eardrums with all the dog-whistling happening with the constant depiction of inevitable black death coming for the artist’s nemeses.
Violent people don’t need an anthem to commit a crime or terrorize innocent people, but we’re supposed to believe that we’re one lyric away from mass murder?
No one believes Al Pacino is really Scarface.
Yet we often believe musicians are uniquely authentic when they’re just characters attempting to find a way to get an emotional reaction out of their audience.
Whether it’s your favorite hip-hop artist or Jason Aldean, they’re playing a role and singing from a script they probably didn’t even write themselves — no different from an actor in Hollywood.
But my question is: Why this song?
There have been country songs with violent depictions before, like Toby Keith’s “Bullets in the Gun,” which lyrically describes armed robbery and lawlessness.
What about this song’s relatively mild threats are so bothersome that the media insist on lambasting Aldean for creating it?
Well, it’s political and class-driven.
The coastal city-dwelling elitists in the media don’t like it when an unfavorable mirror is held up to their environment, especially by someone who embodies the “backward-thinking” nuisance coming from fly-over country.
They have no interest in seeing their own world from the outside, and they’ll be damned if the poors in rural America think they’re more moral than thou.
And guns? You’re not supposed to use them to defend yourself — you’re supposed to call the police department that you’re actively attempting to defund.
Leftists’ fragile egos won’t tolerate artistic criticisms from someone they only heard of days ago.
Yet they intrinsically despise him because he represents the people they think are below them.
They are not entertained.
Adam B. Coleman is the author of “Black Victim to Black Victor” and founder of Wrong Speak Publishing. Follow him on Substack: adambcoleman.substack.com.
