Jason Aldean's controversial song "Try That in a Small Town," which has drawn widespread criticism for its lyrical content and accompanying music video, has hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, giving the country music star his first single atop the chart.
According to a Billboard report on Monday, the song had 30.7 million streams, 8.8 million radio airplay audience impressions, and sold 175,000 copies from July 21-27. This represents an increase of 165% in streams and 21% in radio airplay audience impressions.
Aldean in May sparked uproar with the release of the song, which draws comparisons between city life and country life. The corresponding music video was recently made public.
Critics have raised concerns about certain lyrics in the song that they believe may promote gun violence. Particularly, there is a section where Aldean narrates a story about a gun he received from his grandfather, and he sings, "they say one day they're gonna round up/Well, that s*** might fly in the city, good luck."
Furthermore, concerns have been raised regarding the content of the accompanying music video, which depicts various scenes featuring protesters, some engaged in confrontations with the police.
The video was shot at the Maury County courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee, which is the site of the 1927 lynching of a Black man named Henry Choate.
Aldean addressed the backlash in a statement on social media, saying that the criticism was "meritless."
"In the past 24 hours I have been accused of releasing a pro-lynching song (a song that has been out since May) and was subject to the comparison that I (direct quote) was not too pleased with the nationwide BLM protests," Aldean wrote in a statement. "These references are not only meritless, but dangerous."
He added: "There is not a single lyric in the song that references race or points to it- and there isn't a single video clip that isn't real news footage -and while I can try and respect others to have their own interpretation of a song with music- this one goes too far."
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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