Jason Aldean’s “Try That In a Small Town” Charts At No.2

July 26, 2023 Hunter Wallace Culture, Music 22

For lack of anything else to do, I might start shining a spotlight on all the trends that I see swirling around and leading to national disintegration.

New York Times:

In May, the country star Jason Aldean released a single, “Try That in a Small Town,” with lyrics that paint contemporary urban life as a hellscape of crime and anarchy: “Sucker punch somebody on a sidewalk/Carjack an old lady at a red light.”

“You think you’re tough,” Aldean sings. “Well, try that in a small town.”

Initially, the track got relatively little notice, landing at No. 35 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart. That changed last week, after the song’s music video became a culture-war battlefield, with some accusing Aldean — one of country’s biggest hitmakers for nearly two decades — of employing racist dog-whistle tactics and the singer defending himself as the latest victim of an out-of-control “cancel culture.”

The controversy led to a rush on Aldean’s song, with both streams and downloads exploding over the course of last week. “Try That in a Small Town” makes its debut at No. 2 on the Hot 100, Aldean’s best showing ever on Billboard’s all-genre pop chart, beating current hits by Olivia Rodrigo and Morgan Wallen. …

In this case, a cornball mainstream country singer who is better known for his Big Green Tractor is cashing in on the belligerent national mood. He’s not the first.

22 Comments

  1. beating current hits by Olivia Rodrigo and Morgan Wallen

    There’s someone else. Morgan Wallen has survived the cancelation mob and hasn’t missed a beat.

  2. I strongly support the *spirit* of this song, the message it is trying to send. I’ll even leave my cynicism at the door and take Jason Aldean’s sentiments as genuine.

    However, the theme and lyrics in 2023 are utter bullshit. At least, at the moment they are. Maybe some wind of change in the future will stir things up, who knows, but basically, nobody in a small town, a medium size town, or even a single caution light town is going to do anything about anything…not at some kind of higher rate of “doing” than anywhere else.

    Incidents of pushing back do occur….then they make headline news, or it goes viral, and then the pusher-backer runs to the nearest camera and does a self flagellation apology ritual.

    Perhaps, if a gang of anarchist Antifa came to a small Georgia, Alabama, or Tennessee town and started trouble, there might be some isolated, localized retaliation for a short burst, but as soon as the CNN vans show up, everyone will run for cover and Antifa declares victory.

    And I’m not even mocking people. I’d probably do the same thing. When there is no institutional support for pushing back, all you become is a statistic, not a martyr.

  3. Sadly tornados and other natural disasters take out small towns, also as I said the Earth is an Ark!

    Arks can be hit with objects from the universe!

    Never let your guard down!

    Win!

  4. I am a classic rock guy myself but if BLM and Antifa comes to a small town they can raise all the Hell they want because I here zero faith in White communities doing anything about it! Patriot Front got arrested in Idaho for incitement to riot before they even had a protest! They were arrested as soon as they got out of the van and their feet touched the ground.It is as if the Justice Department has perfected the art of “pre-crime.”

    • As I said before, these “resistance” movements we hear about in history were from a time when people lived in large extended families, in towns where everybody knew each other for a lifetime. In the world of “atomized individuals” good luck trying to organize by putting out a Craig’s List ad asking for random members to join your Club of anti-state dissidents. You’ll get a whole slew of “Donnie Brascos”…an example of how the normally nepotistic, insular mob let it’s guard down by letting some total stranger with no past, no family, no school buddies from the neighborhood join up and of course he was a fed. Guess what, these people subverting America for the past 70 years really knew what they were doing by busting up the family structure.

  5. This song is going to replace Lee Greenwood’s “Proud to be an American” as the boomers anthem.

    • Actually the title is “God Bless The U.S.A”. But as a very late Boomer, I’ve always hated the song.

  6. You are innocent until proven guilty. That is the law of the land. It applies to us all. And if you do not like it, you can pick up your guitar and your sad sorry ass and go to hell.

  7. OKIE FROM MUSKOGEE…

    Yes, when I was young this hard hitting song by Merle Haggard was generally taken for White Rural America’s response to the reincarnating Weimar Republic in the cities.

  8. Brunswick isn’t a typical small town. It’s a rich suburb and home of FLETC. That’s where they train DHS in domestic ops. Not surprised the local judiciary is pozzed.

    Jason Aldean, on the other hand is a coward. When his concert was shot up in Vegas, he just saved his own ass and ran away. Didn’t say a word to the crowd about where the exits were, or to run or take cover or anything. So his stunt is nothing but typical GOP hot air. The man is a bitch.

  10. “Try That In a Small Town”

    Unless you’re in the Mississippi Delta, then it’s almost as bad as any major city.

  11. I notice there are videos of people driving through small towns around the country and when they enter they read the census bureau demographics and these small town all have allegedly somewhere in the 5-8% “mixed” race individuals. Some of these are in regions I’m familiar with and I’ve NEVER seen that many “mixed” race individuals there. What I am thinking is going in is these are whites filling out the census data in the mode of Elizabeth Warren. Whites faking out being Indians based on some rumored long past Indian in their ancestry. This white guy at work recently started faking out being an Indian. Total loser, weakling type, he suddenly claims to have some Indian in him. The other day he started talking about he likes “peace and nature” and it’s because of “the Native American in me.” Not only is he faking out being an Indian, in his mind the Indians are his prototype of the perfect pacifist and environmentalist all rolled into one. Pretty much the “noble savage” myth. These are the type of idiots completely out of touch with reality that populate modern America, these people are ripe to be conquered.

  13. Nightowl,

    When I first came to California I heard of the “noble red man” nonsense. I thought it was a parody at first. Indians are not noble and in general the only red men that I have seen are white people with sunburns. Currently there are no noble races and only a few individuals make the grade.

    If white people who possess Christianity and civilization are not considered noble then how could Indians without such gifts be noble?

    As a Mexican where the majority of the people have Indian blood I am under no illusions on race.

  14. November,

    Off topic but interesting. I give you an Americanized German song. Musi I Denn by Joe Dowell. A huge hit in the day. May it play.

  15. Here’s a rather amusing, parody of this “Don’t Try this in a small town” music video that kinda of, yeah, definitely crosses that line – has a few words that would probably have to be deleted on AM radio.

    https://www.bitchute.com/video/LRaMFgYBAHKP/

    The general point of this parody video is that this tough talking Country mainstream media band is, well sucks

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