Why country singer Jason Aldean is facing backlash over music video critics say is racist and ‘pro-lynching’

American country singer Jason Aldean is facing a furor of backlash over a controversial music video for his single “Try That in a Small Town,” which critics say contains lyrics and imagery that are racist and “pro-lynching.”

The video was pulled from rotation on Country Music Television Monday after running for only three days, Billboard reported. It has also been criticized online by politicians, country music fans and celebrities, including Sheryl Crow.

Aldean responded to the backlash on social media Tuesday, writing, “I have been accused of releasing a pro-lynching song … These references are not only meritless, but dangerous. There is not a single lyric in the song that references race or points to it.”

Why is “Try That in a Small Town” video controversial?

The music video for “Try That in a Small Town” features Aldean and his band performing in front of a courthouse draped in the American flag. The performance is interspersed with video footage of protesters, flames and crime.

Aldean sings on the song: “Cuss out a cop, spit in his face / Stomp on the flag and light it up / Yeah, ya think you’re tough / Well, try that in a small town / See how far ya make it down the road / ‘Round here, we take care of our own.”

Music writer Chris Willman — who in an article for Variety called “Try That in a Small Town” the “most contemptible country song of the decade” — argued that the song’s danger lies not only in its “pretty explicit” endorsement of vigilantism, but in its conflation of the act of protesting with violent crime.

The video, Willman wrote, suggests that, “Leading a march and getting in a policeman’s face is on the same level as rioting, or carjacking grandma.”

Other viewers pointed out that the courthouse where the video was filmed in Columbia, Tenn. was the site of an infamous lynching of an 18-year-old Black man named Henry Choate in 1927. The song also contains a lyrical reference to “ol’ boys,” a term used to refer derogatorily to Black men and could be heard as a reference to Tennessee’s annual Good Ol’ Boy Roundup, a racist “whites-only” gathering.

Taken together, some critics suggest the song alludes to “sundown towns” — a term that referred to American towns or neighbourhoods that enforced racial segregation through legislation, violence or intimidation.

The video has been streamed close to 900,000 times on YouTube.

Song and video face backlash

Among the song’s critics was Rep. Justin Jones, a member of the Tennessee House of Representatives.

“As Tennessee lawmakers, we have an obligation to condemn Jason Aldean’s heinous song calling for racist violence,” he wrote on Twitter. “What a shameful vision of gun extremism and vigilantism. We will continue to call for common sense gun laws, that protect ALL our children and communities.”

American singer Sheryl Crow also chimed in, saying “There’s nothing small-town or American about promoting violence.”

She also noted that the pro-gun lyrics seem ironic since Aldean was performing when the 2017 mass shooting at a music festival in Las Vegas took place.

“I’m from a small town. Even people in small towns are sick of violence,” Crow wrote on Twitter. “There’s nothing small-town or American about promoting violence. You should know that better than anyone having survived a mass shooting.”

Others pointed out the fact that Aldean was born in Macon, Georgia, and currently lives in Nashville, Tenn. — neither of which are small towns.

Aldean responds to the furor

Aldean posted a long response to the controversy on Twitter on Tuesday.

“Try That In A Small Town, for me, refers to the feeling of a community that I had growing up, where we took care of our neighbors, regardless of differences of background or belief,” he wrote. “My political views have never been something I’ve hidden from, and I know that a lot of us in this Country don’t agree on how we get back to a sense of normalcy where we go at least a day without a headline that keeps us up at night. But the desire for it to- that’s what this song is about.”

Brittany Aldean showed support for her husband on Tuesday, posting a photo on Instagram with the caption: “Never apologize for speaking the truth.”

Aldean, 46, has been performing since the late 1990s. Five of his albums have been certified platinum and he has been nominated for five Grammys. Over two dozen of his singles have reached #1 on the country charts.

“Try That in a Small Town” was originally released as a single in May, though the video did not arrive until this month.

Aldean is scheduled to play the Budweiser Stage in Toronto this September.

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