Hotly debated 'Try That in a Small Town' became a roaring success after CMT publicly took the video off its playlist

Jason Aldean performs in Twin Lakes, Wisconsin.
(Photo by Joshua Applegate, Getty Images, via Axios)

If there ever was an example of "all publicity is good publicity," it's Jason Aldean's controversial tune "Try That in a Small Town." The song sits at No. 2 on Billboard's all-genre Hot 100 chart. The heated backlash is the propulsive force behind the song's climb to the top, reports Adam Tamburin of Axios Nashville. "The song depicts an exaggerated urban-rural divide in which cities are dominated by unrest that isn't tolerated in small towns."

The song dropped without drama in May, but when the video aired in mid-July, a maelstrom of criticism hit Country Music Television. CMT publicly yanked the video from its playlist, and the controversy hit the charts. Kurt Bardella, a Democratic strategist who runs the country music tipsheet The Morning Hangover, told Tamburin,"You couldn't ask for a better gift when it comes to promoting a record, especially for that core Jason Aldean audience, than what CMT did."

The song's ubiquity proves Bardella's point. Tamburin writes, "Billboard reports the song sold 228,000 digital singles last week, the largest sales week for a country song in more than a decade. It logged 11.6 million streams, a 547% jump from the week before. . . . The video remains popular on YouTube, where it has logged more than 18 million views since its July 14 release."

Critics claim the video is racist, encourages lynching and promotes gun violence. Factually speaking, "The video features a performance in front of Tennessee's Maury County Courthouse, which was the site of a 1946 race riot and a 1927 lynching," Tamburin reports. "Aldean has defended the song, tweeting that 'there is not a single lyric ... that references race or points to it.' At a concert last week, Aldean said his fans had pushed back against 'cancel culture'. . . . Bardella says the situation mirrors broader political debates over cancel culture, with country fans ultimately feeling defensive and entrenched. A better approach, he says, would be to discuss the context of the video without trying to keep people from seeing it." As of July 25, the Black Lives Matter images in the video were removed.

"Song of the day" picks from the Axios Nashville staff:
Nate's song of the day is "Small Town" by John Mellencamp.
Adam's song of the day is "Small Town Saturday Night" by Hal Ketchum.
Axios southern bureau chief Michael Graff's song of the day is "Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town" by Pearl Jam.
Copy editor Katie Lewis' song of the day is "Small Town Hypocrite" by Caylee Hammack featuring Chris Stapleton.