Jason Aldean is riding the controversy behind his single “Try That in a Small Town” all the way to the top of the charts: The song is Number One on Billboard’s Hot 100, the publication announced on Monday.
“Try That in a Small Town” was originally released in April with little fanfare until Aldean dropped the music video for the song earlier in July. Within a few days, CMT had pulled the video off the air amid criticism that it promoted white nationalism and painted protests about racial issues as lawless and violent. Parts of the video were shot at the courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee, the site of a 1927 lynching. The video was re-uploaded to YouTube last week with some of the footage of Black Lives Matters protests in Atlanta removed.
CMT’s decision appeared to inspire conservative fans to stream and purchase the track, with sales skyrocketing starting last week. The song debuted at Number 2 last week, only behind Jung Kook and Latto’s track “Seven,” and kept its momentum into this week. The track remains at the top of iTunes’ songs chart as of Monday, and per Billboard, the song earned 30.7 million streams last week — up 165 percent, while sales were down 23 percent with 175,000. (“Seven” meanwhile, dropped to Number 9 this week.)
Aldean faced backlash from several artists, including Sheryl Crow, who said the track “is not American or small town-like. It’s just lame.” Aldean has dismissed the criticism, denying that the track was a “pro-lynching” song. He addressed the controversy during a concert in Cincinnati earlier in July, appearing to thank fans for their support on the song.
“You guys know how it is, cancel culture is a thing, it’s something where if people don’t like what you say, they try and make sure they can cancel you, which means try to ruin your life, ruin everything,” Aldean said. “One thing I saw this week was a bunch of country music fans that can see through a lot of the bullshit, all right? I saw country music fans rally like I never seen before, and that was pretty badass, I gotta say. Thank you guys so much.”
During a concert in Boston this past weekend, he tried to relate the controversy around the song to the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. “Any of you guys that would’ve found those guys before the cops did, I know you guys from Boston, and you guys would’ve beat the shit out of [them],” Aldean said.
Controversy aside, this week’s Billboard chart marks a significant week for country music: For the first time in the Hot 100’s history, the top three slots are all occupied by country songs, Billboard reported, with Morgan Wallen’s “Last Night” at Number 2 and Luke Combs’ cover of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” at Number 3. The genre has had a booming 2023 overall, thanks to major records like Wallen’s One Thing at a Time and Taylor Swift’s Speak Now (Taylor’s Version).