‘Try That In A Small Town’ criticized by music college professors
Asher Notheis
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A couple of college music professors have expressed criticism of Jason Aldean’s “Try That In A Small Town,” the country song that went viral last month after it was censored by CMT.
Don Cusic, a country music historian and professor of music business at Belmont University, said he felt that Aldean was “expressing the feelings” that many people in the United States are feeling, specifically “in your face anger” that is in “so much of America today.” It comes after Aldean’s song was removed from CMT’s rotation on television, leading to many conservatives discussing the song on social media and the song becoming a massive hit on major music streaming platforms.
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“I felt that Jason Aldean was expressing the feelings that a lot of people in the country audience felt, particularly in the Trump America country audience,” Cusic told the Hollywood Reporter. “The video was just in your face — it was in your face anger, and that just reinforced that anger that is in so much of America today, that big division.”
Cusic claimed that what upset people about the song’s music video was “the coded language and coded pictures” because the video features someone in a hoodie “in a violent act.” The professor claimed that while the race of the hooded person was not specified, the song’s “implications go far beyond.”
“And if you’re Black, you’re looking at that video a whole lot differently than if you’re white,” Cusic said.
Philip Ewell, a professor of music theory at Hunter College, expressed similar criticisms and argued that the song is full of “anti-blackness” rhetoric.
“I’ve listened to some of Jason Aldean’s music — I think he’s a pretty good artist,” said Ewell. “But it’s just something that kind of comes out in culture, anti-Blackness. Because it’s part of the founding of our country. We shouldn’t run away from that simple fact.”
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“Try That In A Small Town,” which was removed from CMT’s television rotation in mid-July, has recently taken the top spot of the Billboard Hot 100 and was joined by Morgan Wallen’s “Last Night” in second on the list and Luke Combs’s cover of the Tracy Chapman 1988 hit “Fast Car” in third. It marks the first time in the chart’s history that three country music songs sit atop of the list.
Jason Aldean’s Try That In A Small Town
Last week, the song’s music video was edited to remove television footage of the Black Lives Matter riots from 2020. Fox had contacted the song’s production company and asked it to remove 6 seconds of footage to avoid any legal action, according to a report by TMZ.