Jason Aldean, Decrying ‘Cancel Culture,’ Has a No. 2 Hit

In May, the nation star Jason Aldean launched a single, “Try That in a Small Town,” with lyrics that paint modern city 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 observe received comparatively little discover, touchdown at No. 35 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart. That modified final week, after the track’s music video grew to become a culture-war battlefield, with some accusing Aldean — considered one of nation’s greatest hitmakers for practically 20 years — of using racist dog-whistle ways and the singer defending himself as the most recent sufferer of an out-of-control “cancel culture.”

The controversy led to a rush on Aldean’s track, with each streams and downloads exploding over the course of final week. “Try That in a Small Town” makes its debut at No. 2 on the Hot 100, Aldean’s greatest exhibiting ever on Billboard’s all-genre pop chart, beating present hits by Olivia Rodrigo and Morgan Wallen. Aldean was surpassed this week solely by Jung Kook of the South Korean supergroup BTS, whose debut solo single, “Seven,” opens at No. 1.

The video for “Try That,” launched on July 14, opens with Aldean performing earlier than a stately constructing draped with an American flag; the construction was shortly recognized as Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tenn., the place in 1927 a younger Black man named Henry Choate was lynched by a vigilante mob after being accused — falsely, historians consider — of raping a white lady.

The video options one montage after one other of violent road protests, robberies and other people antagonizing cops in riot gear. Those scenes are juxtaposed with photographs of American flags being hoisted, youngsters taking part in and what seems to be a tv news phase about farmers serving to out a neighbor.

Three days after it was launched, the video was pulled from rotation on Country Music Television, with out clarification. But it has been broadly criticized as a thinly veiled assault on the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020.

Justin Jones, a Tennessee state consultant, wrote on Twitter that lawmakers “have an obligation to condemn Jason Aldean’s heinous song calling for racist violence. What a shameful vision of gun extremism and vigilantism.”

Aldean, 46, has denied that race performs any half within the lyrics, or that “Try That” is a “pro-lynching song,” saying on social media, “These references are not only meritless, but dangerous.”

Some artists got here to his protection, together with the nation singer Cody Johnson, who mentioned at a live performance, “If being patriotic makes you an outlaw, then by God, I’ll be an outlaw.” Ted Nugent, who relishes any scuffle with liberals, mentioned on Fox News, “The idiots hate this Jason Aldean song because they hate when we push back against violence.”

At a live performance in Cincinnati on Friday, Aldean was defiant. “Cancel culture is a thing,” he informed the group on the Riverbend Music Center. “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.”

“What I am is a proud American,” he added. “I love our country, I want to see it restored to what it once was before all this [expletive] started happening to us.” Chants of “U.S.A.” rang out within the amphitheater.

Aldean isn’t any stranger to controversy. In the previous he has appeared in blackface for a Halloween costume and worn T-shirts onstage with the Confederate battle flag.

As the controversy over “Try That in a Small Town” boiled final week, the track’s consumption metrics spiked. According to Billboard, when the video was launched the observe had been getting about 1,000 obtain gross sales and 200,000 streams a day within the United States. But it closed the week with 228,000 gross sales — up greater than 27,000 p.c from the week earlier than — and 11.6 million streams, in line with information from the monitoring service Luminate.

While Aldean has lengthy posted nation hits, “Try That” is his first track to crack the Top 10 of the mainstream Hot 100 chart since 2011, when “Dirt Road Anthem” went to No. 7. (Aldean’s final single, “That’s What Tequila Does,” peaked at No. 77 earlier this 12 months.)

Jung Kook’s “Seven,” that includes Latto, opened at No. 1 on the singles chart with 21.9 million streams, 153,000 gross sales — as downloads and CD singles — and a radio viewers of 6.4 million within the United States.

On the most recent album chart, Taylor Swift holds at No. 1 for a second week with “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version),” which had the equal of 121,000 gross sales within the United States, together with 96 million streams and 47,000 copies offered as an entire package deal, in line with Luminate. It is the third entry in Swift’s undertaking to rerecord her first six albums, and every has gone to No. 1.

Swift has three different albums within the Top 10: “Midnights,” her final studio album, is No. 4, “Lover” is No. 6 and “Folklore” is No. 10.

Wallen’s newest album, “One Thing at a Time,” holds at No. 2, whereas his earlier LP, “Dangerous: The Double Album,” is No. 5. “Génesis,” by the Mexican songwriter Peso Pluma, is in third place.