By David Kassnoff

A glance at my CD racks explains my taste in country music: George Strait, Reba McEntire, Anne Murray, Willie Nelson. Before the CMT network withdrew Jason Aldean’s “Try That in a Small Town” music video last week, I hadn’t listened to him or his music. I don’t know if his style would be called “outlaw country.”

But he’s not a law-and-order type, either.

Maybe that was the point of Aldean’s controversial video. It blended scenes of Black Lives Matter demonstrations, a burning Old Glory, and a store robbery, while Aldean sang before a rural courthouse linked to a 1927 lynching.

CMT didn’t like it.

Aldean has claimed “Try That in a Small Town” celebrates small-town values. But the video’s defiant, you-won’t-take-my-gun message goes beyond simple rural life. It showcases vigilantism, suggesting small-town residents will take aim if someone tries to disarm them. Call it Vigilante Music or not, but Aldean’s message is unmistakable.

Ironically, the music business calls a fast-selling record on the Billboard chart a “number one with a bullet.” Aldean’s isn’t the first hit record to espouse such attitudes. Toby Keith’s 2002 ode to vengeance, “Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue (The Angry American)” promised post-September 11 retribution:

Justice will be served and the battle will rage
This big dog will fight when you rattle his cage
And you’ll be sorry that you messed with the U.S. of A.
‘Cause we’ll put a boot in your ass, it’s the American way

Other popular records talk of guns, small-town virtues, and confronting rape with more violence (see Kenny Rogers’ 1979 hit, “Coward of the County”). But let’s not kid ourselves. Aldean’s tune isn’t about small-town values where he filmed his video. Its BLM-related scenes, implied racism, and a call-to-arms make the video offensive.

Promoting vigilantism and racism doesn’t belong in a country music video. Take a good look around, Jason. Racial tensions are everywhere. You and your video producers stoked a fire, and should have known better.

Oddly, another controversial hit spelled out the foolishness of vigilantism and racism. In 1965’s “Eve of Destruction,” Barry McGuire sang: “Hate your next-door neighbor, but don’t forget to say grace.” Is Aldean a victim of cancel culture, or just playing to a Confederate flag demographic? Hard to say. But CMT made the right call in pulling the video. We don’t need singers tossing lit matches on our society’s racial problems or encouraging small-town vigilantism.

David Kassnoff has worked in journalism, public relations and higher education. For several years, he was a lecturer in the Jandoli School of Communication at St. Bonaventure University. 

Categories: Jandoli Institute, Media, Music and Social Justice, Pop Culture, Sharp Notes Sharp Thoughts