LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: It appears that the music video for Jason Aldean's song 'Try That in a Small Town' has undergone strategic modifications after the country musician won acclaim from conservatives for defying the "woke mob." Despite the outcry around Aldean's song, it appears that the music video for the contentious song has been changed to eliminate some of the racially offensive scenes.
However, Aldean's song, which hadn't charted at all since its debut in May, is currently No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. This week, 'Try That in a Small Town' stormed into the No. 2 position on the Billboard Hot 100, right after BTS' Jungkook's solo debut single 'Seven,' featuring Latto. As per CBS News, the Aldean song is currently at No. 2 on the global list, No. 1 on the country chart, and No. 3 on the Hot 100 Artists chart.
Has Aldean's 'Try That In A Small Town' video been edited?
According to The Washington Post, the music video for Aldean's hit song 'Try That in a Small Town' was covertly edited to eliminate scenes of a Black Lives Matter (BLM) protest, after detractors claimed the song included veiled threats against Black people. A news clip from Fox 5 Atlanta showing violent altercations during BLM demonstrations in 2020 and following protests in January has been removed from the song video, which is now six seconds shorter than when it was first released to YouTube on July 14.
It's unclear exactly when the video was edited, but a lot has changed since last week when it sparked outrage for combining violent images of riots and protests with lyrics like "Try that in a small town/ See how far ya make it down the road/ Around here, we take care of our own."
What are the changes in Aldean's updated music video?
On Tuesday, July 25, it appeared that Fox 5 Atlanta's coverage of a "Black Lives Matter" protest and another news broadcast had been removed from the 'Small Town' video, which now shows scenes of Aldean singing outside a courtroom where a white mob murdered a Black man in 1927. The initial version of the video opened with visuals from the Fox 5 show projected onto the courthouse's side. The projected picture has been changed in the updated video to a brief close-up of a guy lighting a Molotov cocktail.
At 1:21 in the original video, Fox 5 footage with protesters and a chyron saying "State of Emergency Declared in Georgia" was shown. The revised version adds more pictures of Aldean and his band playing outside the courthouse in place of the footage. The final significant cut eliminates a segment from an unidentified news program about farmers sacrificing their harvests to help "a friend in need." The presence of a man who says, "It's what this community and a lot of farm communities stand for: Somebody needs some help, they'll get it," has been replaced in the updated video with more footage of Aldean singing with his team.
'Try That In A Small Town' reaches #2 spot on Billboard chart
The song, which was released on May 22, is one of the few that has climbed the Billboard charts weeks after its release. The song had 11.7 million on-demand audio and video streams between July 14 and July 20, per Luminate — a 1,000% increase from the prior week. The track received 987,000 streams in the US before the July 14 premiere of the music video, and in the same weeks, digital song sales rose from 1,000 to 228,000.
After receiving criticism for its setting and lyrics, the song's music video was removed from Country Music Television after just one weekend of airing the video. The video received 350,000 YouTube views when the network decided to take it out of rotation. Over 16 million people have viewed it as of right now, making it the most popular trending video in the "music" category on the platform. Aldean's video drew harsh criticism online, with some calling it a "dog whistle" and others calling it "pro-lynching."
