Will This Controversial Jason Aldean Track Be The Biggest Hit Of 2023?

According to new reports rounded up by Country Now, Jason Aldean’s controversial music video for Try That In A Small Town hasn’t dissipated its popularity. If anything, it’s only grown since CMT stopped airing the clip.

In case you need a refresher, Aldean recently came under fire after releasing the music video for Try That In A Small Town, his May single.

The singer has denied “pro-lynching” allegations as footage in the video was reportedly filmed at a Columbia, Tennessee courthouse at the site of a 1933 lynching. The video has also received criticism for its pro-gun messaging and “racist dog-whistling”.

“Here’s what I want to say: A lot of things out there, one thing I love, 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 while performing at Cincinnati’s Riverbend Music Centre last Friday, per Rolling Stone, addressing the controversy on stage for the first time.

He continued, “One thing I saw this week was a bunch of country music fans that can see through a lot of the bullshit, alright? I saw country music fans rally like I never seen before, and that was pretty badass, I gotta say. Thank you guys so much.” 

Try That In A Small Town is currently the fourth-highest country single in the US, Talk Of The Charts revealed in a recent tweet. The single’s success has been propelled by streaming figures in the last week alone.

As the song hasn’t charted in Australia yet, the controversy over Try That In A Small Town hasn’t touched audiences down under at the time of writing.

In the US, the song received 1,000 units (buys) per day between 14 – 17 July, Billboard reports. But on the day CMT pulled the music video – 18 July – units for Try That In A Small Town drastically increased to 108,000 in sales by 19 July. By Monday, 24 July, the song sold over 500,000 units in the US alone.

Streaming numbers back up those figures. After CMT cancelled playing the video, streams rose by 178% to 600,000 listens on 18 July. A day later, Try That In A Small Town’s impact hit a whopping 3.2 million listeners, marking a 440.2% increase in listens.