Jason Aldean’s controversial song, “Try That in a Small Town,” has skyrocketed to number one on US iTunes despite Country Music Television pulling his music video just days after its release.
On Tuesday, Billboard Charts tweeted the announcement that “Try That in a Small Town” had reached the top of the US iTunes charts.
Just days after its release, CMT removed Aldean’s music video for his song that was first released in May. The removal of Aldean’s popular music video, which currently has over 9.5 million views on YouTube, came after viewers claimed the music video promoted gun violence and lynching.
Ashton Pittman, a news editor with Mississippi Free Press, criticized the music video in a statement on Twitter for being recorded at a location where “a white lynch mob strung Henry Choate up at the Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tenn., after dragging his body through the streets with a car in 1927. That’s where Aldean chose to sing about murdering people who don’t respect police.”
According to Fox News, TackleBox, the production company responsible for producing Aldean’s music video, explained that the Maury County Courthouse is a “popular filming location outside of Nashville,” noting that Aldean did not personally select the location for the video.
TackleBox added, “Any alternative narrative suggesting the music video’s location decision is false.”
READ MORE: CMT pushes gun control campaign, gets slammed by country music fans
In response to the backlash over “Try That in a Small Town,” Aldean released a statement on Twitter, saying, “There is not a single lyric in the song that references race or points to it- and there isn’t a single video clip that isn’t real news footage -and while I can try and respect others to have their own interpretation of a song with music – this one goes too far.”
