Okay all I know about this song is that it seems that it’s pro redneck and subtly racist with strong suggestions of “I’m a fraud of the big city because scary”. Also I hear the Iowa governor quoted it.
Anything else I’m missing?
Here is a good article that explains it: https://www.npr.org/2023/07/20/1188966935/jason-aldean-try-that-in-a-small-town-song-video
Now it’s become a favourite song of Republicans who feel like they are owning the libs playing it.
Remember when they owned us by refusing to vaccinate, and mask, and eventually breathe?
So weird, I don’t feel owned…
I remember living in a small town and being on the outside of the “community” he so proudly boasts about. Small towns aren’t “communities”, they’re gossipy high schoolers that never left. I remember going to church and having “friendly” church people openly make slights about my family because we were poor. I remember people say hello to you on the street and then immediately turn to their friend and say “Did you hear about ____ and what happened?”
Nah, screw all of that. Big cities no one knows you and you can be you without being ostrasized just for going outside. I don’t have neighborhood karens asking me what I’m doing in their neighborhood.
I have never been carjacked or mugged, but I have been pushed out of small town cul-de-acs because I had police called on me and my friends for being “up to no good”. So yeah, keep your small town “communities”, I’m much happier being outside of them.
I grew up outside Chicago and hate big cities and the endless urban sprawl, moved to a tiny town in Wisconsin with less than 7k people and had similar experiences as you described. Currently living in a nice big/small town of about 50k and loving it. It’s big enough that most people don’t know me or my business, but small enough it still has that small town vibe to it. As an added bonus I’m only an hour or two away from large cities, so not an unreasonable drive if there’s something fun happening that I want to attend… I’ll probably live here for the rest of my life.
Nobody’s mentioned it yet so I have to bring up the music video. It removes all the subtitles of the racism. It flashes back and forth between carefully chosen snipits of BLM protests - sometimes as they desolve into riots, sometimes as the police get violent - and scenes of the band playing in front of a court house where a famous lynching happened.
I don’t think they thought too much about the lynching, but I find it hard to believe that in a song so intentionally racially charged nobody glanced at the Wikipedia page for their filming location and thought twice about it.
Wow. That’s uh, really subtle. I haven’t watched it, definitely not going to now.
I remember in my small town they all claimed to be open minded and welcoming. Oh yeah we love black people! We even had one in our school of 400 students! Of course I was young and naiive, looking back, there was a ton of racism around every corner. If any black person showed up in town everyone would know about it. It wasn’t “the family down the street” it was “The hispanics down the street” - or worse. It’s hard realizing that just because no one is telling you that you’re racist, or everyone around you says you aren’t, it doesn’t mean anything.
Shame on him for inciting more violence and stirring up more fear and resentment in people.
Jason’s also from Macon, GA. Population 150,000. Small town country boy my arse. To quote Shooter Jennings:
I get home from a long day, put on the radio Lookin’ for some country soul, but I don’t find it, no It’s a dirt road free for all, some old boys sayin’ they’re outlaws, They dress the part and they talk the talk You know they’ve been taught to walk the walk These boys think they’re tough like they been robbin’ banks Cause they name drop Johnny Cash and they name drop poor old Hank
lol, I’m from a town of 9000 people, and in my state that still wasn’t a “small town”. We had a pizza joint! People drove to our town because we had a pizza joint. Douche has no idea what it’s like being in a small town.
These are the kinds of guys who like their jeans like they like their women: bought distressed.
And Jason Aldean was onstage during a shooting at one of his concerts, and do you know what Mr. “Try That In a Small Town” Big Britches did? Ran offstage and hid. Which like, I don’t blame the guy, but don’t release a song cosplaying as some big tough guy that will stand up to bad gunmen when there is literally evidence that you won’t.
