Try this in a small town
No, really. I double-dog dare you
The flap over country singer Jason Aldean’s song, “Try That In a Small Town” (which has proven immensely lucrative to the Macon, Ga., native) — feels a little…off to me.
Are people just now listening to country music? Because that us v. them/cross-me-and-you’ll-get-yours mentality river runs deep through the genre and has for a long, long time. Certainly not all country music is like that, but you don’t have to tune into the local shit-kicking station to get a snootful.
For example, this song is from 1982:
”You only get mugged if you go downtown.” Get it? In that Hank Williams Jr. song, his friend in New York is stabbed and killed because that’s what happens in big cities.
Us. Them. There’s palpable fear about what exists outside the boundaries of a small town that in country music comes off as belligerence. In rreal small towns, people aren’t poised to protect their bass boats. They know no one’s coming in to cuss out a cop, either, and they know that the people who do such things are homegrown and embarrassing. Musicians such as Aldean play on the notion that people in small towns have been left behind and gutless politicians (helloooo, TFG) know precisely how to capitalize on that.
And no, I’m not trying to excuse Aldean’s lyrics or the accompanying video. Both are ignorant.
This is us v. them plus a side order of nostalgia with a heaping helping of shotguns and rough justice is not new. It is, however, what sells; country music has always had some fairly narrow parameters for acceptable musical topics, just as it can feel as if the list of acceptable behaviors in a small town is quite short.
Abortion? Out.
Gay relationships? You’ll have to go looking.
Protest music? Only rarely.
But vengeance at the end of a gun? Even if it’s cartoonish, as with the former Dixie Chicks-now-Chicks' “Goodbye Earl” (with a video starring a host of Hollywood Knowns), you betcha.
Maybe people are reacting because the small town punishment mentioned in Aldean’s formulaic little anthem isn’t applied equally, or the punishment is applied cruelly. Some of us who grew up in a small town — even those of us who navigated those particularly waters relatively successfully — would sing a different tune entirely.
Good point! Nothing new here and it's about time we notice! Other than a handful of songs, I never cared for most of country music.
I noticed in Aldean's song he also raised up the pretend threat that "they" may round up your guns, including the shotgun granddaddy gave you. Did I understand those lyrics correctly?
I read that Aldean was born & raised in the CITY of Macon, GA and now lives in the CITY of Nashville. What does he even know about living in a small town anyway?
On a tangent from what you write here: Have you read Tressie McMillan Cottom on Black Country music and the genre as a whole? She's always brilliant, and this is no exception.