Jason Aldean Addresses 'Small Town' Backlash at Cincinnati Show: 'Cancel Culture Is a Thing'

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Jason Aldean Addresses 'Small Town' Backlash at Cincinnati Show: 'Cancel Culture Is a Thing'
rollingstone.com

"I love our country, I want to see it restored to what it once was before all this bullshit started happening to us," country singer tells crowd after "long-ass week" of controversy

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These dummies never understand that their country doesn't want them. Society grows and leaves some people behind. Adapt and grow or turn in to an old man yelling at clouds.

Well, they also believe that America is identified by its small town culture. But it really isn't. And I speak as someone who grew up in a very very small farming community.

The thing is that nothing happens in small towns. They're generally static and full of people who have escaped the rest of society in one way or another. They are not the harbingers of the future, more like the leftover dregs of yesteryear.

That's the rub. Nobody wants to be told they're irrelevant. Of course they believe that America is defined by people like them, because the alternative is to accept that America is defined by a culture that might as well be aliens to them.

They are losing a culture war. They feel like they have to announce their relevance, but they don't understand why that very thing means they are becoming irrelevant.

Create an exclusionary song about not liking someone's behavior.

Whine about being excluded due to behavior.

Sounds about right.

That entire song is just a thinly veiled threat saying "we're going to murder you if you're trying something we disapprove of here in this place, where we have all the power."

Well it should say don’t start none won’t be none. End of story.

Let me guess: This choad thinks that "before all this bullshit started happening to us" is any time before April 12, 1861.

Judging by his videos, more like anything prior to the 1960s civil rights movement...

What a whiny loser

whiny loser

Describe country music in two words.

Even the guitar sounds like it's wallowing in self-pity. "Waaaaahw. Waaaaaahw. WAAAAAAHW."

Lots of great folk, bluegrass and Americana, even some good "country".

"Pop" country is the one you hate

Give some Sturgill Simpson a try, and if that's too "country" for you still , try his "fire and fury" album which is quite a departure, complete with custom anime music videos

Restore it to what? A time when we didn't acknowledge how terrible we always were? I always find it funny that the people with the least amount of things to worry about are always the most vocal about being "hurt".

The worst part is always how little they can relate to anyone who has always had it bad living in America, no matter what year it was. I guess it is ok for some to suffer as long as it's not them.

I want to go back to 3 days ago when I'd never heard of this chuckledick.

Seriously: just ignore this dingus. He's a waste and any press/ clicks is good press

This right here.

When he does, sings, or says anything worth paying attention to, someone let me know please?

The problem is "his country" is the Confederacy and by restored he means slavery reinstated. That is my take until I see him prove me wrong, which he won't.

Restore our country to what it was? Oh, you mean having black people in the back of the bus and LGBTQ people in the closet.

Personally, if we're going to revert anything to the 1950's, I say bring back the 1950's tax brackets. In 1955, anything a person earned over $400,000 ($4.4 million in today's money) was taxed at 91%.

When I grew up we bullied gay children until they killed themselves. I'll take cancel culture going too far over that any day.

your reading to far into it. just like the people who think the song is racist. which btw prove me wrong and find one line in the song that mentions, race religion, or ethnicity

Well Mr Aldean did choose a stunningly iconic shooting location for the video. As the Washington Post reported:

Aldean’s performance backdrop is the Maury County Courthouse, which at times appears to be on fire as images of burning American flags are projected onto it. It’s the same building where a mob hanged 18-year-old Henry Choate from the balcony in 1927. The teen had been accused of attacking a White girl who never identified him as her assailant, and whose mother begged the mob to let him stand trial.

Columbia is also the site of an infamous 1946 race riot that nearly resulted in the lynching of future Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall.

The footage he used in the video seems to equate civil rights protesting as violent crime and rioting, in in the judicial use of footage from these types of events that are juxtaposed to each other in his music video.

The video itself is a little silly in that small towns are not responsible for civil rights movements as they are inherently a very conservative environment, that does not foster independent thought. Surprise surprise. However, the video has a very pro conservative tone that implies that protesting will be met by violence.

You're arguing in bad faith. The poster said that wanting culture to regress ignores the fact that our culture used to be cruel to minorities. The reason people weren't canceled for being conservative is that liberal democracy was oppressing minorities to satisfactory levels for these bigots. Now that liberal democracy is being less bigoted, conservatives like this guy want to get rid of the it. The statement is racist, while the song is anti freedom of speech and definitely anti American.

Welp assuming Mr. Aldean had any hand in editing the video that is pretty damning. If he didn't and doesn't think his song is about race then he should publicly disavow his own video. Since he hasn't, I think that is pretty straightforward.

this is in no way reliable information you might as-well give a a hand written note saying "i want to be right" the music video that you are trying to reference at https://invidious.slipfox.xyz/watch?v=b1_RKu-ESCY which is official. Has no newspaper clipping that your false information has, also site your sources for credibility

also lets say the hypothetical that this is real Tictok is by no means credible for news, secondly music videos are done by hired directors which usually have nothing to do with the song for example, Hoziers take me to church. if you read the lyrics it says nothing out gay people when the music video shows about the over reach of the catholic church on gay people. two completly seprate things the music and the music video

Here… https://twitter.com/shannonrwatts/status/1682935514989756417

It's from the man himself. Why does Jason Aldean's racist dog whistles have to be in the same container for them to be relevant?

so you just admitted that you dont like Jason Aldean because of his whistles, which i will say i have never seen nor could find on google. and that you in fact put that comment on this thread because you just dont like him. Which has nothing to do with topic of the song being considered racist, not Jasion Aldean being Racist. which by those terms means lemmy is communist because its made by a socialist developer, which btw it is opensource which is why it is not communist based on each instance having freedom from each other.

That's not what dog whistle means:

"...Yet there's another dog whistle we've been hearing about lately: a coded message communicated through words or phrases commonly understood by a particular group of people, but not by others."

https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/dog-whistle-political-meaning

thanks i did not know that term!

Yeah, it's kind of a metaphor for how dogs can hear a dog whistle, but people can't. Likewise, a " dog whistle " is a phrase or idea communicated where certain people pick up on the key language, and other people don't. Although with the internet now, information can be disseminated readily to everyone and then people point out that it's a dog whistle or not.

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The video you are responding to by the previous poster was a critique of the original TikTok video posted by Mr Aldean. That video was posted on May 19th, prior to the official music video release from a few days ago.

Danny Collins, a former minor league pitcher for the Atlanta Braves, posted a video in which he dug into a promo of the song that Aldean posted on his own TikTok page. In that TikTok video that Aldean posted back on May 19, several images of vintage newspaper clips and headlines are used.

Source: https://www.pennlive.com/news/2023/07/jason-aldean-facing-new-racism-accusations-after-pro-baseball-player-turns-tik-tok-sleuth.html

That original TokTok video can be viewed here:

https://www.tiktok.com/@jasonaldeanmusic/video/7234750082174848302

i stand corrected, thank you for using sources instead of caveman, "im right because" i also apologize for my ignorance and commend you for using credible evidence and taking the time to prove me wrong.

You're welcome. I know, information posted on the internet is oftentimes confusing, contradictory and either incomplete or there's just a lot of false information.

I try to keep it simple and acknowledge the fact that it's difficult to understand information and to know what is the truth and what isn't the truth. Truth and honesty are a hard thing to come by these days...

b

thanks for being understanding for my ignorance, im not trying to be rude or racist i just wanted to know both sides of the argument, to understand what people and news outlets are bickering about. may everyone have a nice day :D

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Was your schooling so poor that you never learned about using figurative language?

we just never learned that exact phrase, or what the petal papers said. many schools are trying to take racism out of history which defeats the purpose of teaching racism is bad. so alot of units got cut by the school board because of being racist which i still dont understand because we read to kill a mocking bird, that book made me feel very uncomfortable. although i did enjoy the discussion on this thread and i got to learn alot of history. also im assuming this isnt satire or poor shaming and is an actually question. thanks

Have you heard of a sundown town? This song is about sundown towns and that is part of what the issue is.

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Lil Nas x (or someone else current idk, just seems like he'd be a good fit) should write a response song called "try singing that in an urban center"

That would only validate the racist stereotypes in their heads.

Maybe try to release a less inflammatory video concept next time. He is appealing to the Maga crowd but is turning off many others.

All the cerebral content of a Teen Miss USA speech. What a fucking clown.

“I personally believe that U. S. Americans are unable to do so because, uh, some people out there in our nation don't have maps and, uh, I believe that our education, like such as in South Africa and, uh, the Iraq, everywhere like such as, and I believe that they should—our education over here in the U. S. should help the U. S., uh, or, should help South Africa and should help the Iraq, and the Asian countries, so we will be able to build up our future, for our children.”

“Uh, well, uh, I think America is the land of the free, which is a wonderful thing, and also the brave, where people can live. And nobody can ever take that away from you. And it never gives up. But the high birthing rate of immigrants frightens me! No offense to anyone out there, but if it were up to me and my family, I would actually call it our America, and not their America! Thank you.”

Hey man, don't be too hard on her. She did advocate later on for more maps and geography courses in school, lol.

Have you tried, y'know, not being an asshole, dude?

He's kind of always been an asshole or caught up in drama.... so no he definitely hasn't tried that

This distillates why I hate country music.

This distillates distills why I hate country music.

FTFY. "Distillate" has a very specific scientific meaning (it's the liquid that condenses and is collected as the product of the distillation), and it's a noun, not a verb.

I hope I don't sound like a dick, but I teach chemistry and I have this nearly pathological need to correct misused scientific terms. So... Sorry? You're welcome? Either way, have a nice day!

I don’t mind. I’m secure enough with my own stupidity. That’s how I learn. I can also apologize for my mistakes. The world needs more dicks. Btw, can you make me some LSD?

You get me the right precursor, I can make you whatever you want 😉.

Turns out anyone with a 3-4 years of chemistry lab classes, some money for reagents and glassware, and bit of patience can make just about any illicit substance. The trick is getting the starting material and scaling it up, which is why the DEA watches who's buying iodine and pseudoephedrine (used for meth), sassafras bark (MDMA), and ergot (LSD), etc.

Edit: and also, don't mistake not being educated in a certain field for stupidity. I'm not educated in lots of areas and I would be certain to make a fool of myself if I tried to use specific terms in a philosophy context, for example. So, you're totally good

I read how to make it a while ago. It was detailed and specific. That’s what struck me as impossible. How to get industrial chemicals for production. They make huge batches when they get it all together. Like, supplying the east coast kinda scale. Oh, and there’s only like 2 or 3 cooks active at a time. Insane. Use mushrooms (the right kind) instead kids, it’s safer.

For sure shrooms are safer. With acid, there's a really good chance you're actually getting an LSD analogue (aka "research chemical" aka "designer drug") being passed off as acid, the way that lots of "ecstasy" bought on the street is actually mostly meth with a little something extra added and lots of heroin is more fentanyl than anything else.

That's a lot less common with shrooms (although not impossible or unheard of). Buy a test kit if you're buying drugs, people!

PS for anyone looking to get into hallucinogens, there are relatively safe substances that are very similar to acid, but there's little to no research into the long term effects, so it's fairly uncharted territory. Try to find a dealer that will be up front with what you're actually buying and read up on the choices before you get in over your head.

The song is fine. The video is full of fear-mongering and conflates people protesting injustice with petty criminals. So while you can infer what you want from the lyrics, since the band's in a video associated with this imagery tells me they're ignorant, somewhat racist, and pugnacious about it.

I actually would like to see whatever it is that people are upset about tried in a small town.

Why does he always look like he's having a severe allergic reaction?

As we all know, the Chinese government has been trying to weaken the American Music Industry for quite some time now. They are using various tactics like releasing their own music, promoting their artists on social media platforms, etc. One of their major strategies is to release songs that appeal to the younger generation. However, they have not succeeded in gaining much success. But what they did recently, was to try and sway our country's music industry by using their influence over the media and other platforms. They launched a massive campaign to discredit one of our most talented country musicians Jason Aldean, who released a controversial song "Try That in a Small Town".

People started accusing him of supporting lynching which is completely ridiculous and absurd. But what the Chinese government wants us to believe, is that this song is a threat to their agenda of replacing our country music industry with their own. And that is why they are using every possible means to disrupt his career and discourage people from listening to his music.

So, I request everyone to stand up against this conspiracy and support our homegrown talent. Buy his albums, go to his concerts and show your solidarity towards him. Let's not let them succeed in their attempt to weaken our music industry and culture. We need to come together as a community and stand united against any such attempts made by the Chinese government.

Let's not forget that we have the best music industry in the world and we will not allow anyone to undermine it. Thank you!

Long live American Music Industry! 🏳️ 🏳️ 🏳️