Jason Aldean’s “Try That in a Small Town” has officially topped the Billboard Hot 100. On Monday (July 31), the controversial song hit No. 1 on the all-genre chart, rising one spot from the week before. This marks Aldean’s first No. 1 on the chart. His previous highest charting song on the Hot 100 was “Dirt Road Road Anthem,” which reached No. 7 in 2011.
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Morgan Wallen is at No. 2 with “Last Night” while Luke Combs’ cover of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” is at No. 3, making history as the first time that country artists have claimed the Top 3 spots since the Hot 100 launched in 1958, according to the publication.
Aldean’s ascent to the top of the chart comes in the wake of polarizing reactions to “Try That in a Small Town.” Initially released in May 2023, “Try That in a Small Town” rose to national attention following the release of the music video on July 14 that featured clips from Black Lives Matter protests. The video also drew ire for the fact that Aldean is seen singing in front of a courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee, which was the site of a lynching of a Black man in 1927.
“In the past 24 hours I have been accused of releasing a pro-lynching song (a song that has been out since May) and was subject to the comparison that I (direct quote) was not too pleased with the nationwide BLM protests,” Aldean said in a statement. “These references are not only meritless, but dangerous. 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.”
CMT pulled the video from rotation in response to the backlash. One week after the release of the video, an updated version was released that removed six seconds of footage from Black Lives Matter protests. A representative from Aldean’s label, BBR Music Group, confirmed that the video footage was edited due to third party copyright clearance issues.
Wallen has also been a polarizing figure since he was caught on video using the N-word in February 2021 which led to him being temporarily suspended from his record label and radio stations taking his songs out of rotation, among other repercussions. Similar to Aldean, the backlash against Wallen seemed to fuel his career, as his 2021 album, Dangerous, became the best-selling album of the year.
Meanwhile, Combs’ cover of “Fast Car” makes Chapman the first sole Black female songwriter to have a No. 1 on the country charts.
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