News clips from Black Lives Matter protests were removed from Aldean’s music video “Try That in a Small Town.”
Country singer Jason Aldean’s music video for his single “Try That in a Small Town” no longer contains images of Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests.
BBR Music Group, Aldean’s record label, confirmed the footage removal, according to The Washington Post. BBR stated that “the video footage was edited due to third-party copyright clearance issues” but made no further elaborations. The video is now six seconds shorter.
The removal of the footage comes a week after CMT removed “Try That in a Small Town” from its rotation. The video premiered on the network and YouTube on July 14, and CMT removed it by July 16. The video, and Aldean, received backlash for its controversial imagery and lyricism.
In the song, Aldean sends a warning to those who burn flags and get violent with law enforcement, singing that such behavior wouldn’t be tolerated in rural settings: “Well, try that in a small town/See how far ya make it down the road/Around here, we take care of our own/You cross that line, it won’t take long/For you to find out, I recommend you don’t.”
The video featured news flashes and viral footage from BLM protests and convenience stores while Aldean and his band performed in front of a Tennessee county courthouse. One such clip included an excerpt from a Fox 5 Atlanta news clip of violent interactions during BLM protests in 2020 and the following January.
It turns out that the Tennessee courthouse that Aldean performs in front of in the video was the site of a Black teen’s lynching in the 1920s.
Aldean has defended the song and video, saying, “I know that a lot of us in this country don’t agree on how we get back to a sense of normalcy where we go at least a day without a headline that keeps us up at night. But the desire for it to– that’s what this song is about.”
The controversy is paying off for Aldean. “Try That in a Small Town” debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart this week. The video has earned over 20 million views on YouTube to date.
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