Small Town Controversy In Country Music
By Bob Small
So when I do yard work, I tend to change the radio stations on my headphone from classical music to sports to KYW to country music, depending on what’s on. I get bored easily.
WXTU 92.5 is in the mix, but my liberal friends don’t know. So on a recent afternoon, the lyrics of Try That In A Small Town grabbed me and made me listen:
“Got a gun that my grandad gave me,
They say one day they’re gonna round up”
This was written by four people other than the singer Jason Aldean.
Then I had to watch the music video, a mash-up of Antifa, BLM, Jan 6th and whatever, along with some actual crimes featuring both Black and Caucasian perpetrators.
So the commentariat has been all over this, few quotes worth repeating:
Lebron Hill from the Nashville Tennessean said: “For a second, if you could, take away the left or right, liberal or conservative and ponder this question: Is the only way to push our values to fearmonger about the other side? (my italics)
At this point, let Jason Aldean speak for himself. (Warning: he’s more eloquent than the song he sings but didn’t write.)
He says, “I was present at Route 91 where so many lost their lives, and our community recently suffered another heartbreaking tragedy. NO ONE, including me, wants to continue to see senseless headlines or families ripped apart”
Route 91 was the site of a mass shooting in 2017, at the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival, where 60 people were killed. Aldean was performing on stage when the shooting started.
Of course there is a response song, “Sundown Town”, a parody by Adeem the Artist, who actually wrote his song!
“I just read the words and say ‘That was good’
As long as it implies a gown and hood”
There’s a lot more on the internet about these two songs, but the unanswered question is how do we get people from all political sides to discuss the problem that everyone agrees is real, of daily violence in our society, without resorting to useless solutions?
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