Singer Jason Aldean was the latest victim of the liberal mob
Bud Light. Target. Country music? Conservatives have complained corporate America is out of touch with its core audience. Now, Nashville is just as bad as Hollywood or Wall Street. And the leftist legacy media is there to make sure conservative voices are silenced.
Singer Jason Aldean was the latest victim of the liberal mob. He released his new music video, "Try That in a Small Town" and the press had a big-city meltdown. Aldean’s newest hit tells of how someone might, "sucker punch somebody on a sidewalk," "carjack an old lady at a red light," "cuss out a cop, spit in his face" and "stomp on the flag and light it up." He then dares those who might do that, to, as the song’s title says, "try that in a small town."
The outrage was massive. You name a liberal outlet and it is feverishly tut-tutting – Washington Post, New York Times, NPR (Why do we fund it, again?) Rolling Stone and, of course, "The View." How dare he criticize violence or warn those who do it that it might not go well for them in the heartland?
The reaction depicted the song as "controversial," "shameful," "very divisive," "deplorable" and "sums up the delusions of the right wing." Heck, the "deplorable" comment came from "View" co-host Joy Behar, not even Hillary Clinton.
FANS COME TO JASON ALDEAN'S DEFENSE AMID ‘SMALL TOWN’ BACKLASH
Rolling Stone quoted University of Oklahoma Dr. Karlos K. Hill ridiculously claiming, "It’s the narrative of Make America Great Again, of white nationalism." Does that mean only White people live in small towns and dislike crime. Huh?
NPR argued, "Aldean ups the vigilante ante by bridging the second chorus with a reference to gun rights." I’d note that the Constitution agrees with Aldean about gun rights, but we know the NPR crowd hates the Constitution even more than country music.
And PBS dredged up that it "was filmed at a lynching site." Of course, that was in 1927, 50 years before Aldean was even born. Still other outlets pushed that narrative, with the Daily Beast writing the lunatic take that, "many have interpreted the song as pro-lynching."
CMT (allegedly Country Music Television) even blacklisted the video off of its network. This is the same CMT that featured Kelsea Ballerini performing during the CMT Music Awards in April surrounded by "RuPaul's Drag Race" alumni.
NBC News said Aldean "faces backlash" for the song. And several other news organizations chose that word. Of course, he does, just not from actual country music fans. Instead, they pushed the song to No. 1 on the country charts.
It wasn’t even Aldean’s first country controversy. He lost his PR firm last year after his wife made comments against genital mutilation of children. She shared a video with the caption, "I’d really like to thank my parents for not changing my gender when I went through my tomboy phase. I love this girly life." That was deemed transphobic.
What’s amazing is the left is never satisfied with country music – even when it embraces Black performers. Washington Post race-baiting writer Emily Yahr complained recently because another country singer, Luke Combs, covered the Tracey Chapman folk song "Fast Car" and drove it to top the country charts.
Yahr’s demented complaint was that the song is "clouded by the fact that, as a Black queer woman, Chapman, 59, would have almost zero chance of that achievement herself in country music."
Let’s not forget that she didn’t sing it like a country song or that "she is due a "sizable portion" of Combs’s approximately $500,000 in earnings so far." No, the Post focuses on how Combs has to do more. He might "add to the discourse of the urgency of change in country music." In other words, make it more left-wing. Or even, "invite a queer Black female artist to join him on tour or to offer his support."
Nashville’s massive shift away from classic country and toward the Left Coast has been much criticized by traditional country fans. Record execs are now leery of traditional acts and conservative politics, but they’ve pushed hip-hop fusion into country music.
Bizarre singer Lil Nas X even released the song "Old Town Road" as a solo song in 2018 and then remixed it with country artist Billy Ray Cyrus. Lil Nas X made his mark with Satanic videos and sexual themes, even marketing his "Satan Shoes," which CNN described as "featuring a bronze pentagram, an inverted cross and a drop of real human blood."
I can just imagine a Johnny Cash/Lil Nas X duet singing, "He Turned the Water Into Wine."
The war for the soul of country music has been going on for years. It escalated in 2003 when the Dixie Chicks came out against the invasion of Iraq and bashed then-President George W. Bush. The incident cost them tons of sales and lots of airplay. They finally said goodbye to "Dixie" and changed their name to the Chicks. "Dixie" is verboten in liberal circles.
FRISCO, TEXAS - MAY 11: (L-R) Jason Aldean and Brittany Aldean attend the 58th Academy Of Country Music Awards at The Ford Center at The Star on May 11, 2023 in Frisco, Texas. (Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images) (Getty Images)
The ongoing country conflict has put Nashville at odds with its core fanbase. Outlaw country singer Creed Fisher summed up that sentiment in his song, "It Damn Sure Ain't Merle," referring to country great Merle Haggard. "Them record execs, they done lost their damn mind, they think we're all too old, deaf, dumb and blind."
The latest incidents are a loud reminder that the left is trying to do to country music what it’s done to every other sector of American society – turn it into a weapon against what this nation has long stood for.
To paraphrase Hank Williams, Jr., country music can survive. Even if it does it without CMT and the rest of the legacy media elite.
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Dan Gainor is a freelance opinion editor for Fox News Digital.
