Jason Aldean’s ‘Try That in a Small Town’ Surges in Sales and Streams Following Controversy

Sales and streams of Jason Aldean‘s single “Try That in a Small Town” have surged, following controversy that erupted this week surrounding the song and its corresponding music video.

After selling around 1,000 copies of the song each day from July 14 through July 17, according to preliminary reports from Luminate, sales rose after Billboard’s July 18 exclusive that CMT had pulled the video. The song earned 12,000 in sales on July 18, before surging to 108,000 in sales on July 19 and 103,000 in sales on July 20. The latest sales total for the week (July 14-20) is 227,000, according to the preliminary reports.

U.S. official on-demand daily streams of “Try That in a Small Town” also exploded over the past week.

After earning 204,000 official U.S. on-demand streams on July 14, and then dipping to 194,000 on July 15 and 174,000 on July 16, streams rose 24.3% to 216,000 on July 17, then surged 178% on July 18 to 600,000. On July 19, U.S. official on-demand streams of “Try That in a Small Town” skyrocketed to 3.2 million, a 440.2% increase.

The sales and streaming spikes come the same week social media commenters began questioning the song’s lyrics and the video’s imagery — with many calling it racist and anti-protest. “Try That in a Small Town” was written by songwriters Kelley Lovelace, Kurt Allison, Tully Kennedy and Neil Thrasher. The video features Aldean performing in front of the Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tenn. — the same location where a lynch mob murdered a Black man, Henry Choate, in 1927 — with an American flag hanging from the entrance. The performance is interspersed with footage of a flag burning, protesters screaming and attacking police in various scenarios as well as looting and robbing a convenience store.

Artists including Sheryl Crow and Margo Price have spoken out against Aldean and/or the song and video, while others, including Aldean’s labelmate Blanco Brown, have defended the singer.

Aldean issued a statement on July 18 that read in part, “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 a comparison that I (direct quote) was not too pleased with the nationwide BLM protests. 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.”

In the week since it was released, the official music video for “Try That in a Small Town” has now been viewed more than 9 million times on YouTube. On the morning of July 18, before the controversy broke, it had been viewed around 350,000 times.

In terms of radio airplay, on last week’s Country Airplay chart (dated July 15), “Try That in a Small Town” rose one spot from 26-25, though it declined 2% in audience impressions for the week. On this week’s Country Airplay chart (dated July 22), the song holds at No. 25 but gained 16% to 6.5 million audience impressions in its ninth week on the chart.