Why Jason Aldean’s ‘Try That in a Small Town’ Is No. 2 on One of Billboard’s Global Charts But Not on the Other at All

Jung Kook’s “Seven,” featuring Latto, and Jason Aldean’s “Try That in a Small Town” debut at Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, on the July 29-dated Billboard Global 200. It’s only the third time in the 150-week history of Billboard’s global charts that the top two songs are debuts by different artists. But while Jung Kook also opens atop the other global chart – the Billboard Global Excl. U.S. survey – Aldean is nowhere to be found on it.

The Global 200 ranks songs based on streaming and sales activity culled from more than 200 territories around the world. The Global Excl. U.S. chart does the same but excludes domestic consumption, measuring the biggest hits outside the United States.

Since these two global charts launched in September 2020, there has been plenty of crossover, with No. 1 songs aligning 100 times, or two out of every three weeks on average. This week’s top 10 on the Global 200 shares eight songs with the top 10 of the Global Excl. U.S. chart. The two that miss are Gunna’s “Fukumean,” inching 7-6 on the former and surging 44-22 on the latter, and “Try That in a Small Town.”

But Aldean isn’t just outside the top 10 of Global Excl. U.S. – his hit misses the 200-position chart altogether. That makes it the highest-ranking song on the Global 200 to simultaneously be absent from its sister survey since they started three years ago. Previously, Future held that distinction, when “Puffin on Zootiez” and “712PM” hit Nos. 7 and 11, respectively, on the May 14, 2022-dated worldwide ranking.

“Try That in a Small Town” makes a notable sales-powered bow, with 233,000 downloads sold worldwide in the week ending July 20, according to Luminate. The song was released May 19 but makes its global chart debut after CMT pulled the song’s music video three days after premiering (July 14), resulting in a surge of attention.

That six-digit figure is the third-best sales week since the charts launched, behind only the 269,000 for Jung Kook’s “Seven” this week, and BTS’ “Butter,” which debuted on the June 5, 2021-dated list with 249,000.

While Aldean manages the best non-BTS/BTS-related sales week in the global charts’ archives, his track’s streaming count of 11.1 million ranks 196th among this week’s 200 charting titles.

Those figures skew dramatically toward Stateside consumption, with 98% of the song’s worldwide sales and 96% of its streams stemming from the U.S. That towers over the averages among this week’s charting titles (beyond Aldean’s): 52% and 22%, respectively. Aldean’s domestic totals contrast with just 5,000 downloads and 403,000 streams from outside the U.S. during the tracking week, not enough to crack the Global Excl. U.S. chart – even if it were expanded to 600 positions.

“Try That in a Small Town” is a country song, and country has long struggled to export outside the confines of the U.S. Morgan Wallen’s “Last Night,” with its 14 weeks at No. 1 on the U.S.-based Billboard Hot 100, has managed to climb as high as No. 82 on Global Excl. U.S., far removed from its top 10 peak on the Global 200. Otherwise, besides Taylor Swift and holiday titles, Luke Combs is the only other core country act (in a lead role) to have appeared on the chart, as “Forever After All” spent a week at No. 105 in 2020. But not even his current crossover, a cover of Tracy Chapman’s 1989 classic “Fast Car,” is charting, despite being No. 21 on the Global 200 and No. 4 on the Hot 100.

Still, when Combs hit the global charts in 2020, 16% of the song’s streams and 10% of its sales were from outside the U.S in its debut week, indicating some interest outside his home country. Wallen, on both of this week’s editions, is up to 25% and 15% from international territories.

So while, yes, Aldean’s mere association with country music means he’s likely to spur far more U.S. activity than pop, rock or Latin acts, his international draw of 4% in streams and 2% in sales are unprecedented for such a huge hit on the Global 200.

The song’s messaging (or its controversy – however you choose to look at it) is deeply American. Even the title touches on the iconography of U.S. small towns, and its lyrics point to social hot topics. Its official video, and subsequent removal from CMT, pushed the song into the national spotlight, the clip interspersing news footage with small-town scenes to amplify the song’s references to violence and crime.

The specificity and the inevitable political fallout of “Try That in a Small Town” seemingly limits the song’s international prospects, cutting its non-U.S. sales and streams to a fraction of even those by fellow country singles. Meanwhile, although Aldean doesn’t chart on any of Billboard’s Hits of the World charts outside of North America, it debuts at No. 36 on the Billboard Canadian Hot 100, where Wallen and Combs sit at Nos. 1-2.