Despite country music star Jason Aldean’s insistence that his controversial song “Try That in a Small Town” is not racist, the music video appears to have been quietly edited. According to The Washington Post, “the video is now six seconds shorter than when it was uploaded to YouTube on July 14,” and it “no longer contains a news clip from Fox 5 Atlanta depicting violent confrontations during Black Lives Matter demonstrations in 2020 and subsequent protests in January.” It’s unknown when the changes were made, but a number of differences in the clips were highlighted in the Post’s Tuesday report. Despite the criticism, the song reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart this week. Earlier this month, Aldean defended the song and video, claiming: “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.”
