I only read the OP and linked story because I was both fascinated and PROUD that I had no idea who this person was prior to reading the story. Also, likely 20-40 seconds after I hit the [Post Reply] box I will not know again.
The song is bland canned bro country crap.Nashvilles been destroying country music since at least the 50s. 0 = CMAs won by Buck Owens
If they want to pull it, that's their business. The lyrics and video combination are reprehensible imo. He's basically singing about how they'll murder people in small towns who engage in speech they don't like, and as others pointed out, he apparently featured a courthouse famous for lynchings in the video. If I was from a small town (I am not, but I have spent time living in rural areas), I'd be embarrassed by the lyrics, as they paint small-town folks as very prone to violence and unable to deal with expression they disagree with. That certainly wasn't my experience.
I'm not surprised; it looks like the producers went out of their way to show predominantly "white" looking people doing the referenced actions. I'm willing to give an ignorance pass if the musician or the production company were not familiar with that courthouse's history. As I watch the video, it looks to be more of a fringe left vs. right sort of thing rather than anything about race. I'm not a country music listener, just what it looks like on the surface as I watch the video. Go GATORS! ,WESGATORS
Any time I see a comment like this, this song is all I can think of. (wonder how many times I've posted this on too hot 0.o)
I think it's prudent to be cautious of injecting race where it's not necessarily present as a factor or issue. The challenge, of course, is balancing that line of thought with the competing idea of being cautious of anybody not willing to consider race as being a potential factor. Go GATORS! ,WESGATORS
I went & watched that too & pasted it in a post before I changed my mind. Bo’s pretty genius imo. this, imo, is an even bigger burn on Bro Country.
Agree but I think in THIS case, race is an unspoken theme. If this truly was a coincidence in using this particular courthouse, then how difficult would it be to acknowledge the issue and then recut the video. He’s chosen to double down instead.
Nice - I enjoyed his explanation of the chord progression, the flat third bending to the quasi major third, and esp. the notion of using major triads from the minor pentatonic scale. I hadn't thought of that before, except for what he calls the "Mario Cadence," which is ubiquitous.
I haven't followed his career but seems that after previously saying in 2016 that he didn't like to get into politics, he started saying and doing more things that were considered political or controversial. Not sure if he simply became more political, if he's realized that politics is good for business, or he's rich enough now that he cares less these days about making politics part of his brand. I certainly don't question his right to his opinion just because he's an entertainer. But I find it very hard to believe that he didn't fully anticipate the pushback with this video. Jason Aldean’s Most Controversial Moments: A Timeline – Rolling Stone
We need another Congressional hearing where Frank Zappa savages Tipper Gore while her husband looks on traumatized.
It seems that whenever an acquaintance tells me "they aren't usually political but . . ." that they are just dying to talk politics. It never fails. Now to the censorship aspect of this story and this is not at all directed to you: If a record label or TV network wants to "cancel" the song and if doing so is well within their rights, then so be it. Otherwise, outside parties should have no say in what an artist sings, paints, composes, etc. If it's offensive, so what. Critique it and don't support it. The idea of cancel culture, though, is just stupid and often overboard, imo. If somebody wants to sing about a controversial topic, let 'em. It should be incumbent upon informed audiences to make decisions about what they will and will not support. This is a foundational principal in a free society, where artists should have the right to express themselves, even when sharing controversial or largely unaccepted opinions.
