Country Music and the Revolution

Country Music and the RevolutionA.J. Melnick – Country music expresses the heart of America.  The left hates the heart of America (“the fruited plain,” as Rush Limbaugh used to call it), so the left hates most country music.  The woke mob’s attacks against Jason Aldean and his hit song “Try That in a Small Town,” as country superstar Lee Greenwood has noted, have “struck directly through the heart of country music.”  Greenwood added: “Cancel culture mob attacked Jason Aldean.  They came for ‘God Bless the USA.’  But they can’t cancel all of us.

Jason’s song has been denounced as “racist” by the progressive elites.  The New York Times (promoter of the “1619 Project,” which views America’s beginnings as the story of a “slaveocracy”) claims that “critics” of the song have denounced it as an alleged “call to racist vigilantism.”  But the song and accompanying video are nothing of the kind.  Even Joe Rogan — who survived his own attempted takedown by the left’s cancel mob — has remarked on the ridiculous outrage against the song. Continue reading

CMT’s Tone Deaf Censorship of Jason Aldean Cannot Stand

CMT’s Tone Deaf Censorship of Jason Aldean Cannot StandJonathan Turley – Country music singer Jason Aldean’s hit single “Try That in a Small Town” secured two distinctions this week. It hit number one on the country charts, and it was pulled by Country Music Television (CMT).

Putting aside CMT’s effort to become the Bud Light of music networks, the decision to yield to the intense cancel campaign is an abandonment of principles of artistic freedom and free speech.

The song became the focus of many groups on the left for its criticism of violent protests and criminal acts. The song contrasts the culture of small towns with that of big cities. Aldean sings: Continue reading