Speaking of being offended: cmt pulls Jason aldean video

[Parliament 14260]

Curious about the courthouse and the lynching.  Racism has been a part of the South since it was settled. I presume most courthouses had bad things done in them?

Totally not defending their decision to use that place.  Just trying to learn.

[Neonmoon 38129]

19 minutes ago, Parliament said:

Curious about the courthouse and the lynching.  Racism has been a part of the South since it was settled. I presume most courthouses had bad things done in them?

Totally not defending their decision to use that place.  Just trying to learn.

It's not the courthouse. It's the combination of the theme of the song, showing BLM protest imagery, and news clippings from other racist shit from a long time ago. It all ads up to no bueno. 

 

[South Austin 52515]

3 minutes ago, Neonmoon said:

It's not the courthouse. It's the combination of the theme of the song, showing BLM protest imagery, and news clippings from other racist shit from a long time ago. It all ads up to no bueno.

Yep.  The courthouse itself seems like an odd setting for a country music video, but I guess I can see a halfway believable argument of why in a general sense it's a fitting image for the center of a small town.  But when you combine the lyrics and the other imagery you mentioned, it's just too hard to believe that this was an inconvenient coincidence.  Aldean and the video's producers double-downing with their silence after all this shit has been pointed out only makes this look worse.

[aggie08 21504]

I'm sure Aldean's supporters would have no problem whatsoever if a black musician made a song about opioids, meth, pedophilia in the church, and school shootings.

[Captainant 27679]

[Brian Fantana 6689]

Wth does cousins by faith even mean

[YGIFS 19450]

All this, "I don't support Aldean's 'music', but I don't think he's racist or divisive" sounds awfully familiar.  Just a top selling country music act that apparently has zero fans in Texas, that totally plausible thing that happens in the music industry.  

Let's be really clever then fellas?  "I bought Aldean's music in 2016, but not in 2020.  He was too 'changed' by that point."

As fun as this self-deceit has been, has it occurred to any 'journalist' to do 15 minutes of actual fact-finding?  Maybe it's out there in some trade magazine for racist 2nd unit directors of  shitty country music videos union reps.  But here's two talking points I've yet to see addressed:

1.   Ask the fucking Location Scout.  In this day and age, for an artist as big as Aldean is...that guy and his (very likely) decent-sized team don't leave much to chance.  They are paid to know if a location has proper roads/ingress/parking, is the water safe, does the horse farm down the street complain about loud noises, is it in a landing pattern for the nearby airport, is the building currently going through a divorce settlement so some angry spouse can show up during principal photography to complain, was it the site of a murder-suicide a few decades ago, does it smell like the local refinery when the wind shifts southward, what historical significance does it have to the area, what is valuable on site that needs to be insured above the usual coverage/what is irreplaceable, anything of specific emotional significance to the locals we should be extra careful about, etc.  There's less than a 1% chance that scouting team didn't do at least a cursory historical search of that courthouse, particularly if they knew this video would end up on a national CMT showcase.  There's a less than 1% chance the video engineers and production team didn't know what was in those newspaper clippings they cut and pasted onto the video.  If this were the 1980's and videos were still patchwork teams thrown together by hot demand and your due diligence was based on what the local roadie-turned-location-scout could tell you between keybumps the night before load-in started, I get it.  But in this day and age of information and professional video pre-production, there is a less than 1% chance this was not all known to Aldean's production team.  Whether or not they relayed that to Jason is a different story.  I could see them not telling him what they found out because he seems mentally challenged and unable to process lots of information at once.  

2.  The film permitting office of either State of Tennessee, City of Columbia, or Maury County (or some combo of the 3).  Most states used heavily for filming (TV, movies, music videos, documentaries, etc.) have a section in their permitting process whereby you disclose not just the physical footprint of your production, but also the general message/theme of your production.  They're not gonna allow an outdoor love scene 100 yards from a school, or a gunfight down the street from a senior care center, or something defamatory near the site of a Confederate cemetery.  Somebody in some permitting office very likely didn't pay much attention to the lyrics or planned optics of the video.  Or didn't care.  Just there to rubber stamp, collect the fee, and probably got invited to the wrap party back in Nashville where the cast & crew was staying.  But somewhere, on government documentation, is some tidbits of information about that courthouse that was received by somebody on Aldean's team.  They don't just give you the keys to the courthouse after hours and just assume everything is educational and fun in nature.  That's not how film permitting works anymore. 

Now back to this ridiculous rodeo... 

 

Edited July 26, 2023 by YGIFS

[BabaYaga 15300]

54 minutes ago, Parliament said:

Curious about the courthouse and the lynching.  Racism has been a part of the South since it was settled. I presume most courthouses had bad things done in them?

Totally not defending their decision to use that place.  Just trying to learn.

Apparently it's a site near Nashville that is used often.  There's been Lifetime movies, other music videos, and commercials shot there in the past.  

[immamac 42857]

Are some of you really arguing that this song wasn't about race in a small town in the south? Lol. 

[Pig Bellmont 8719]

1 hour ago, Parliament said:

Curious about the courthouse and the lynching.  Racism has been a part of the South since it was settled. I presume most courthouses had bad things done in them?

Totally not defending their decision to use that place.  Just trying to learn.

Fairly common that outside the courthouse is where sham trials and lynchings would occur. That specific courthouse was where a black teenager was kidnapped from his cell and lynched (after being dragged by a car) in 1927 for purportedly assaulting a white teenage girl 

[kevwun 15790]

A normal shitty bro country song in front of that courthouse could get an oops.  A song that doesn't even try to hide the dog whistles, not so much.

[Bozo_Casanova 26472]

12 minutes ago, immamac said:

Are some of you really arguing that this song wasn't about race in a small town in the south? Lol. 

A Benneton rainbow of carjacking liquor store robbers, acting a fool.

[closetohumping 17442]

I think Aldean was aware of what the newspaper clippings referenced

[closetohumping 17442]

30 minutes ago, BabaYaga said:

Apparently it's a site near Nashville that is used often.  There's been Lifetime movies, other music videos, and commercials shot there in the past.  

So not a small town?

['stache 21817]

20 minutes ago, immamac said:

Are some of you really arguing that this song wasn't about race in a small town in the south? Lol. 

And some are apparently arguing that of all the small town scenery in the south, and all the picturesque court houses if that was important, they just randomly happened to choose this one by accident. None of them knew of the well-known past of lynching, and the BLM stuff superimposed with the courthouse is just an unfortunate coincidence. Why do some people have such trouble identifying blatant racism. He may have just said the N word out loud. Of course some would still say "I don't think he meant that" or the old reliable "how come rappers can use it?"

[kevwun 15790]

I heard the alternate title is "Hey negro, we will straight up lynch your ass here."  I don't know what everyone is so up in arms about.

[YGIFS 19450]

actually, it was in Columbia, TN which is part of the Nashville MSA.  

Columbia, TN is a super small town though in the spirit of Aldean's and many on this thread's true upbringing in small towns was like where neighbors look out for one another.  For instance-Columbia only has 45,000 people.  Very small.  Only one Wal-Mart SuperCenter, one target, one enclosed shopping mall, only three McDonald's, two Starbucks, and three Waffle Houses.  It does, however, remain true to its roots by having zero bookstores and a soon-to-be-closing library.  

Aldean further peppers his tribute song about small towns with his own experience growing up in tiny, rural Macon, Georgia.  Population 155,000 in an MSA of 235,000.  Again a place where people know where the Blacks shouldn't live almost as well as they know their neighbors needs and vulnerabilities.  

[Longhornfan1024 1707]

2 hours ago, immamac said:

Are some of you really arguing that this song wasn't about race in a small town in the south? Lol. 

Yes.  And they are the same people who know and support what the song is about, but are too cowardly to admit it.  

[Aqua Buddha 14598]

2 hours ago, closetohumping said:

I think Aldean was aware of what the newspaper clippings referenced

In all fairness, he prolly made a C in the one American history class he took in high school and that was taught by a football teacher looking to score with high school girls.

[nbmishoid 949]

2 hours ago, YGIFS said:

actually, it was in Columbia, TN which is part of the Nashville MSA.  

Columbia, TN is a super small town though in the spirit of Aldean's and many on this thread's true upbringing in small towns was like where neighbors look out for one another.  For instance-Columbia only has 45,000 people.  Very small.  Only one Wal-Mart SuperCenter, one target, one enclosed shopping mall, only three McDonald's, two Starbucks, and three Waffle Houses.  It does, however, remain true to its roots by having zero bookstores and a soon-to-be-closing library.  

Aldean further peppers his tribute song about small towns with his own experience growing up in tiny, rural Macon, Georgia.  Population 155,000 in an MSA of 235,000.  Again a place where people know where the Blacks shouldn't live almost as well as they know their neighbors needs and vulnerabilities.  

You are not surprised, surely, that this racist piece of shit bro country turd of a so called song is factually full of shit, like all of its not so obviously racist bro country bros?

[Samson's Wig 3192]

17 minutes ago, Aqua Buddha said:

In all fairness, he prolly made a C in the one American history class he took in high school and that was taught by a football teacher looking to score with high school girls.

While the grades may vary, you just described the experience of learning history for the majority of public-school-educated Americans under the age of 40 or so (and many over 40).  Young people from every part of this country don't know history, as it has been slowly but surely culled from education for varying reasons.  In well-intentioned school districts, it simply took a back seat to STEM classes (as foolish and misguided as that is), and in others, it was a blatant act of whitewashing and/or myth-building.  Sometimes it comes down to the reality that the people who would be best suited to teaching history (or any other subject) to kids wouldn't come within 300 miles of the job due to pay and bullshit.  Either way, many people in this country have a massive gap in their knowledge of history.  Throw in the folks who went to religious schools and learned absolutely nothing of value beyond how to protect their cornhole from predatory religious leaders, and things get even scarier. 

Edited July 26, 2023 by Samson's Wig

[Kennythetiger 9389]

50 minutes ago, Aqua Buddha said:

In all fairness, he prolly made a C in the one American history class he took in high school and that was taught by a football teacher looking to score with high school girls.

Basketball coach, in my very small town. 

[YGIFS 19450]

You had Coach Dale for History, too?  Did you have Ms. Fleener for any classes?  

[Scheiss Meister 8408]

I've lived in several small towns.  People in small towns are the backstabbingest motherfuckers I've ever seen.  They only have someone's back when they've cut it out and put it in the back of their truck.

[Bozo_Casanova 26472]

5 hours ago, Parliament said:

Curious about the courthouse and the lynching.  Racism has been a part of the South since it was settled. I presume most courthouses had bad things done in them?

Totally not defending their decision to use that place.  Just trying to learn.

Yes, I'm sure it's tough to find a backdrop that conveys tacit legal approval of small-town vigilante justice in the south without a racial dimension. I mean it's almost as though there was something unique about the black experience in the south that made then susceptible to that kind of thing.

[Willfully Horn 8019]

58 minutes ago, Kennythetiger said:

Basketball coach, in my very small town. 

One male coach and one female coach, for all sports, in my small town.

Male coach would start class announcing he had a hangover, and if anyone made a sound, he’d bust their ass (with the offender holding onto the desk of the prettiest girl in class.)

[Bozo_Casanova 26472]

5 hours ago, Brian Fantana said:

Wth does cousins by faith even mean

Like @CHAD BRISCOE and Mike

Edited July 26, 2023 by Bozo_Casanova

[G650 14263]

5 hours ago, South Austin said:

The courthouse itself seems like an odd setting for a country music video

This is what gets me, as Spencer Hall noted, "ah yes, the traditional friend of the country music musician, the county courthouse."

[Brisketexan 105152]

1 hour ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

Yes, I'm sure it's tough to find a backdrop that conveys tacit legal approval of small-town vigilante justice in the south without a racial dimension. I mean it's almost as though there was something unique about the black experience in the south that made then susceptible to that kind of thing.

Vermont, as just one example, is full of small towns with landmarks that don't have a history tied to lynching black people.

But, I mean, we all know that he doesn't mean THAT kind of small town.  Sure, the people are generally nice, look out for each other, are resourceful and self-sufficient (you know, all those "community" values he claims to be referencing), but gosh....there's ONE key value that's missing.  It's a mystery what that is, I guess we'll never know.

[NorthLoop 14214]

1 hour ago, Scheiss Meister said:

I've lived in several small towns.  People in small towns are the backstabbingest motherfuckers I've ever seen.  They only have someone's back when they've cut it out and put it in the back of their truck.

I grew up in a small town, moved to Austin when I was 18. I'm now 41. If I had to make a list of the 10 shittiest human beings that I've known in my life, 9 of them would be ones from that town. Almost all of whom still live there. 

[jdhorn92 1552]

19 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

And, to top it off....the video actually used images from a 1956 Mississippi newspaper exchange regarding Jim fucking Crow, and the White Citizens Council response to the publisher's criticism of same.  Not exactly a random-ass newspaper clipping about a random-ass small town.

 

yeah to me this is the most egregious part of the whole deal.  At best he and/or his  team are complete idiots with no concept of how to run a brand, fact check, attention to detail etc... At worst he's a total racist.  The newspaper article is not in the music video.  That article was part of a promotional video for the song,  and in that short promo video,  the article used as a 'backdrop',  details how a non-racist MS newspaperman got "run out of town" for calling out the racists.  Sheesh Aldean is a dumbass.

[Bozo_Casanova 26472]

19 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Vermont, as just one example, is full of small towns with landmarks that don't have a history tied to lynching black people.

But, I mean, we all know that he doesn't mean THAT kind of small town.  Sure, the people are generally nice, look out for each other, are resourceful and self-sufficient (you know, all those "community" values he claims to be referencing), but gosh....there's ONE key value that's missing.  It's a mystery what that is, I guess we'll never know.

Case study: the 2014 Pumpkin Riot in Keene New Hampshire.

[Longhornstampede 3182]

On 7/19/2023 at 12:50 PM, Aqua Buddha said:

Evidently, the video was shot on the steps of a courthouse where they used to lynch people.  Oops.

Probably aren't a whole lot of options in the south to find a courthouse where it hadn't happened

[Brisketexan 105152]

2 minutes ago, Longhornstampede said:

Probably aren't a whole lot of options in the south to find a courthouse where it hadn't happened

Maybe pick someplace different.  How about a place where 1) most likely there's never been a lynching, and 2) is actually the most sacred community gathering space?

That's right, if you want to capture the essence of southern small town community, shoot the video in front of the high school football stadium.

But of course, "community" wasn't the message the song was ever intended to convey.  "Power and authority" ["boy, I said BOY"] was the message it was intended to convey.  And it did.  Quite clearly, boy.

['stache 21817]

I wish the media would stop referring to the video as "offensive." It's racist, just fucking say it. 

[Bozo_Casanova 26472]

1 minute ago, 'stache said:

I wish the media would stop referring to the video as "offensive." It's racist, just fucking say it. 

Well it is offensive, generally. It's just also racist, specifically. 

[G650 14263]

4 minutes ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

Well it is offensive, generally. It's just also racist, specifically. 

 

Yeah I was about to say everything about that idiot is pretty much offensive.

[Captainant 27679]

14 minutes ago, 'stache said:

I wish the media would stop referring to the video as "offensive." It's racist, just fucking say it. 

well, it turns out racists get pretty upset when you start calling things racist

[YGIFS 19450]

"Look, I don't support what Aldean said in his song, but I support his right to say it."

-So you're not an Aldean fan?  Just standing up for some of his policies?

"exactly, brother!"  

-If you're not a huge Aldean supporter...why the Aldean hat, the Aldean flag in your yard, and the Aldean sticker on your truck?  Why do you travel the countryside going to every Aldean public appearance you can make it to?

"Look, I bought all his albums and tickets from 2015-2020.  but after that, i was through with him and his hatred!"

-Says here you still send his fan club money every single quarter, doesn't sound like you've given up on him at all.

"You can't know that, that's confidential!"

-No, who you voted for as "Best Country Artist in America" is confidential, giving money to support his fan club is public record..."

"What?  You're violating my rights to free speech!" 

-And there it is... 

['stache 21817]

24 minutes ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

Well it is offensive, generally. It's just also racist, specifically. 

Being "offensive" or "offended" can be subjective at times (hence 11 page derka threads), but calling something racist is far more of an objective statement. People can say it isn't racist, but they are objectively wrong, and just racists themselves. It is racist af, not by implication, flat out intentionally racist. 

[troph 24810]

just watched the video which means I listened to the song.  first my ears are bleeding, that song is terribad. like the worst music I've ever heard.

second, it's very much BLM vs. white small town vigilante politics, us (whites) vs. them (blacks {and "ANTIFA type liberals"}). 100%. that is undeniable. anyone saying otherwise is full of shit.  I guess I can't say for certain why the courthouse, but I don't care. he's advocating violence against people, generally of a different color and a different view point, which is what is wrong with all of this shit. Right wing politics are racist and violent.  blood will be on this asshole's hands.

third, as for his right to say it, yeah he does have that right. but he should get all the blow back he deserves and he shouldn't cry about it like a stupid whinny titty baby which he will.

[closetohumping 17442]

1 minute ago, troph said:

just watched the video which means I listened to the song.  first my ears are bleeding, that song is terribad. like the worst music I've ever heard.

second, it's very much BLM vs. white small town vigilante politics, us (whites) vs. them (blacks {and "ANTIFA type liberals"}). 100%. that is undeniable. anyone saying otherwise is full of shit.  I guess I can't say for certain why the courthouse, but I don't care. he's advocating violence against people, generally of a different color and a different view point, which is what is wrong with all of this shit. Right wing politics are racist and violent.  blood will be on this asshole's hands.

third, as for his right to say it, yeah he does have that right. but he should get all the blow back he deserves and he shouldn't cry about it like a stupid whinny titty baby which he will.

Stop me if you haven't heard this before: The only thing worse than a N@##% is a N@##$% lover. 

[C-Man 27230]

57 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Maybe pick someplace different.  How about a place where 1) most likely there's never been a lynching, and 2) is actually the most sacred community gathering space?

That's right, if you want to capture the essence of southern small town community, shoot the video in front of the high school football stadium.

But of course, "community" wasn't the message the song was ever intended to convey.  "Power and authority" ["boy, I said BOY"] was the message it was intended to convey.  And it did.  Quite clearly, boy.

Or the fucking Dairy Queen for fuck’s sake.

 

20 minutes ago, troph said:

just watched the video which means I listened to the song.  first my ears are bleeding, that song is terribad. like the worst music I've ever heard.

second, it's very much BLM vs. white small town vigilante politics, us (whites) vs. them (blacks {and "ANTIFA type liberals"}). 100%. that is undeniable. anyone saying otherwise is full of shit.  I guess I can't say for certain why the courthouse, but I don't care. he's advocating violence against people, generally of a different color and a different view point, which is what is wrong with all of this shit. Right wing politics are racist and violent.  blood will be on this asshole's hands.

third, as for his right to say it, yeah he does have that right. but he should get all the blow back he deserves and he shouldn't cry about it like a stupid whinny titty baby which he will.

And yet, the simpleton racist right-wingers have made it a #1 song, which they crow about like a badge of courage (along with reminding people that Bud Light has tumbled from #1 to #14 and Disney’s last X movies have lost a combined $900M or something). But it’s the liberals who do cancel culture.

Edited July 26, 2023 by C-Man

[troph 24810]

Or the little league field 

or the VFW

or the city park 

or the city library 

Or… 

[conVINCEd 21469]

2 minutes ago, troph said:

or the city library 

 

[C-Man 27230]

The video has been edited — a few seconds have been culled. How long until CMT puts it back in rotation?

https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/26/entertainment/jason-aldean-small-town-video/index.html

Quote

A music video for a controversial Jason Aldean song that has received both backlash and support has been shortened by a few seconds, removing apparent television footage of a protest in Atlanta, Georgia.

The original video shows Aldean singing “Got a gun that my granddad gave me/They say one day they’re gonna round up/Well, that s–t might fly in the city, good luck/Try that in a small town” before footage from a Fox News station is seen with the chyron reading “State of Emergency Declared In Georgia.”

That footage also appeared in the beginning of the original video just after a Molotov cocktail, as it is known, is lit. The news footage was seen projected onto a building behind Aldean as he sings.

But the current video on YouTube no longer contains either instance of the footage.

It is unclear as to when and why the video was edited, but public outcry over the music video erupted last week.

CNN has reached out to reps for Aldean, his record label and Fox for comment.

While the song was released in May, according to Billboard, the accompanying video wasn’t released until July 14. 

Critics say the tune’s lyrics are evocative of vigilantism, racism and “sundown towns” that practice a form of all white segregation in which people of color and others who are considered outsiders know they faced violence if they are not out of an area before the sun goes down.

Some viewers noticed scenes in the video were shot in front of what appears to be the Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee. The courthouse has been the site of several incidents of racial violence, including the 1927 lynching of a Black man named Henry Choate. It also served as a backdrop for the Columbia Race Riot in 1946.

CMT pulled the music video from rotation last week. 

Aldean has defended the song, tweeting “There isn’t a single video clip that isn’t real news footage.”

The song recently debuted at No. 2 on Billboard’s Global 200 chart and the music video had more than 19 million views as of Wednesday.

 

[C-Man 27230]

On 7/19/2023 at 1:27 PM, Pescado_Rojo said:

His wife is a super-trumper. 

He is too. They also dress their two sons, both under the age of 4, in anti-Biden apparel. A lovely couple.

[Chooky 13307]

This song writing formula is a money pit. I'm hoping to cash in by writing my new song called Freedom Boner Liberty Pants Eagle Flag Patriot Boots. So far I only have the title but I'll be done in five minutes. 

[Brisketexan 105152]

4 minutes ago, Chooky said:

This song writing formula is a money pit. I'm hoping to cash in by writing my new song called Freedom Boner Liberty Pants Eagle Flag Patriot Boots. So far I only have the title but I'll be done in five minutes. 

It better not steal the riff from my composition, FreedomEagleFlagGunJesus.  Hell, just the royalties I expect from its inclusion in Southern Baptist Hymnals will pay for a nice cabin in the mountains.

[Pescado_Rojo 19416]

5 minutes ago, Chooky said:

This song writing formula is a money pit. I'm hoping to cash in by writing my new song called Freedom Boner Liberty Pants Eagle Flag Patriot Boots. So far I only have the title but I'll be done in five minutes. 

A few years ago, Brisket and I were well into a bottle of whiskey and came up with the Chinese Restaurant name generator. You got your choice of a an adjective, a place in China, and/or an animal. Happy Dragon, Hunan Lion, etc. We could probably adjust the code to spit out country lyrics.