After some controversial imagery was met with online backlash, country music star Jason Aldean's music video has been re-edited.
While the American country music singer is best known for hits such as 'That’s What Tequila Does', which peaked at No.77 on the charts this year, we bet he didn’t expect one of his songs to be flagged as having racist undertones.
Earlier this year, the 46-year-old released his track, 'Try That in a Small Town', which was initially taken quite well be music fans and strangers alike.
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But it wasn’t until his music video was unveiled that people started questioning Aldean’s intentions.
Parts of the video were filmed at Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee - which was the location of the 1927 lynching of Black teenager Henry Choate.
There were also accusations of the lyrics being offensive and containing racial undertones - though the singer immediately defended his track, with him calling out cancel culture as the cause of his criticism.
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Despite Aldean's protests, Country Music Television pulled the video from broadcast.
But now, reports have emerged that the music video has received a subtle re-edit to calm down the storm of backlash due to the questionable imagery which raised the ‘pro-lynching’ claims.
Previously, the singer’s video featured American flags and guns, setting the scene of a die-hard patriot who loves the community he grew up in - well, that’s what Aldean said anyway.
But social media users were quick to point out that his lyrics and accompanying Black Lives Matter clips told another story about his message.
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The Washington Post reported that the video has had six seconds of footage cut, completely taking out news clips from Fox 5 Atlanta that showed violence from protesters during the 2020 BLM demonstrations.
Though the Post can’t be sure of what else has changed, there seems to have been a subtle shift than what was originally uploaded to Aldean’s official YouTube channel on July 14.
While some footage has clearly been edited out, there are still clips of protestors vandalising property accompanying some pretty curious lyrics.
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Twitter users called out such lyrics, which included: "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 / See how far ya make it down the road / You cross that line, it won't take long / For you to find out, I recommend you don't / Try that in a small town."
But strangely, the track still made it to number two on the Billboard Hot 100, which is Aldean's highest-charting single ever.
Maybe it was the droves of support he received from his wife and fans.
Production company TackleBox previously told Entertainment Tonight that the Maury County Courthouse is simply a 'popular' location to film.
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They claimed that 'any alternative narrative suggesting the music videos location decision is false' and that the singer didn’t choose the set location.
But Aldean has had some words to say about the hot water he’s currently deep in.
In a Twitter rant, he wrote: "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."
Topics: Black Lives Matter, Music, Celebrity, Social Media, News, US News