Jason Aldean’s Unlikely Cultural Rorschach Test

Normally, I wouldn’t dip my toe into these types of online scrums. No matter your opinion, you’re likely to piss off some subset of Twitter.

But this one has meme juice.

and a lot of it.

The song itself is an absurd traipse down a small town road, where conservative tropes and liberal sensitivities are on full display.

It’s the 2023 cultural equivalent of the ‘Yanny and Laurel’ audio illusion, or ‘Green Needle and Brainstorm’, except if you don’t hear what others hear, they get upset.

Regardless of your opinion on the song itself, the following are points that few people are making, and I’d like to hear your thoughts on how culture has processed this moment.

If you’re from a small town, you might think “hell yeah,” when you hear the song. If you’re from a city, you’ve rolled your eyes so much the past week they’ve fallen out of your head.