Particularly the discussion of "authenticity" arriving at:
"But it's important to recognize that the main problem is not the hypocrisy or the posturing. The main problem is the racism. There's nothing wrong with being from a city. There's not even anything wrong with being from a city and singing about the experiences of rural people, a la Cincinnati-born Roy Rogers.
Aldean's song attempts to locate virtue in identity; he claims he is a good person with the right to use violence because he's standing in, or near, a small town. Isbell and Clymer attempt to steal that virtue from him by contesting the identity; they concede, implicitly, that small town identity is virtuous, but deny that that identity belongs to Aldean."
One of my favorite pieces this year was your article about Jason Aldean: https://www.everythingishorrible.net/p/it-doesnt-matter-if-jason-aldean
Particularly the discussion of "authenticity" arriving at:
"But it's important to recognize that the main problem is not the hypocrisy or the posturing. The main problem is the racism. There's nothing wrong with being from a city. There's not even anything wrong with being from a city and singing about the experiences of rural people, a la Cincinnati-born Roy Rogers.
Aldean's song attempts to locate virtue in identity; he claims he is a good person with the right to use violence because he's standing in, or near, a small town. Isbell and Clymer attempt to steal that virtue from him by contesting the identity; they concede, implicitly, that small town identity is virtuous, but deny that that identity belongs to Aldean."
Oh thank you! I had almost forgotten about that one.
that's the most popular one, it looks like.