Jason Aldean Essentials

In the 2010s, Jason Aldean hit paydirt with a canny mix of yesteryear and up-to-the-minute: His 10-gallon Stetson and outlaw’s glower signalled vague traditionalism, while his songs—party-hearty small-town anthems with revved-up guitars and flashes of hip-hop—embodied the definitively modern machismo that much of popular country was pointing toward. The Macon, Georgia-born Aldean’s debut yielded three hit singles—“Hicktown,” “Why,” and “Amarillo Sky”—but his big breakthrough was 2010’s My Kinda Party, which established him as one of country’s top stars. He played up his provincialism on hits like “Fly Over States” and “The Only Way I Know,” both paeans to life in the sticks, but Aldean is a stealth cosmopolitan, a natural crossover artist whose commercial instincts have proven shrewd and influential. He rapped on the 2011 No. 1 hit “Dirt Road Anthem” and continued to integrate hip-hop and EDM production on 2014’s “Burnin’ It Down” and 2019’s “We Back.” And even on a track with the sentiment of 2023’s “Try That in a Small Town,” there’s still a rocking guitar that suggests he’ll never be confined by strict country doctrine.