They will forever be attached with baggage. I wonder if they realized that would be part of the deal for aligning themselves with the brotherhood of mutants...
....and that baggage will carry the millions of dollars they are now reaping from the free publicity and the new audience segment they have that the right wing attack dogs inadvertently shat for them. Will this fact gnaw at you till the end of your days? Signs point to yes.
I was never really impressed with their songs (at least the ones I heard) from their albums. Then I saw their Austin City Limits performance. They are a TOTALLY different band live. I was literally blown away.
Ding. New Audience = Winner. New album produced by Rick Rubin. This instantly opens the D-Chix up to the rock world and away from the yokels that panned them for appropriate comments on a less than stellar president.
Excellent post, Jeff. I find the moaning pouring forth from some of the folks regarding the (gasp!) political bent of this group's music hilarious. Politics and music have been intertwined as long as music has been around. And I would venture to say that music has been around as long as politics. It may make some people uncomfortable, but you know what? Tough! No one forces you to buy their music, or listen to their music, or purchase a magazine with a story about their music inside. It's all about choice. You have the choice of whether or not to spend money on their music. When you try to prevent them being heard by others, then you are attempting to censor not only the musicians/songwriters, but those who happen to enjoy the songs, for whatever reason. Some of these comments are just silly, in my opinion. By the way... great to see the Cat posting here again. I agreed with your comments, dude, and welcome back! Keep D&D Civil.
The only thing that bothers me about what happened with the Dixie chicks is that the radio stations banned them from being played. Now, it's one thing if a DJ doesn't want to play Dixie chicks because he doesn't think it's audience wants to listen to them. It's one thing if a station manager decides not to play the Dixie chicks because he thinks it will piss off his audience. But I don't think either of those happened. I think the radio stations owners took their political views and decided to punish the Dixie Chicks because of politics. While that's not illegal, it certainly doesn't sit right with me. Dixie chicks have their right to use their stage to express an opinion, and people ahve a right to shout back and all that. But to try to blacklist them for expressing political views at a concert in EUROPE seems a bit extreme to me. Clear Channel basically destroyed the Dixie Chicks as a country music band because it's clearly illustrated that radio play is the key driver in CD sales. Like I said, it's not legal, but it says more about how a communications company like Clear Channel which has a stranglehold on Radio Stations and a clear political bias can abuse power.
you mean the "biased liberal media"? who's the ones shoving them down our throats? - rush limbaugh, bill o'reilly and all the other neo-cons who want to tear them up for daring to say something critical of their god, bush. check the political leanings of the thread starter and the oh so clever thread title of chixie dicks. see, he changed the first letters of the words around - ha ha. im suprised he didnt go with dixie chunks though. seems that the ones who are so obsessed w/ them are the neocons and bushbots. the funny things is, despite all the wrath directed towards them and all these people claiming that they hate them and a burned all their records, they still had another #1. someones buying that crap, arent they?
Fishy doesn't get it, but this is exactly what I meant by baggage, and they have been obviously psychologically hurt. "this is how I feel-I'm regretful-no, I'm not"... The baggage has been the backlash. The dixie chicks had the right to make personal opinions known on stage, but station owners have the right to decide what to play. This is the court of public action in use when you pander to a political side. Bono is like no other and is a bad example. he is broadly embraced because he really seems to use independent thinking, you get the sense he would criticize everyone including the left if he doesn't personally agree, and...he is not from here...There are posters here especially Sishir Chang who you can't help but respect due to the integrity of his independent thinking and fairness about issues. That is the key. If you feel a certain way, back it up, support your stance...Don't apologize unless you mean it...and Don't ride the feeling of the masses when it seems convenient... The chicks fell flat on their face with all 3 criteria to acheiving validity. They will continue to fill baggage with money, probably not as much since they spoke in a much ignorant-oriented way without intellectual measurement...Their country music careers IS dead, and I can't help but think that any new music direction will be less than fully satisfying to them. There are some things they WILL keep quiet on...
Um, let's see - Good Mornong America, Time gagazine. Larry King, etc. This is an effort by the left-wing establishment to shoot the finger at Bu****ler and they are using the Ditzy Chicks to do it. This was gonna happen irrespective of any conversative reaction
The media have made a decision to pimp hard for the Dixie Chicks and their pimping is so ubiquitous that resistance is futile.
There'e nothing paranoid about it. The left-wing media feel guilty because they didn't crucify Bu****ler before the war, and now they feel they got to pour it on. This isn't paranoia. All you have to do to see this kind of thinking is to read a little between the lines at Romenesko or Editor and Publisher.
It's insane. What's more likely? A vast liberal conspiracy to take down the president (via the media, mind you ) or just SSDD, i.e., the media will take on anything that catches the public's eye? Additionally, we are talking about a country music band not some Michael Moore-esque saga of republican deception. I don't understand how you can so willfully believe in such preposterous malarky, yet give other's crap for thinking the Iraq war wasn't really about "terrorism". Double standard, methinks...
Maybe it's been said a million times, but it isn't that an artist spoke out, but that a "Country Artist" spoke out. In the Nashville system, as you probably know" someone writes something clever &/or funny or fluffy , and incidentally isn't too country at all, like "I hope You Dance" or "The Bodonkadonk Song", releases it and everyone smiles and agrees. There is no true rebellion not unlike hip hop in 2006. There is no Cash or Coe, Just a bunch of people who want to be known. Saying anything else, is seen as treason or not country. Real Country, the Southern Poor Anglo-American Roots music...is dead.
