I saw a bit of a show on CNN or somewhere following up on the Time cover story on the Dixie Chicks’ latest effort to revive the old controversy, and invest with Great Meaning for the national mood the fact that their current venture hasn’t created a great and visible wave of anger at the band.
Really: get over yourselves. As I wrote at the time, the Dixie Chicks’ problem wasn’t just the comments but the way they insisted on playing the whole thing as a morality play with their own fans cast as the villians, which turned out to be a good way to alienate a lot of those fans. Obviously somebody still buys their albums, whether people who agreed with their politics or people who decided they didn’t much care, but we should not be surprised that the rest of the world has moved on.
4 thoughts on “But We’re Controversial!”
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I think both sides played this as a morality play. I mean, burning the cd’s in public displays came before the E Weekly cover, as did the “ban” on radio stations which came from the top of Clear Channel and was not as organic as it was made out to be.
Frankly, in Texas, they are still controversial. You guys in NY may not think much of it, but down here it is still a topic of conversation. The lyrics of Lubbock or Leave It alone sparked some controversy, Maines saying what is on every progressive in Texas’ mind…Buddy Holly, Janis Joplin and Natalie Maines all hated the ethnocentricity and arrogance of Texas, and two of the three (and soon to be three of three) have statues that their home towns now as tourist attractions. The Dixie Chicks will definitely have theirs, too, some day.
I would have felt better about the Dixie Chicks had they not appologized to Bush. The president never deserves an apology, in this case, if anything, he owed one to the American people and our armed forces.
Astro — I find your comments very interesting. I have yet to speak with a returning Iraq vet who felt their mission was anything but honorable and the right thing to do. What they think is that the American media owes them an apology, not the President. I’ll take their view every time over one os us who hasn’t been there and seen what is actually going on. Our media is doing their best to create another Vietnam, while our troops are going about their business fighting terrorists, building infrastructure and helping the Irqi people get back on their feet and move forward…just like they did in Vietnam.
I’m sure that everyone has a good guess on where Willie Nelson stands on the war (& the Republican Party). Yet probably most people who disagree with him politically (he came out in support of Dennis Kucinich’s run, fer cryin’ out loud) won’t use that to turn away from his music. That’s because (IMO) he’s not trying to be confrontational, or alienate his fans. To me, he respects those who have different viewpoints; the Dixie Chicks don’t.
Buddy Holly and Janis Joplin were both good musicians who added something to music. The Dixie Chicks have made no such claim. Also how much of Holly or Joplin’s popularity comes from the fact they both died young. Joplin and Holly also lived in a very different time in our history, prior to the civil rights movement and during the heyday of the Vietnam era.
Holly and Joplin were better musicians, brought more to the culture of America, and were braver than the Dixies can ever hope to be.
The Dixie Chicks said something insulting about America to an audience they thought would be sympathetic, and were then surprised by the backlash, from the grassroots or not. They then took to the role of victim and whined about how censored and persecuted they were.
I thought their music was vapid when I first saw that video of them on an airport luggage conveytor belt, and I found them to be annoying as people when they played Jesus-on-the-cross when they were critisized.