The Dixie Chicks won’t be adding any Country Music Awards to their trophy case:
Nominations were announced Monday for the annual ACM Awards and there was nary a Chick to be found despite the Texas trio’s five Grammys for Taking the Long Way. The Chicks have won 10 ACMs in their career, including Entertainer of the Year in 2000, but have been shunned by the Nashville establishment since their President Bush-bashing comments in 2003.
--E! News, March 7
Apparently, neither the passage of time nor the state of the Iraq war has changed country fans’ minds:
None of which comes as a surprise to John Shombly, program director for local country music station Eagle 97 FM. Ever since lead singer Natalie Maines criticized President Bush from a concert stage in 2003, the band has been a three-headed pariah to country stations.
“We don’t play their music, and it’s strictly based on our research with our listeners, not on our feelings,” Shombly said. “After it all happened, we gave them a ‘time out’ and didn’t play their music for about 30 days. Then we went back to playing them for about 30 days, and it was just a firestorm. We had so many complaints from our listeners that we had to pull them off the air.”
He said that even four years after the incident, the station’s research continues to show the backlash against the Dixie Chicks.
The radio station regularly commissions a professional survey in which random listeners give their opinions of more than 500 popular songs. Before the incident - in which Maines told a London audience the band was “ashamed” of President Bush - the Eagle 97 listeners put 20 Dixie Chicks songs in the top 50. After the incident, Shombly said, those same 20 songs fell to the bottom 50 in the survey.
Shombly notes that while the Grammy Awards are voted on largely by artists, writers, producers and publishers, the country awards are chosen by radio and record executives.
--dailypress.com, March 7
7 comments:
God, they must be devastated. And when they get wind of this post, it'll just make matters that much worse.
Do you not like their music?
There's no question they are talented, and I like their earlier music, but I agree with Bush's statement: "they shouldn't have their feelings hurt because people don't want to buy their records."
Portraying themselves as victims of censorship because people got made about what they said is an insult to, for example the journalists and librarians Castro has jailed.
Obviously, their loyalty to bush II is more important for those country music fans than bush II's shredding of the Constitution, electoral fraud, dereliction of duty in New Orleans after Katrina, Halliburton serving rotten food to US soldiers and charging through the nose for it, or the scandalous treatment of wounded veterans.
Those people have strange priorities to say the least.
Great post! I find it interesing that people still feel that strongly about the Chicks, especially in Canada.
Apparently you have commenters that think that their "BushLied" opinion trumps all else.
IMHO, artists can expect "blowback" when venture into politics. Obviously, the Chicks crossed a line and based on their refusal to respect the political views of their former fans, they will reap what they have sown.
Joe,
What exactly trumps what? (btw: If you're one of those deluded types who thinks bush II didn't lie about anything, then there's no point in discussing anything with you.)
(btw II: I'm not saying that the Dixie Chicks shouldn't have to face criticism if they say something that's out of line. I am saying though, that people who choose their loyalty to bush over American values and their soldiers' well-being really ought to have their heads examined.)
Country music fans recognized the Dixie Chick move for what it was --a cheap attempt to get approval from a crowd already pre-programmed (as Europeans) to despise America, and its leaders. (No way would they have tried to pull that s**t in Texas!) BTW -- much as I think Jean Chretien was (is) a boob -- I still would have been outraged if any Quebecois artist had told a foreign crowd that they were "ashamed" that Jean Chretien was from Quebec, just to get applause from a sympathetic audience.
I was merely making a musical statement about how I thought the Grammys were rigged in favor of the Dixie Chicks due to politics.
I really didn't imagine this song would take off on the internet like it has.
Playin' Politics With the Dixie Chicks
Dr BLT
words and music by Dr. BLT (c) 2007
http://www.drblt.net/music/DixieChicks.mp3
So I want to thank all of you who have made this possible and offer you another opportunity to download the song for free while its still available.
Thanks for making the song such a collosal success!
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