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Title: Dixie Chicks in the line of fire
Source:
CNN Entertainment
URL Source: http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/05/21/cover.story.tm/index.html
Published: May 21, 2006
Author: CNN
Post Date: 2006-05-21 18:33:44 by peteatomic
Keywords: None
Views: 348
Comments: 16
Country group is back with new album, but will anybody buy it? Sunday, May 21, 2006; Posted: 12:39 p.m. EDT (16:39 GMT) Editor's note: The following is a summary of this week's Time magazine cover story. Natalie Maines is one of those people born middle finger first. As a high school senior in Lubbock, Texas, she'd skip a class a day in an attempt to prove that because she never got caught and some Mexican students did, the system was racist. After Maines joined the Dixie Chicks, and the Dixie Chicks became the biggest-selling female group in music history -- with suspiciously little cash to show for it -- she and her bandmates told their record label, Sony, they were declaring themselves free agents. (In the high school that is Nashville, this is way worse than skipping class.) Now that she's truly notorious, having told a London audience in 2003, on the eve of the Iraq war, "Just so you know, we're ashamed the President of the United States is from Texas," Maines has one regret: the apology she offered George W. Bush at the onset of her infamy. "I apologized for disrespecting the office of the president," says Maines. "But I don't feel that way anymore. I don't feel he is owed any respect whatsoever." A sizable chunk of their once adoring audience feels the same way about the Dixie Chicks. After Maines' pronouncement, which was vigorously seconded by bandmates Martie Maguire and Emily Robison, the group received death threats and was banned by thousands of country radio stations, many of which still have informal bans in place. The Dixie Chicks have mass appeal -- you can't sell 10 million copies of two of your three albums without engaging lots of different people -- but country radio is an indispensable part of how they reach people. Programmers say that even now a heartfelt apology could help set things right with listeners, but it's not happening. "If people are going to ask me to apologize based on who I am," says Maines, "I don't know what to do about that. I can't change who I am." As proof, the first single from the Dixie Chicks' new album, "Taking the Long Way" (out May 23), is called "Not Ready to Make Nice." It is, as one country radio programmer says, "a four-minute f--- you to the format and our listeners. I like the Chicks, and I won't play it." Few other stations are playing Not Ready to Make Nice, and while it has done well on iTunes, it's quite possible that in singing about their anger at people who were already livid with them and were once their target audience, the Chicks have written their own ticket to the pop-culture glue factory. "I guess if we really cared, we wouldn't have released that single first," says Maguire. "That was just making people mad. But I don't think it was a mistake." Whether the Dixie Chicks recover their sales luster or not, the choice of single has turned their album release into a referendum. "Taking the Long Way" is designed to thumb its nose at country's intolerance for ideological hell raising, and buying it or cursing it reveals something about you and your politics -- or at least your ability to put a grudge above your listening pleasure. And however you vote, it's tough to deny that by gambling their careers, three Texas women have the biggest balls in American music. Over lunch in decidedly uncountry Santa Monica, California, where they have lived part time while recording "Long Way," the Dixie Chicks -- in fancy jeans, tank tops and designer sunglasses -- seem less like provocateurs than busy moms (they have seven kids in all, ages 1 to 5) amped up by a little free time. In conversation they are loud and unembarrassable, celebrating their lack of boundaries in that escalating, I-can-be-more-blunt-than-you way unique to sisters (which Maguire and Robison are) and women who have shared a tour-bus bathroom. They eagerly discuss the soullessness of Tom Cruise, the creepiness of Charlie Sheen and the price-fixing practices of hair colorists. But sex is the perennial champ, and they are in a constant state of speculation about which of their kids' nannies is most likely to "get some" on tour this summer. "We're all married," says Maguire, "so it's not like we're going to."
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#1. To: All, Christine, Zipporah (#0)
I flagged two dixie chicks that come to mind ;) the Dixie chicks are pretty cool, and hot, too. I like the part about their nannies getting some on tour..
"That's libertarians for you - anarchists who want police protection from their slaves." Kim Stanley Robinson, "Green Mars" p318
The "chicks" are of course utterly vindicated. Will the knuckle dragging rapture nutting Mars Worshippers who particpated in the hysterical hate campiagn against them recognize this? Hell no. They are still making jokes about "coward" Frenchmen. Most of the interior of this country is filled with xenophobic trogs who have no business voting. I view them as they once viewed black people- as children who need to be lead and commanded- never allowed to have any members of their trash tribes in positions of power. Invade their lands, kill their leaders, and conver them to Christianity- real Christianity and not Rapture Nutter Paganism.
the Dixie chicks are pretty cool, and hot, too. I like the part about their nannies getting some on tour.. Ah.. aren't ya'll you just too sweet.. ;) I love the Dixie Chicks.. great music.. here's the video of their song Not Ready To Make Nice ;)
nice rant. I couldn't have spleened vitriol any better ;)
"That's libertarians for you - anarchists who want police protection from their slaves." Kim Stanley Robinson, "Green Mars" p318
thanks ;) it's nice to see somebody in the country world get a little more cogent then 'how hungover I was today' or 'my truck' or..you get what I mean. They have more courage than most artists, imho. Next, we need to get them paired up with Neil Young & Bob dylan, imo
"That's libertarians for you - anarchists who want police protection from their slaves." Kim Stanley Robinson, "Green Mars" p318
Next, we need to get them paired up with Neil Young & Bob dylan, imo I was one of those very foolish people that thought at the time that it was just awful that Natalie Mains said what she did in another country.. I was so so stupid.. thats when I was still in the Bush camp.. (believe it or not I was) but I wised up big time.. IMO it was a warning to other artists.. to NOT step out of line or else! Neil Young's songs in his latest album IMO left a lot to be desired.. really..but the message of course was good..
Now, if only the msm could somehow grow a pair. Go, Chicks.
I love The Chicks!
I know ya do.. Hey dawgie where ya been ?? here's one for ya? ;)
that galls me too--silly uninformed, low IQ morons.
thanks, pete, i've been a long time Chicks fan even before the controversy. of course, now, i like them even more!
Nice rant. I am of exactly the same mind. Country group is back with new album, but will anybody buy it? I will buy one and I don't even like their music. I did this back in 2003 too.
Thanks for the video! I've been around but haven't been posting. Feeling kinda ruff. I couldn't even say hi to MR. GUITAR today.
I've been around but haven't been posting. Feeling kinda ruff. I couldn't even say hi to MR. GUITAR today. Goodness...sorry to hear that.. hope you feel better soon..
Thanks! I suppose if there were no valleys there'd be no peaks.
I suppose if there were no valleys there'd be no peaks. True.. yeah its those peaks you look forward to ;P
#2. To: peteatomic (#0)
#3. To: peteatomic (#1)
I flagged two dixie chicks that come to mind ;)
#4. To: Burkeman1 (#2)
#5. To: Zipporah (#3)
#6. To: peteatomic (#5)
it's nice to see somebody in the country world get a little more cogent then 'how hungover I was today' or 'my truck' or..you get what I mean. They have more courage than most artists, imho.
#7. To: peteatomic (#0)
And however you vote, it's tough to deny that by gambling their careers, three Texas women have the biggest balls in American music.
#8. To: Zipporah (#3)
#9. To: HOUNDDAWG (#8)
I love The Chicks!
#10. To: Burkeman1 (#2)
They are still making jokes about "coward" Frenchmen.
#11. To: peteatomic (#1)
#12. To: Burkeman1 (#2)
The "chicks" are of course utterly vindicated. Will the knuckle dragging rapture nutting Mars Worshippers who particpated in the hysterical hate campiagn against them recognize this? Hell no.
#13. To: Zipporah (#9)
#14. To: HOUNDDAWG (#13)
Thanks for the video!
#15. To: Zipporah (#14)
#16. To: HOUNDDAWG (#15)
Thanks!
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