I just read that the Dixie Chicks have canceled several tour dates including Kansas City, Houston, St. Louis, Memphis and Knoxville. This is happening despite brisk sales of their latest C.D. A couple of years ago, the cities mentioned would have been considered part of the Chicks core audience. I keep hearing that country radio is ignoring them but they have been getting picked up on different formats like adult contemporary. They have also been in heavy rotation on V.H.1.
It makes me curious. I wonder how the record is selling in the above-mentioned cities. It seems like the Chicks have had a major audience shift. Somebody is buying those records. Are consumers in fly over country still buying the C.D. and not purchasing concert tickets? The country music industry traditionally lives and dies in the South and Midwest. A country act that can fill an arena in Kansas City would not draw in New York or L.A. Although that has changed somewhat in recent years.
Clearly, the Dixie Chicks have not committed career suicide as some people thought they might have. What amounts to a boycott by country radio has not destroyed them either. It is usually not a good sign when an act cancels a bunch of dates but it is not clear that their actual concert revenue is down.
So, does political controversy hurt or enhance a career?
I think that it is not surprising when Madonna or Barbara Streisand make anti-Bush remarks but there was a shock value added when coming from a Nashville act.
Country music fans are a pretty forgiving bunch when it comes to substance problems (Hank Williams, George Jones, Johnny Cash), criminal pasts (Merle Haggard, Johnny Paycheck), and I.R.S. difficulties (Willie Nelson) but liberal protest is evidently taboo.
Mainstream, pop audiences can be fickle, and it does not take long to be yesterday’s news. Country fans will support an artist’s concerts long after they stop making hit records.
Outwardly, The Dixie Chicks seem to be turning their backs on Nashville (although they give radio station contact info and encourage fans to request songs on their website), and embracing the controversy to the point of martyrdom.
The actual statement that Natalie Maines made was something like, “I’m embarrassed to be from the same state as George Bush”. Being offended by that is fine but making a point of a boycott seems pretty sixth grade. On the other hand, responding to that stuff musically with “I’m Not Ready To Make Nice” seems a little goofy too.
Hoy! Hoy!
I want to mention one of my favorite musicians, Lowell George. The Dixie Chicks took their name from a line in one of his songs, “Dixie Chicken” (”If you’ll be my Dixie chicken, I’ll be your Tennessee lamb”).
Lowell was one of a kind. Nobody played guitar like him, sang like him or wrote songs like him. He worked with Frank Zappa, had his own band Little Feat, played on records by Linda Ronstadt, Jackson Browne, and Robert Palmer. He discovered Ricki Lee Jones. He was raw and sophisticated, funny, funky and sublime. Bonnie Raitt once said “I miss Lowell George more than I miss being eight years old”. What a nice thing to say.
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Tags: Dixie Chicks, Lowell George
Stacey wrote,
Oh, the Dixie Chicks! A topic I know about! Now, Jack, if you think their response with “I’m not ready to make nice” was goofy, you evidently don’t know that they are coming on stage at their concerts to the tune of “Hail to the Chief.” Hehehe!
I think political controversy doesn’t necessarily HURT a career, but it can definitely change the PATH of your career, which is what I think has happened to the Chicks. They may not be getting air time, but their album debuted at #1, and for all the concerts they cancelled due to lack of sales, they added more shows in different places (ok, Canada and Australia. But still.)
I love my Chicks, and although my Des Moines (and K.C., and St. Louis, and Oklahoma City) shows were cancelled, I’ll be proudly wearing my cowboy hat in Dallas in December! And possibly a “Take Back the White House - 2008″ t-shirt. :)
Link | August 8th, 2006 at 10:13 pm
Jayne d'Arcy wrote,
I think what I truly resented about their remark was that it was said on foreign ground. If they had said the same thing in America, I really wouldn’t have given it a second thought. In saying that in another country it felt like the Dixie Chicks were inviting that country to laugh and ridicule the US. It was in poor taste.
Link | August 8th, 2006 at 10:37 pm
Pribek wrote,
Jayne, do you think that people in other countries put that much stock in what a country singer says about politics? She is probably guilty of pandering to an audience, I don’t know any performers who haven’t done that. You could maybe make a case that it was bad timing but compare the timing of Natalies’ benign remark to Geraldo Rivera giving away troop locations on live T.V.
To the matter of poor taste, shes a country music singer. Do we need to hold her up to that high a standard. I hear pundits and politicians issuing far more personal attacks on a daily basis. I still do not understand why this event has struck such a nerve.
Link | August 9th, 2006 at 8:47 am
Stacey wrote,
I still don’t get the uproar either. Famous country musicians have, for years, cheated on their wives, been promiscuous, been deadbeat dads, and battled hard drugs and alcohol and none of the above raises an eyebrow. But make one dissenting remark about the “leader” of our country and there are BOYCOTTS??? And, um, I have a feeling that, other countries were maybe ALREADY laughing and ridiculing the U.S.
Link | August 9th, 2006 at 8:10 pm
Jayne d'Arcy wrote,
They were laughing at us, Stacey. To me, what the Chicks did was just rub salt in the wound. I will say on their behalf that what they did has really been blown out of proportion and part of that is due to the media and the internet.
They apologized and truly, that should have been the end of it.
Link | August 11th, 2006 at 2:30 am
Scooter McGavin wrote,
Wait, did you really state that the Dixie Chicks get heavy rotation on VH1. Flavor of Love gets heavy rotation, Hogan Knows Best gets heavy rotation, no musical acts gets heavy rotation on VH1 unless they are part of a reality show.
As for the “shock” of anti Bush comments being that they are country artist, I think the backlash had more to do with when they said it (when Bush had high approval ratings at the start of the war) than what kind of music they make. Had they said the same things just yesterday, I doubt there would have been a big of blacklash.
Link | August 11th, 2006 at 12:15 pm
Beth wrote,
Voting in BOTBs- I for one will always support the Chicks. The uproar was due to what they said, when they said it and where they said it. True, had this been an artist or group of another genre-the backlash would not have been so harsh. I also believe it was partly because they’re women. I’m not some kind of fem-nazi, in fact I’m a registered Republican. But the Country music world has been and most likely always will be a man’s world. Remember when Shania Twain was basically labled as an outcast because she showed her stomach in a video? A person’s politics has no influence on me unless they are attempting to force me to believe as they believe. The Chicks make excellent music-and I think the new CD is their best yet. Just my 2 cents worth :D
Link | August 11th, 2006 at 3:39 pm
Jose wrote,
Bush may not have the approval now but you still have to back your president, your armed forces, your country. First Jane Fonda, then Dixie Chicks, it doesn’t matter if your comments are well intentioned said at such fragile times left a sour flavor in most of us. Don’t say something you’ll regret as America will most likely make you pay the price.
Link | August 13th, 2006 at 8:02 pm
~Barb Gowen wrote,
I’m not Ready to Make Nice………and I’m Ready to Take back the White House in 08.
Love the Chicks……..seems to me a man can say whatever he wants and get away with it, but the little woman is supposed to keep her mouth shut…..that’s my two cents.
Link | August 23rd, 2006 at 1:33 pm