The curious case of the Dixie Chicks

I think both cases cited here -- Dixie Chicks and Sinead O'Connor -- are examples of not so much what you say as how you say it.

If Maines had made the same point without personally ripping Bush and saying they were embarrassed by him, I don't think it would have gotten near the attention.

Likewise, if Sinead hadn't ripped the photo, I don't think the blowback would have been very bad.

Both were absolutely correct but only wound up hurting themselves.

 

http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/print-edition/2011/01/14/top-10-best-selling-artists.html

http://soulfuldetroit.com/showthread.php?4663-And-the-biggest-selling-U-S-album-of-last-20-years-is

Anyway, the Dixie Chicks are a simple case:

They had some fun tunes, had a really good career going. Then they went for the cheapest, easiest cheer in show business at the time - bashing George W. Bush on foreign soil - and became a cause celebre. While acting like they were actually hurt by it, they took full advantage of the "controversy".

"Not ready to make nice"? More like, not ready to stop riding that financial and publicity wave.

 

Hmm... Interesting.

How does Dylan's Love and Theft, released in 2001, fit into this theory?

 

Dylan's kind of different because it doesn't sound the same. He's reinvented himself so many times, he's evolved so much, that the works aren't as interchangeable.

Side note: "Love and Theft" was released on Sept. 11, 2001. And I went in a store and bought it that day.

 

This is all true. The Dixie Chicks still got screwed over by conservative radio.

 

At what point is it acceptable for fans to express themselves? Or do artists have a monopoly on such things?

 

Such an interesting idea that after the arrival of rock n' roll, musical artists were held to account for their cultural and political relevance.

Not sure anyone applied the same thinking to Ella Fitzgerald or Bix Biederbecke.

 

Maines was on Howard Stern just a few weeks ago and did a pretty damn good cover of Pink Floyd's "Mother". She seemed content and glad to be away from the country music world (her solo album will be more alt-rock oriented).

 

I think in this case the issue was that a lot of the people who complained were not fans, but the radio stations ran scared.

 

Not at all, but I've never understand why anyone would give up listening to music they enjoy because of the artists' political beliefs. It would be one thing if the beliefs were implicit in the music, but that's hardly the case for the Dixie Chicks.

I still listen to Great White Buffalo by Ted Nugent. He's an asshole, but that song rocks!

 

But the rockers, especially, have traded on their fame to the point in which they feel entitled to speak as experts on everything under the sun. Or does it just seem that way?

Not just rockers, though. But the "rock star" industry.

 

Vice President Springsteen?