Austin-area country music group, the Dixie Chicks won all five Grammy Awards that they were nominated for, to include the Grammys for best country album — despite the fact that very few country stations even play their music, and they had to move a bulk of their tour dates to Canada because of pathetic tickets sales in the US.
Awarding the Dixie Chicks the Country Album of the Year was nothing more than a political jab at the Country Music industry and radio stations that have spurned the Chicks. It certainly didn’t reflect the albums most enjoyed or appreciated by actual country music listeners (such as Miranda Lambert’s Kerosene, Carrie Underwood’s Some Hearts, or Josh Turner’s Your Man).
At the 40th Country Music Awards (CMA) held last November — the awards show for the country music industry — the winners were:
- Song of the Year was won by Brooks and Dunn
- Vocal Group of the Year was Rascal Flatts
- Female Vocalist of the Year was Carrie Underwood
- Album of the Year was won by Brad Paisley
- Entertainer of the year was Kenny Chesney
The Dixie Chicks weren’t even nominated for a single award in their own industry. But they won all the country awards at the Grammys. Riiiiiigghhhttt…
Giving them the Album of the Year was just a Leftwing political jab at President Bush. Apparently the voters didn’t get a chance to listen to Bob Dylan’s Modern Times album.
__________
OTHERS:
Chris G, commenting at WizBang understands how and why the DCs were so popular last night:
Beacause liberals are so vapid and superficial, everything from taking a breath to wiping their backsides is tied to a cause celebre of some sort. We can’t just let the best song/album/artist win (i.e. Carrie Underwood anyone)…
Gaius at Blue Crab Boulevard:
The Dixie Chicks won several Grammy awards last night. Yawn. Algore will win an Oscar, too. Likewise, yawn. Neither award has anything to do with the merits of the music or of the movie and everything to do with Hollywood politics.
If Vegas has odds and is taking bets on the Oscars, go ahead and plunk down everything you own on Al Gore winning.
I think the ’cause celebre’ theory of liberalism is something dreamed up by someone who gets their news from Entertainment Tonight (or Fox News.)
As for the vapidity it’s probably worth remembering that the right-wing fatwa was issued because of one sentence said by Natalie Maines: “Just so you know, we’re ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas.†That’s enough to get your cd’s burned in parking lots around the country.
Loose lips sink ships. Look at the Fatwa on George Allen.
Actually, I’ve always loved the Dixie Chicks music and obviously everybody did. Their song “Soldier” makes me cry every time I hear it.
Too bad this all happened.
There’s a lot more to it than that one comment, Preston.
Hell, if she’d made the exact same comment while performing in Oklahoma, it wouldn’t have had the same negative effect that it did by saying it in London.
The Dixie Chicks have followed up that “one sentence” with plenty more just like it. They haven’t quit playing “victims” since…
But I think an even bigger reason for their demise amongst country music fans and the industry was this comment:
“I’d rather have a smaller following of really cool people who get it, who will grow with us as we grow and are fans for life, than people that have us in their five-disc changer with Reba McEntire and Toby Keith. We don’t want those kinds of fans. They limit what you can do.”
They basically flipped-off country music fans. And country music fans reacted accordingly — they quit buying their music, and they quit going to their shows.
I was astonished by the George Allen fiasco. (My favorite psychedelic band!)
I assumed that the people who thought it was racist already didn’t like the guy and the people who didn’t care, did’t care. Oh well, goes to show that I’ve got no future as a campaign advisor.
The Lippy Chicks’ music has always been just par, in my book.
I was still shocked that they took away 5 awards Even my teen-aged daughter asked, “Ha! Who got bought?”.
I just humbly smiled, knowing I’ve reared her well.
Personally, I think the Chicks are marketing geniuses!!!
First of all, they cried about being ‘blacklisted’ and ‘boycotted’. Boofuckinhoo. They got more publicity than money could buy. They tapped into that ‘cool’ market that they so wanted to join. They kissed off their ‘ignorant’ country fans. They have been embraced by an industry that generally has no use for country music. And they act like they are freakin’ heroes, or martyrs depending on the audience.
The wonderful thing about this country? They have the right to say what they want. If they had been met at the airport when they returned from London by the FBI, put in cuffs, and jailed – then I would say their freedom of speech had been stifled. Did that happen? No, they were met by their limousine and driven to their comfortable homes where they can sip expensive wine and wear designer clothes and give interviews about all the ’stoopid people’ that don’t want to buy their music anymore.
I like their music. I own a couple of their albums. I didn’t buy their latest because I think they ’sold out’. If they had made their statement, and then gone back to work without throwing little hissy fits, I would have more respect for them. But they worked it. They knew exactly what they were doing. I respect their right to their opinion. I don’t respect their whining because half the country doesn’t agree with them.
The beautiful thing about this country is that you can have an opinion. The other beautiful thing about this country is that everyone else can have an opinion also, and they can express it with their wallet if they choose.
I’m not crazy about the dixie chicks’ music, but I am completely embarrassed about how the country reacted to the singer’s statements. There’s a great film documentary about the whole mess, called “Protesting the Dixie Chicks”:
http://www.protestingthedixiechicks.com
http://www.myspace.com/protestingthedixiechicks
Jason – I am embarrassed at many protests in this country. I could make a list, but I won’t.
I am always reminded, however, that ‘protest’ is one of the benefits of living in a free country.
To each his own. You say something. I say something back. We may not always agree, but that’s America.
Any protests couldn’t have been more embarassing than the Dixie Chicks going around portraying themselves as victims. What a farce!
Well, here’s the bottom line. The Chicks are gonna have to ditch the violen and the wholesome dress (absolutely no pregnancy chicks) and get it on. I mean shed those clothes, get some tatoos, shake those booties, and get with the program! Hey I just thought of something…wouldn’t it be cool to come on stage in a Hijab and then provacatively disrobe beneath it and in the end, cast it off..FREEDOM FREEDOM…oh I love it …
They need to hire me.
Sorry, but I think they did the naked with (fake) tattoos thing for the cover of Rolling Stone. They looked stupid. It’s like how every day after Thanksgiving, a well known Peta chick get’s naked. It’s dumb.
The awards given to the Dixie Chicks were simply one thing….sending a message.
As you know, these awards were not given by the people. This was not the People’s Music Awards, rather less than 11,000 members of professionals in the music industry. One writer brought up the idea that the vote for the various catagories was so split, that the largest chunk of votes left were the politically active members who had the opportunity to “make a statement” with what amounts to a lackluster album and a really boring song.
First of all, there’s no way a song like that would take song of the year at the Grammys unless it had help, through collusion or other means, or jury nullification, just like the O.J. trial. And for them to win 5 awards if just not only improbable, but impossible! It looks like the Grammys jumped the shark last night, allowing politics to influence the outcome of not one but 5 awards and I personally could never look at them in any kind of positive light again, though that’s been coming for a long time now.
I’ve been a professional musician for over 35 years, a session player on albums and a touring sideman. I’m hearing nothing, and I repeat nothing, but disbelief at what happened last night. Some are asking for an investigation to see if there was indeed any wrong doing in the “winning” of these awards. And all along, Natalie and the world still actually think that they really won those awards.
Sad. Hope they never realize what really happened. They were used!
Like the man said. The Chicks have the right to their opinion and they expressed it. I also have the right to spend my hard-earned bucks where I want to. I don’t own a Chicks album; never have and never will. I haven’t seen them in concert; never have and never will. I can live with the thought that I am not one of their “cool” people. The Grammys are a joke and middle America knows itl.
Cry me a river…one person made a comment, Natalie Maines, this doesn’t change the fact that over the years the Dixie Chicks as a group have come out with great music. I like to think that the Grammys is more prestigious than the CMA anyway and that winning a Grammy award is based less on album sales and more on the quality and vision of the music. As far as you lot who chastise them for playing martyrs cry me another river…who’s playing. They were sent death threats for Christ’s sake, they have kids, they very well could have been killed by some crazy redneck yahoo and I’m surprised their not off in a corner somewhere feeling sorry for themselves.
I’m surprised their not off in a corner somewhere feeling sorry for themselves.
No, they are very much in public feeling sorry for themselves. Kills that “wah! You’re stopping my free speech” lie they continually spin, doesn’t it?
I believe that the Dixie Chicks will bounce back, thanks to the political friends they know in high places that seem to have pulled a few strings for them prior to the Grammys, as I’ve noted in this song:
Playin’ Politics (With the Dixie Chicks)
Dr BLT (c)2007
http://www.drblt.net/music/DixieChicks.mp3
I believe that the Dixie Chicks will bounce back, thanks to the political friends
Yeah, but all the friends-in-high-places can’t make the people buy their records, play their songs on the radio station, or go see them in concert.
They’ve more than jumped the shark now that the Liberal Left has gotten their piece of hide out of them…they’ve served their political purpose, and just like Cindy Sheehan, they’ll be forgotten and tossed aside.
As a Brit who only discovered the Dixie Chicks recently, and then started trying to find out why an off-the-cuff comment here in London managed to cause such an uproar in the USA, I’ll give you Americans something: you sure know how to slug one another!
The problem for your allies is wondering if that is all you know how to do, though. There’s no middle-ground in the DCX debate, and often precious little adherence to fact or truth – just absolutes, and that’s scary.
A polarised USA – between Reds and Blues – is going to have to take the lead in getting us out of the mess we followed you into (against our better judgement). If such a divided, antagonistic society cannot stop arguing over the DCX, what hope can we have that you’ll agree on something vastly more important, which will require all the unity, understanding and tact that can be mustered?
Maybe you don’t understand just how devoid of humanity “corporate America” is to Europeans. Yes, the Oscars and Grammies are often awarded on other grounds than merit; but they always have been, and they’ve always been more media events than serious artistic occasions.
Money and influence are the bedrocks of US society, and so are making more money out of defence contracts. “Liberal” is a dirty word to half the population, and along with it go all the wishy-washy stuff like tolerance, caring and compromise.
Yes, of course there are untold thousands of Americans who do care, but the surface presented to the outside world has to be drilled deep to find them.
As a nation you have huge influence, but are increasingly unloved and resented, and perceived as philosophically and morally bankrupt. Your extremes in your attitudes to one another (never mind foreigners) are little different to the extremes of the fanatics who perpetrated 9/11 and later bombed Spain, London etc.
Or are they? United you may yet restore our faith in the Land of The Free. Disunited you won’t, and you’ll crumble from within. Please – for all our sakes – choose unity.
I hate to rain on the parade of the Dixie Chicks, but…
Merle Hasn’t Lost His Fightin’ Side
Dr BLT (c)2007
http://www.drblt.net/music/MerleVeryLast.mp3
and they’re
Not Ready to Make Rice
Dr BLT (c) 2007
http://www.drblt.net/music/MakeRice.mp3