Apparently, all that backlash against the Dixie Chicks isn’t stopping their album from hitting number one on the Billboard Country chart.
Oh, and they made number one on the Billboard 200 chart, which is the bible of the industry. I know, because I typeset that chart for five years when I worked as a typesetter. (Redesigned it two or three times myself; what a bitch that was, too. AND caught a few embarrassing errors, right, Drew?)
Now, while I don’t buy into the victimization of the Dixie Chicks, I have to point out that it seems their reduced airplay on country music stations isn’t hurting their career a whole lot.
I can see that. I never hear Mary Chapin Carpenter on the radio, but I know when a new album of hers is coming out.
Ultimately, it’s all about the music. I have a sneaking suspicion that Ms. Carpenter and I are on opposite sides of the political fence on more than one issue. But it wouldn’t stop me from buying her next album.
The only thing that can do that is support for terrorism (Yusuf Islam, a.k.a. Cat Stevens) or blatant sexism (Metallica). Speaking out against a president during wartime? Yeah, well, it makes you look like a jerk, but hey, lots of people look like jerks a whole lot of the time.
Selling 526,000 units their first week out is a pretty good sign that the backlash hasn’t really hurt the Dixie Chicks. Well, except for all those conservatives who said they’d never buy the album. But I’m betting most of them never owned any Dixie Chick albums to begin with. It was just another thing to rant about on the weblog.
The Dixie Chicks, I think, are going to be laughing all the way to the bank.
Indeed. Meryl was the kind of eagle-eyed typesetter who didn’t flinch in the face of such unforeseen Billboard dilemmas as the time that Mike + The Mechanics changed their name to Mike & The Mechanics. (And on one particularly bad day, when he was really ticked off at his band, Mike renamed the group Mike > The Mechanics, but that’s another story.)
At any rate, I get a kick out of hearing MSM reports about the horrible price the Dixie Chicks have paid for their anti-Bush comments. I can think of an awful lot of musical artists who wish they’d have to pay such a price: magazine covers (appearing clothed and unclothed); top-grossing concert tours; and now a No. 1 album. And yet they’re automatically portrayed as victims. What crap.
This point really shouldn’t have to be made, but: The Dixie Chicks are not Alexander Solzhenitsyn; Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon are not Andrei Sakharov and Yelena Bonner; etc. etc. The list goes on.
Does this ‘horrible price’ involve comfy chairs or soft pillows?
How much courage does it take to Bush bash in the music industry these days anyway?
It takes courage though to tell the truth about Islam.
I threw away my last Dixie Chicks CD, unopened, and I won’t be buying this one. I don’t care how good they are. Pandering to anti-American audiences abroad in order to sell albums, well, count me out.
Let’s not forget they made their first anti Bush remark from the comforts of Londonistan.
I’m a big fan of The Dixie Chicks with or without any politics. I own the new CD and I love it and it will do well for one simple reason…it’s a great album. As far as the Chicks being “victims” goes I think that it’s unfair to accuse them of playing to that for sales. I haven’t heard them ask for anyone’s sympathy and I don’t think they want any. Unfortunately they’re going to be labled by some pepople no matter what they do and that’s sad. It’s sad that some people can’t find other ways to express their patriotism then to attack American’s who have expressed their constitutional right to freedom of expression. Get over it already!Anyway, just by the CD, you’ll like it.
As a Texan, I see nothing wrong with what the Dixie Chicks did or said [many have said that Texas voted twice to send Bush to Washington in order to get him the hell out of Texas], and those who called for a boycott of their music due to their policital statements mightbe very happy in followislamiclaworbebeatenistan.
For the record, why does no one call for the boycott of artists who openly support the Bush administration? Should artists and Hollywood types keep their opinions to themselves, or only if they are in opposition to the administration?
I am a Dixie chick fan and have always been a country music fan but I can see how close-minded and backward thinking Nashville is when I hear that music station programmers are excluding the Chicks from their playlists. This is unbelievable considering how tame those comments were. Doesn’t Jay Leno call Bush an idiot every freakin night? Lets just say I have a huge smile on my face after seeing the album charts the last 2 weeks.