Posted on 09/14/2006 4:41:58 AM PDT by kristinn
Edited on 09/14/2006 3:04:35 PM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
After facing a barrage of insults, death threats and all kinds of broken records in the face of an offhand remark about the U.S. president, the Dixie Chicks are no longer chicks.
"It turned us into women," says Natalie Maines, speaking about the past three years in near media exile, facing one of the largest pop culture controversies in recent history.
On the eve of the invasion of Iraq in 2003, Maines made an offhand comment about being against violence, and being embarrassed that the U.S. president, George W. Bush was from Texas, her home state. Despite their being a top-selling act, they soon faced fans who had turned into haters. Record sales plummeted. Some radio stations excluded them from their playlists. People said their career at the top of country was over.
The conflict was so rich in scope and meaning, it attracted the attention of two-time Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Barbara Kopple and her colleague, Cecilia Peck (Gregory's daughter).
The result is Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing! - one of the hottest documentary titles of this year's Toronto International Film Festival.
Beginning the voyage with the actual comment of the title recorded in a London amphitheatre, Kopple and Peck take a full immersion tour through the post-Bush-slag landscape, and follow the Chicks - Maines, Martie Maguire and Emily Robison - as they attempt to understand what happened, and how to move forward without their sturdy net of a solid fan base.
"In watching this movie, it felt like I was watching myself mature," Maines says.
Robison echoes the sentiment. "I think, for the most part, when your career is going great, you don't really have the opportunity to soul search ... but we did. And we do think it happened for a reason."
At a Shut Up and Sing! press conference, the Chicks say they have absolutely no regrets about speaking their mind. If anything, the experience made them realize just how vulnerable to censorship we are in the world of consolidated media ownership and nationally uniform radio playlists.
"Consolidation means one guy at the top decides everything ... and I don't think the media has been successful in pointing out why it's so dangerous," Robison says.
"People don't understand why this is so important," Maines says. "But if you live in Lubbock, Texas, where I'm from - you just have one paper and one radio station and unless you're savvy on the Internet, that's it for you. If Bush said get a gun and kill an Arab, they would do that."
Maguire says if it had been just one - or even several - DJs who felt it was just too much of a hassle to spin Dixie Chicks singles, they would have been fine with the boycott. The problem was how the whole anti-Chicks campaign was orchestrated by a select few through a right-wing Internet site called the Free Republic.
According to the research done by Kopple and the Chicks themselves, the Free Republic sent out form letters to their 30,000-thick subscription list with market-specific information, saying if the station did not stop playing their music, people would cease listening to the station.
The campaign worked, and the Chicks' current tour for their new album is being booked at venues half the size of their previous tour. "What was wrong was that (the decision to not play Dixie Chicks records) was coming from the top ... and that (DJs) were not allowed to play the records, even if they wanted to. ... I think that kind of censorship is dangerous," says Maguire.
Kopple says what happened to the Dixie Chicks really struck a chord because it spoke to the changing times.
"In the ... '60s, there was a sense of a cultural movement that happened, and you really felt a sense of belonging to a community. They (Dixie Chicks) were on their own, and our hope is that people who see this film ... will become part of their community so the Chicks no longer have to stand alone," Kopple says.
Maines, who says she always felt the support of her bandmates and family, says she's still a little surprised by the whole journey. Though she's learned to really think hard about what she says to the press these days, she says she may well have said the very same thing - even with a little reflection. "Even if I had thought about what I wanted to say, I don't think I ever could have imagined what happened. What I said was just so lame."
Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing! is slated for a fall /winter theatrical release.
Offhand remark?
Oh, Please! These skanks have constipation of the brain and diarrhea of the mouth!
They obviously don't believe that the customer is always right.
"It turned us into women," says Natalie Maines"
I think it turned you into a foul-mouthed slut, Natalie. Believe me, decent Texans are embarrassed that you were born and reared in our state.
"The campaign worked, and the Chicks' current tour for their new album is being booked at venues half the size of their previous tour"
I think it was in Minneapolis they suffered a 75% hit in their concert attendance from their prior vist a year or two before.
What an idiot!
Wonder why anyone from Lubbock would claim her.
I would love to see "one paper and one radio station" put that out!
I didn't get a letter. :( Of course, I am such a mind-numbed robot I need FR and Rush Limbaugh to tell me how and what to think!!
30,000 ?
what an insult, surly it's 10 times that !
but I didn't get my Dixie Chump letter either.
How come I didn't receive the letter?
Why don't they try touring Iran, Syria, Cuba, Venezuela, China, the UN...
Freaking hypocrites.
The day it happened I called every stations phone and emailed the GMs.
Surprisingly almost immediately I got replies to the effect "We can't believe she said that either and are getting barraged with phones and emails"
Within days they were off the air in the this area. It wasnt just FR it was the American heartland.
Dangerous as compared to what? Its not like the radio stations were threatened by the Democratic leadership in the United States Senate and a former Democratic president and his butt-boys
Oh sure. Those west Texans will do anything you tell them to do. Unlike the readers of the New York Times who disagree with its editorial position all the time. (There's a sarcasm off sign somewhere around here. )
I love their arrogance believing that they could just find other fans.
In their case they blatantly threaten to use the government to get their way.
the ditsy who?
The radio station had an online poll and an overwhelming 88% of respondents stated they did not want the station to play the Dixie Twits music ever again.
That's what they get for believing their own press.
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