"Yes, it is true that Free Republic sent out a form letter. I have proof right here."
Posted on 10/08/2006 12:35:00 PM PDT by Hetty_Fauxvert
TORONTO -- 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 war in 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 being the best-selling female act of all time, big fans turned into rabid haters. Record sales plummeted. Country radio 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 (Gregory’s daughter), Cecilia Peck. 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 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,” says Maines.
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.”
Looking fantastically glam as they address the media at a Shut Up and Sing! news 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.
“This wasn’t about us being women as much as it was about country music,” says Maines. “In our industry, they always blow off the liberal, Hollywood, pot-smoking celebrity For the (people who read the Free Republic), we were their wet dream.”
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, they 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.
For a society that prides itself in the notion of free speech and the red, white and blue, the Dixie Chicks’ descent into the land of crispy Salem witches seemed like a betrayal of crucial American truths — which is something Kopple has been chronicling ever since she started creating documentaries with Harlan County, U.S.A, a disturbing look at a miner’s strike in Kentucky.
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.
Would this person lie about why many people did not like her dumping on the president? She seems to have forgotten just who her core audience used to be when she was popular. Country music fans dislike left leaning president bashing men or women. Her T shirt worn on stage that took a shot at Toby Keith was nasty. She seems to dislike men in general.
Maybe she should have taken the advice, just shut up and sing...........
"Yes, it is true that Free Republic sent out a form letter. I have proof right here."
I didn't get any letter either, and I'd like to see a copy of that so-called form letter, and who they think they were sent to. And, I don't listen to country-western music either.
I figured as much. But...in this case better safe than sorry, you know?
Yep.
Posted my open letter to her last night on a similar thread. The political angle was no big deal. Ditching the folks that brought her to the dance was.
The Dixie Chicks are has beens. Watch for them making the Indian casino and county fair circuit. Too bad Tiny Tim is dead or they could be his opening act.
Prove it, chits!
That's what I don't get. You are right. They can say what they want but should understand that if we don't like it, we don't have to buy their music. No one is pressuring their ex fans.
I think Jim Rob ought to have his lawyer send a letter to Kopple and the Dixie Chicks to provide him with a copy of that alleged form letter, and if they can't provide it or refuse, then they must cease and desist making allegations that have no merit or truth to them, or FR will sue. Is this a legal option?
I'm sure Kopple and the Chicks have a copy of this alledged "form letter" to backup their claim. Well they did until "Nats" mistook it for a ham sandwich and ate it.
The Ditzy Tits would love that. They are BEGGING JimRob for publicity.
Just have Bill Burkett fax another from the Lubbock Kinkos.
Natalie Maines fears me...
Does FreeRepublic control the airwaves? Does FreeRepublic control what people buy?
I figure that if folks who love the DC want to hear their music, then they will go out and buy the stuff. It's not like the music is unavailable. Even Wal-Mart carries the stuff. And I see their CDs every time I go to Barnes and Noble. And Circuit City. And, and, and . . . If they're not selling stuff, it's because they made a whole lot of folks angry. Not just FReepers. Unless every FReeper was formerly a DC fan and bought all their previous CDs times 3 and purchased concert tickets times 5. They really underestimate the intelligence and integrity of patriotic Americans.
Now maybe FReepers were the ones who were most vocal at first about Natalie's ignorant comments in Europe. However, FReepers got the news from somewhere. And country radio DJs were quick to spread the news. I didn't realize so many DJs are Freepers . . .
Natalie, Natalie, Natalie. You still don't get it, do you? I, we (many, many of us at any rate) are perfectly willing to abide your having, and even expressing, divergent political views and still support your music. We do that all the time.
I love your father for instance, and the many wonderful contributions he has made to Texas music. I would be a little disappointed if I learned that he shared your fatuous and air-headed political views, but that wouldn't change how I felt.
This difference is your father is considerate, tolerant and humble. You, OTOH, are aggressively rude, proudly bigoted, and outrageously self absorbed. You denounce vast contingents of your (former) fan base as stupid and venal, based entirely on the most facile sorts of stereotypes, and then get offended that they are upset with you. And you think weathering (while actively feeding) this controversy has made you a "woman"? PLEASE!. It's only highlighted your immaturity. It's your snarling hatred and infantile whining that's turned away your fans. Why don't you grow up and take some responsibility?
[Note to Freepers: Natalies father Lloyd Maines is a venerable Texas guitarist, performer and record producer.]
No problem.
Lucy Ramirez made Dan Rather her bitch.
Just have Bill Burkett fax another from the Lubbock Kinkos
***
LOL. Seriously, I would love to see what this alleged "form letter" looks like. Proably the same type style as those Bush military records. Same white out too. :)
Huh? I don't even remember giving FR a mailing address when I registered (am I misremembering?) let alone "market-specific information!
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