Dixie Chicks unaffected

Billboard.com ^ | 4/21/03 | Ray Waddell

[Childseyes]

Chicks Tixs Going Quick Despite Bush Controversy

Despite some backlash at radio and retail for negative comments about President Bush, the Dixie Chicks are flying high in preparation for their upcoming arena tour, according to Rob Light, the act's agent. He says that of 59 shows, only six have seats left, and those are all 85%-90% sold out and expected to go clean.

"To be brutally honest, there has been no effect, other than the odd phone call to a building inquiring about a refund. There's a lot more noise than action," says Light, head of the music division at Creative Artists Agency. "Actually, the buildings are getting more [callers] asking, if there are refunds, can they buy the tickets." Light says there are no refunds.

The tour, sponsored by Lipton, kicks off May 1 at the Bi-Lo Center in Greenville, S.C., and concludes Aug. 4 at the Gaylord Entertainment Center in Nashville. Joan Osborne supports on the first leg; Michelle Branch on the second.

The Chicks' March 1 national on-sale moved 867,000 tickets worth $49 million at the box office during one weekend.

-- Ray Waddell, Nashville

[Burkeman1]

I am not sure about them now. Another poster told me that the lead singer has always been a Democrat and is from Austin. That changes my view.

[Teacher317]

Dixie Chicks unaffected

Sounds like they're daring us to bring it on... heh-heh-heh!

[Justa]

Many tickets for sale on ebay.

[Arkinsaw]

Of course their remarks made me mad but can't we chalk that up to being innocently naive?

Being a moron is no excuse for anti-Americanism. Do we ignore all the vomiting anti-war protestors because they are all just 20 year old jobless spoiled kids? No. Public words have meaning. By just brushing this off you show the rest of them that their anti-Americanism has no consequences.

It must have consequences, and in this case it has.

[sarasmom]

Are you really a fan of Country Music?
I know you hinted earlier that you were, I am not believing you are, based on your comments.
Forgiveness is possible, when one accepts that they have need of it,resolves not to transgress again, and truly asks for forgiveness.
The DitsyChits have partially met only one of the above.
Now, I am fairly comfortable with the label of redneck, it actually gives me a certain edge in many business dealings.And I was born a Yankee!
Useless against other "rednecks" certainly, but its a large world filled with Yankees and Frenchmen.
The root problem is that the DitsyChits thought they could expand their popularity with Yankees and Frenchmen (or in this case, anti-USA Britons)and their base support group, ue rednecks, would pay no attention.
They were very, very, wrong.
And they are not asking for forgiveness, they are compounding stupidity.Yankees and Frenchmen may think that laudable behavior, but rednecks call it what it is, true stupidity.
Having spent the better part of our lives manipulating people who think we are stupid, because we talk slow, it is damn near impossible for us to fall for that particular ploy.
They are toast.
The Yankees and Frenchmen may prop them up for a few weeks, but that kind of support is superficial and fleeting.
Make that burnt toast.

[adakotab]

LIPTON is sponsering this tour? Oh boy, gotta send them a note saying I am switching to Luzianne tea if I hear an ad featuring this band.

[Burkeman1]

You are right. But on the other hand I have never taken seriously any left wing 20 year old anti war protester. The media makes them appear more influential than they are but such protesters and their disgusting rhetoric make more people pro war when given exposure because they are not really against "war"- they just hate Bush and Christian America.

[Burkeman1]

No- I can't be called a true fan of Country Music. I said so in an earlier post. But I do love some Country Music. Like I said- I love Cash, Confederate Railroad, and the Dixie Chicks. Also I own some Dwight Yokum ("Two Doors Down" or "A Thousand Years from Nowhere" are great.) I also enjoy many other particular songs but not enough to buy an Album.

I really don't follow your "Redneck" line. Country Music is extremely popular in all of New England outside of the major metro areas (in fact once you get past Worcester in MA on the Turnpike- or up in NH, Vermont, or Maine- it is almost all you hear.

[Justa]

The Munster Chix

[Burkeman1]

PS- It is the "Yankees" that listen to Country Music up here- the real ones descended from the first settlers who live in Western Mass and are farmers. Those are Yankees. I am not a Yankee technically because I am Irish and Catholic. In New England States a Yankee is defined as one descended from either English or Scotch Irish protestants. Southerners call all Northerners "yankees" but here it means only Anglo's or Scotch Irish prots.

[Captiva]

Man, that little one in the middle scares me.

[Zebra]

"To be brutally honest, there has been no effect, other than the odd phone call...

What a load of crap. These concerts were sold out before the stupid remarks. I have been involved in a number of social discussions recently (in circumstances where politics are seldom the topic), and the depth and breadth of the anger toward Natalie Maines' idiotic comments is staggering. Look to the week-over-week CD sales to gauge the effect. The CAA guy is full of it. Commentators will later conclude that Maines' comments were tantamount to commerical suicide.

I posted the below comment on another thread.

Years from now, business school texts will feature a chapter on what will become known as the "Maines (or Dixie Chick) Phenomenon". It will be a term used to describe the destruction of the value of a brand by actions taken or comments made by a person closely identified with the brand and which are so offensive and inexcusable to the consumer base upon which the brand's value is dependent as to render value recovery impossible. The Maines Phenomenon will have application primarily (but not exclusively) to individuals or groups, including musicians and bands, actors, sports figures, politicians and, hopefully, media icons.

[JoeSchem]

Isn't the message in all of their songs fundamentally conservative even if they don't know it?

Would that include the song where they talk about emasculating a man?

[Zebra]

But of course, it will make one a hero to most leftist.

The problem is, that is the wrong demographic for their music. They are so screwed.

[Burkeman1]

Not aware of that one- But I guess it depends on what the man did in the song.

[pnz1]

I love a lot of the "Texas" country music. I wonder if Natalie's comments are feelings of many of the artists from there.

[gg188]

I remember the Flameworthy Awards when at the mention of their name the crowd went nuts with boos.

CNN edited in those boos. They weren't really there.

Signed,
Michael Moore

[patton]

"Travalin' Soldier", while I like the song, is a piece of viet-nam era leftist anti-war propaganda.

[gg188]

By the time they go on tour here in the U.S., the media critics will be portraying then as the second coming of the Bealtes, Grateful Dead and Patsy Cline combined.

After Steve Earle started making political statements---like praising John Walker Lindh---out of nowhere he started appearing on "top artists of all time" lists. Before that he was a 1/2-hit-wonder, washed up junkie.

Critics keep songs like "Imagine" on the top of "greatest-song-of-all-time" lists because of its communist message.

The media will have the DC on Katie Couric, Barbara Walters, Oprah, and by the time they are finished, everyone in America who is not a smart conservative will have you believing that the girls are underdog, downtrodden, mistreated saints, the victims of the right wing conspiracy.

I PRAY that country music fans, particularly in the South and paricularly in Texas NEVER let this incident be forgotten. It was a shameless insult to their own fans, and they knew it---they just thought they could get away with it. They look down upon the very people who buy their cd's. And like many country acts, they are just doing country hoping to "cross over" and then they won't have to play the "redneck" music (that is what Natalie called the music of Toby Keith.) Natalie is a pop-star wanna be who fancies herself more Stevie Nicks and Sheryl Crow. She's Hollyweird through and through, married to a queer arab actor.