Jeff at Beautiful Atrocities posted a real howler a couple of days ago...
But now our big new single tanked without even cracking the Top 20, & I'm in the toilet again. That video was art, it had symbolism! I was trying to express the message that, yes it's 3 years later, yes the country's moved on, but it's still all about me & how much I've suffered!
I reckon that's probably as accurate an assessment as any, and it'll be even more spot-on if the cd tanks as well. As I said earlier, I think I'm just gonna leave this one on the shelf...I just don't really care to go spend my money on leftist agitprop when there's good non-political stuff out there. Of course, I suppose that's playing right into Natalie's hands...
"I guess I was ignorant to the fact that the stereotypes behind country music were true — and it was disappointing."
...but, I really don't care. I didn't agree with the people who threw away and smashed their Chicks cds just because the Chicks dared voice a contrary opinion, and I liked it even less that they got thrown off country radio for it. Still, though, I've said it before, and I'll say it again -- it'd have been nice if the Chicks had left the politics off the stage in the first place. And by casting their lot in with the moonbat left, to pull out the old cliche, they made their bed, and now they're just going to have to lie in it.
And I hate it, I really do. Country's my favorite genre, and if you're a regular visitor here, you know that I think it's gone to hell in recent years, what with the likes of Shania Twain and Rascal Flatts being presented as the "new face of country." The Dixie Chicks were different...they showed that country music could appeal to the masses and still retain the sounds that made it, well, country...whereas Rascal Flatts, Shania Twain, Lonestar, et al, they just make what can only be described as pop music with a faint hint of a steel guitar and/or fiddle here and there, or better yet, country music for people who don't like country music. Real country music will live on, but it's sad to think of what could have been for the Chicks' contribution to the canon if they hadn't pissed the opportunity all away just to "make a statement" on a platform bought and paid for by fans of a genre their frontwoman didn't even like. I know the Chicks are all thinking, "I didn't sign up for this!" Well, neither did the country music fans that Natalie took a big, steaming shit on.
POSTSCRIPT, May 19, 2006: Just for grins, I googled "Dixie Chicks, protests, Kristallnacht", and came upon this observation, from a commenter at Little Green Footballs:
The ironic thing, coming at the controversy from the other direction, is the comments by Krugman, or by Michael Moore during his off-the-meds rant at the Oscars, is it's hammering more and more nails into the Dixie Chicks coffin.
They have now officially become the annointed favorite country and western group for liberal New Yorkers living between 59th St. and Morningside Heights on the west side. This isn't exactly a hotbed of C&W fans, as a check of the Tower Records store near Lincoln Center would probably indicate. The last country singer people like Moore or Krugman probably gave a damn about was k.d. lang, and that's only because she announced she was a lesbian.
After their agent's statement last week about this whole thing being part of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy drummed up by the people at Free Republic, it's possible he might actually be encouraging this sort of blather in hopes it will shame the Chicks' critics into silence. But overall, finding out the girls are the favorites of Michael Moore or The Times' editorial page (gee, I wonder when the Page 1 story in Sunday Arts & Leisure will appear?) is just two more strikes against them among the people who actually would buy their music. Better their new supporters just shut up and let the girls slip into anonymity for a year or so than become the poster children for Krugman's Nazi nightmare paranoia.
Yep.The leftists and their accomplices in the media threw just as much gas on that fire as the Chicks and their erstwhile fans did. Personally, though, I really don't give a flying rat's ass about the musical preferences of Michael Moore or the New York Times' editorial staff, but I think it would be very, very interesting to see what was in their cd collection or on their iPods. Somehow I just don't think you'd find any George Strait or Allman Brothers on there...
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