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no...I am just saying that you are profoundly presumptuous when you purport to know what the left feels and thinks about each and every issue...it gets boring after a while.... and quite dull.
Dixie Chicks Shut Out at AMC Awards
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red states rule
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As I told Kathy, I have been dealing with libs for over 30 years. I know what a lib will say before he/she says it
It is like Mike said in the Godfather "learn to think like the people around you think. Keep your friends close but your enemies closer"
WOW! A WHOLE thirty years? You're a regular William F. Buckley!
From what I can tell from reading your posts, you barely know what YOU'RE going to say before you say it.
Which is precisely why I submit myself to the torture that is the hate-filled propagandists like Michael Savage, Neal Boortz, Sean Hannity, even ole Dopebo himself and the rest... to know what the conservatives are thinking... to know the enemies of our country and our Constitution... to fight against them better.
Face it, your post was a dud. Nothing but sour grapes. For all your posturing about the Dixie Chicks and "Hollywood" your ideology loses to capitalism because such extremist right-wing ideology is out of the mainstream. You are marginalized not because you are "better" in some way... but because you are wrong.
red states rule
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The Chicks are doing poorly in the USA. Yes they sell out in Canada and other countries, but they have cancelled many concerts in the US. Their base has left them and only the anti Bush moonbats support them
It seems you are the one having a temper tantrum. Go stick pins in your GWB doll - it will make you feel better
It seems you are the one having a temper tantrum. Go stick pins in your GWB doll - it will make you feel better
You started the thread. Why? Because, despite all your excuses and all your whining and all your pouting, the Dixie Chicks are making money hand over fist.
red states rule
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Facts are, the Dixie Pricks have insulted their country, their fans, and the coutry music industry
They are making money, but not as much as they were, and they have had to cancel alot of US shows
They were fawnd over by the Hollywood elite, but dismissed by the Country Music Awards.
Libs gleefully reported when they won the Grammy - but they seemed to downplay their zero nominations CMA's. I am pointing out the "oversight"
While that's your opinion to which you are entitled, they've stated their mind which, even though it seems you hate this, we still have a Constitution which protects every citizen's right to do so. I'm not insulted by their words. Yet, you seemed utterly obsessed over them. Why are you so rapt over the Dixie Chicks?
So the "boot in their ass" crowd doesn't like the Dixie Chicks... and? And, they're still making money hand over fist. Money. Hand. Over. Fist. Capitalism and Freedom. They're beautiful things.
red states rule
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If you rely on your income from a group of people, it is not smart to insult them, and smear their country
I am not obsessed with the Pricks. I am pointing out their fans have turned their backs on them, and to the left - that is a shame
Let the Pricks make their money - it is coming from other countries - which should tell you alot about who supports them now
Gunny
Gold Member
Try again. The Grammy's have proven themselves nothing but a "real" fraud. How many awards were they given in the country music genre?
Now explain how this can be when they have few if any fans in the genre, can't sell tickets, nor get any airtime on country music radio.
Once the libs are done using the Dixie Chicks as political tools, they ARE done, and for the aforementioned reasons. They have no real fan base and that imaginary one isn't going to put any meat on the table.
You call perpetrating a fraud "freedom of speech?"
red states rule
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Try again. The Grammy's have proven themselves nothing but a "real" fraud. How many awards were they given in the country music genre?
Now explain how this can be when they have few if any fans in the genre, can't sell tickets, nor get any airtime on country music radio.
Once the libs are done using the Dixie Chicks as political tools, they ARE done, and for the aforementioned reasons. They have no real fan base and that imaginary one isn't going to put any meat on the table.
You call perpetrating a fraud "freedom of speech?"
the Dixie's will be tossed aside like Cindy Sheehan. After they have outlived the uswfulness the left will toss them in the dustbin of useful idiots
Gunny
Gold Member
In other words, you can't counter common sense and logic with anything but insults and "I quit."
red states rule
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Dixie Dreams
The curse of the awards show.
By Anna Nimouse
It's awards season here in Hollywood and I guess I am being swept up in it all. You see, last night I had the most amazing dream. I was really famous. I had lots of famous friends, too, who told me things they had learned about the world from other famous people, and I was compelled to listen to them and agree with them, because they were really famous, and that made them fascinating, intelligent, and right. I was fascinating, too, of course, and everyone wanted to know what I was wearing, even my perfume! They cheered me on the red carpet as I was interviewed on every topic. I graciously volunteered my opinions on any subject matter. I was famous, clearly brilliant, and everyone cared what I thought about everything. It was wonderful!
Then I woke up, and discovered I wasnÂ’t a Dixie Chick.
Three years ago Natalie Maines was hurt and baffled by the uproar over her comment, “Just so you know, we’re ashamed the President of the United States is from Texas,” referring to President Bush and our war in Iraq. It was an enormous shock to all the Dixie Chicks that their fan base would abandon them because of a political comment: freedom of speech, and all. Stations stopped playing their songs, record sales plummeted. A virtual boycott was in effect. What the Dixie Chicks failed to appreciate was that the fans were also only exercising their own freedoms, in choosing not to buy albums. Radio stations were exercising their business freedom in choosing not to play songs that outraged their listeners and repelled their advertisers.
It seemed difficult for Maines to comprehend that there were people (most of her then fan base) who disagreed with her political opinions, were vocal about it, and were willing to articulate that view with their wallets. This surprised her no end. In a sense, her surprise is understandable: Many Hollywood celebrities — Jane Fonda, Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins, Sean Penn, Natalie Portman, Julia Roberts, Alec Baldwin — make loud and foolish political statements, and usually face no repercussions.
Natalie Maines is married to an actor, and, like many in the Hollywood community, she lives in a sheltered “no-dissent zone,” surrounded by people with like views. Any ideas that differ from accepted points of view are immediately denounced. It’s quite boring, as everybody agrees all the time.
In the music industry, though, radio plays a huge part in the success or failure of a release. So when radio stations pulled the Dixie Chicks from their playlists, reacting to pressure from listeners and revenue sources alike, Maines found she had a problem. ItÂ’s the capitalistÂ’s rule number one: know your customers (and donÂ’t insult them).
After assessing the situation, most reasonable, intelligent people might conclude that they had said the wrong thing, and figure out a way to explain it, excuse it, or even apologize for it. This Maines could not do: Remember that in her protected zone of infallibility, she was right and everyone else was wrong (to not purchase her album).
The fans never insulted Maines by questioning her talent, but—true to the liberal method of turning everything upside down—the song that tipped the Chicks’ Grammy nods goes, “Forgive, sounds good; forget, I don’t think I could.” Which is bizarre — after all, it isn’t for Maines to forgive us: She insulted us. (I counted myself among her fans back then.) After winning for Record of the Year, Maines said, à la The Simpsons, “Hah-hah.”
Vindication!
Actually, not so much.
Academy voting members are all involved in the creative and technical processes of recording. The fact that fewer than 5,000 voters, who live in the same bubble with her, voted for her doesn’t make her right, noble — or even popular with the general public. Still, Maines has an extraordinary ability to see only what she wants to see; at her final acceptance opportunity on stage she spouted that people were “using their freedom of speech.” Sadly, nobody will remind her that these weren’t the People’s Choice Awards. Five Grammies and the corresponding misinterpretation of their significance are certain to encourage Maines (and others) in political silliness. With the support of everyone in Hollywood, she will undoubtedly identify herself as an intellectual: a discerning person of integrity with well-considered, valuable opinions. At the final Grammy acceptance, feigning modesty, Maines said, “I got nothing clever, now.” She believes herself to be very clever, and nobody she knows will dare to disagree.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NzM4MDA3MTFjNTZjNGZlMWFhY2I1YmExMGRkMjI0ODY=
The curse of the awards show.
By Anna Nimouse
It's awards season here in Hollywood and I guess I am being swept up in it all. You see, last night I had the most amazing dream. I was really famous. I had lots of famous friends, too, who told me things they had learned about the world from other famous people, and I was compelled to listen to them and agree with them, because they were really famous, and that made them fascinating, intelligent, and right. I was fascinating, too, of course, and everyone wanted to know what I was wearing, even my perfume! They cheered me on the red carpet as I was interviewed on every topic. I graciously volunteered my opinions on any subject matter. I was famous, clearly brilliant, and everyone cared what I thought about everything. It was wonderful!
Then I woke up, and discovered I wasnÂ’t a Dixie Chick.
Three years ago Natalie Maines was hurt and baffled by the uproar over her comment, “Just so you know, we’re ashamed the President of the United States is from Texas,” referring to President Bush and our war in Iraq. It was an enormous shock to all the Dixie Chicks that their fan base would abandon them because of a political comment: freedom of speech, and all. Stations stopped playing their songs, record sales plummeted. A virtual boycott was in effect. What the Dixie Chicks failed to appreciate was that the fans were also only exercising their own freedoms, in choosing not to buy albums. Radio stations were exercising their business freedom in choosing not to play songs that outraged their listeners and repelled their advertisers.
It seemed difficult for Maines to comprehend that there were people (most of her then fan base) who disagreed with her political opinions, were vocal about it, and were willing to articulate that view with their wallets. This surprised her no end. In a sense, her surprise is understandable: Many Hollywood celebrities — Jane Fonda, Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins, Sean Penn, Natalie Portman, Julia Roberts, Alec Baldwin — make loud and foolish political statements, and usually face no repercussions.
Natalie Maines is married to an actor, and, like many in the Hollywood community, she lives in a sheltered “no-dissent zone,” surrounded by people with like views. Any ideas that differ from accepted points of view are immediately denounced. It’s quite boring, as everybody agrees all the time.
In the music industry, though, radio plays a huge part in the success or failure of a release. So when radio stations pulled the Dixie Chicks from their playlists, reacting to pressure from listeners and revenue sources alike, Maines found she had a problem. ItÂ’s the capitalistÂ’s rule number one: know your customers (and donÂ’t insult them).
After assessing the situation, most reasonable, intelligent people might conclude that they had said the wrong thing, and figure out a way to explain it, excuse it, or even apologize for it. This Maines could not do: Remember that in her protected zone of infallibility, she was right and everyone else was wrong (to not purchase her album).
The fans never insulted Maines by questioning her talent, but—true to the liberal method of turning everything upside down—the song that tipped the Chicks’ Grammy nods goes, “Forgive, sounds good; forget, I don’t think I could.” Which is bizarre — after all, it isn’t for Maines to forgive us: She insulted us. (I counted myself among her fans back then.) After winning for Record of the Year, Maines said, à la The Simpsons, “Hah-hah.”
Vindication!
Actually, not so much.
Academy voting members are all involved in the creative and technical processes of recording. The fact that fewer than 5,000 voters, who live in the same bubble with her, voted for her doesn’t make her right, noble — or even popular with the general public. Still, Maines has an extraordinary ability to see only what she wants to see; at her final acceptance opportunity on stage she spouted that people were “using their freedom of speech.” Sadly, nobody will remind her that these weren’t the People’s Choice Awards. Five Grammies and the corresponding misinterpretation of their significance are certain to encourage Maines (and others) in political silliness. With the support of everyone in Hollywood, she will undoubtedly identify herself as an intellectual: a discerning person of integrity with well-considered, valuable opinions. At the final Grammy acceptance, feigning modesty, Maines said, “I got nothing clever, now.” She believes herself to be very clever, and nobody she knows will dare to disagree.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NzM4MDA3MTFjNTZjNGZlMWFhY2I1YmExMGRkMjI0ODY=
No, I think my words were stated quite clearly. Perhaps you should try reading them again if you didn't understand them. You have "Waaaaahhhh", I have "they're still making boats of money"... welcome to capitalism.
Gunny
Gold Member
You would be incorrect. I posted statements based on common sense and logic supported by fact. You posted your politically-driven but unsupported opinion that "they're still making boatloads of money ..."
You will take note of the fact that I did not say they were not making money. They may have invested well from when they made REAL boatloads of money for all I know.
The fact is, they are being propped up by the left. How else do you explain country music artists who have no fan base in country music, but DO have a fan base among Bush-bashers?
You don't and you can't.
But DO try to understand the difference between crying and knocking down a baseless argument. The accusation of "crying" is nothing more than crying for a legitimate argument in and of itself.
Your "facts"
So, you seem to be hung up on pigeon-holing the Dixie Chicks as solely capable of appealing to some strict country music fan base. I listen to country music. Perhaps not solely (as I would guess is the case with anyone who listens to any variety of music) to country, but I can say with some pretty good assurance that I've seen Reba in concert more times than anyone else here (five times) (and maybe Brooks & Dunn too with three times).
Point being that there are a lot of acts which don't fit genre pigeon-holing anymore. What's your classification of Bela Fleck for instance? John Meyer? Heck, there's a lot of "little bit country, little bit rock-n-roll" going on these days. And, for you to assume that a country sound (and, let's be honest here, their sound is far more country-based than Toby Keith's rock band) cannot break free of some preset fan base is an insult to country music in general.
OK, first "fact" from you, "the Grammys are a "real" fraud"... that's a fact? Sounds more like an emotional "waaaaahhhhh" to me.
OK, your "facts" are falling apart by the line. "Fact" one... "have few fans in the genre"... perhaps you need to define "few." Country music is generally considered the most listened to music in America. Let's say 25% of Americans prefer to listen to country music. Let's say that only 10% of them still like the Dixie Chicks. 300 million Americans * 0.25 * 0.1 leaves them with a paltry 7.5 million fans. Name a business that would consider 7.5 million potential customers a failure. Your "fact" is based on the word "few" which means absolutely nothing... hence, your "fact" is... well, not a fact.
"Fact" two, "can't sell tickets"... I'm not even going to bother with this LIE (which is usually considered the opposite of a fact). They're selling tickets. As many as three years ago? No. So what? Still you've lied.
"Fact" three, "no airtime"... once again, who cares? What does that have to do with jack squat? Even if that were 100% true (which I can pretty safely say it is not)... doesn't matter. Particularly in a day and age of internet music where we all make our own radio stations. Third "fact".... useless anecdote which means nothing to the conversation.
Oh how many musicians would gladly be called "done" by some faceless poster on a message board if it meant selling a million albums. Your fact here is... uh, help me out here... uh, "they ARE done." More like an emotional "guess" at best (in fact, a guess we have been hearing for years now only to be repeatedly proven wrong... why should we believe this guess will be any better than the previous years' worth of guesses?)... a complete ignorance of the music business and crybaby propaganda at worst.
To note, they're eating just fine last time I checked. In fact, many musicians would give their left eye to sell the albums they're selling and fill the seats in the way they're filling them.
No, I call:
"Just so you know, we're ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas."
Freedom of Speech.
And, if you don't like it, nobody cares. Most of all, the Dixie Chicks.
When all is said and done, your post was nothing more than conjecture, lies and baseless meandering drivel culminating in nothing more than a big, fat, "WAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH". I think you've proven that "facts" ain't what they used to be and that common sense isn't as nearly as common as we'd like to think.
So, you seem to be hung up on pigeon-holing the Dixie Chicks as solely capable of appealing to some strict country music fan base. I listen to country music. Perhaps not solely (as I would guess is the case with anyone who listens to any variety of music) to country, but I can say with some pretty good assurance that I've seen Reba in concert more times than anyone else here (five times) (and maybe Brooks & Dunn too with three times).
Point being that there are a lot of acts which don't fit genre pigeon-holing anymore. What's your classification of Bela Fleck for instance? John Meyer? Heck, there's a lot of "little bit country, little bit rock-n-roll" going on these days. And, for you to assume that a country sound (and, let's be honest here, their sound is far more country-based than Toby Keith's rock band) cannot break free of some preset fan base is an insult to country music in general.
OK, first "fact" from you, "the Grammys are a "real" fraud"... that's a fact? Sounds more like an emotional "waaaaahhhhh" to me.
OK, your "facts" are falling apart by the line. "Fact" one... "have few fans in the genre"... perhaps you need to define "few." Country music is generally considered the most listened to music in America. Let's say 25% of Americans prefer to listen to country music. Let's say that only 10% of them still like the Dixie Chicks. 300 million Americans * 0.25 * 0.1 leaves them with a paltry 7.5 million fans. Name a business that would consider 7.5 million potential customers a failure. Your "fact" is based on the word "few" which means absolutely nothing... hence, your "fact" is... well, not a fact.
"Fact" two, "can't sell tickets"... I'm not even going to bother with this LIE (which is usually considered the opposite of a fact). They're selling tickets. As many as three years ago? No. So what? Still you've lied.
"Fact" three, "no airtime"... once again, who cares? What does that have to do with jack squat? Even if that were 100% true (which I can pretty safely say it is not)... doesn't matter. Particularly in a day and age of internet music where we all make our own radio stations. Third "fact".... useless anecdote which means nothing to the conversation.
Oh how many musicians would gladly be called "done" by some faceless poster on a message board if it meant selling a million albums. Your fact here is... uh, help me out here... uh, "they ARE done." More like an emotional "guess" at best (in fact, a guess we have been hearing for years now only to be repeatedly proven wrong... why should we believe this guess will be any better than the previous years' worth of guesses?)... a complete ignorance of the music business and crybaby propaganda at worst.
To note, they're eating just fine last time I checked. In fact, many musicians would give their left eye to sell the albums they're selling and fill the seats in the way they're filling them.
No, I call:
"Just so you know, we're ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas."
Freedom of Speech.
And, if you don't like it, nobody cares. Most of all, the Dixie Chicks.
When all is said and done, your post was nothing more than conjecture, lies and baseless meandering drivel culminating in nothing more than a big, fat, "WAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH". I think you've proven that "facts" ain't what they used to be and that common sense isn't as nearly as common as we'd like to think.
All this writing and the facts still are that they had to take their tour to Canada because so few of their so called fan base wanted to see them in concert.....why ....because they suck, really, really suck.
By the way, rap sells a lot of CDs also and it sucks even worse than the hick chiks...... who gives a shit, any scam artist can make a shitload if they are helped by enough idiots.
red states rule
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The Dixie Chicks have a nack for pissing off the very people they need to buy their music and go to their shows
Dixie Chicks' Natalie Maines is digging the hole deeper and deeper. After three years of backlash and a stunted career, she is even more defiant. In 2003, on the eve of the Iraq war, Maines hijacked a Dixie Chicks concert in Great Britain to announce -- to cheers from her audience -- that she was "ashamed" that President Bush came from Texas.
NEW YORK (AP) - The Dixie Chicks' Natalie Maines apologized for disrespecting President Bush during a London concert in 2003. But now, she's taking it back. "I don't feel that way anymore," she told Time magazine for its issue hitting newsstands Monday. "I don't feel he is owed any respect whatsoever."
In fact, Maines never really did "apologize" in the first place. She said something along the lines that the office of the presidency should be respected, no matter who holds it. I don't consider that an apology; and she didn't even mean that much. Now, Maines is repudiating even that half-hearted non-apology (which fooled nobody, by the way.)
To tell the truth, I really don't care what three dumb Chicks think of the president or the war. But I am angry at the relentless attacks on country singers, their fans, country western music, and the American spirit itself. Listen to what Martie Maquire, another band member, thinks of country western fans:
"I'd rather have a small following of really cool people who get it, who will grow with us as we grow and are fans for life, than people that have us in their five-disc changer with Reba McEntire and Toby Keith," Maguire said. "We don't want those kinds of fans. They limit what you can do."
We know what Maines thinks of Toby Keith; but now Reba's fans are also uncool? I take that personally.
The mainstream press has clearly taken the Dixie Chicks side of this "debate;" they even imply that other country stars made death threats against the chicks:
[Natalie Maines' anti-Bush] remarks led to death threats and a backlash from other country stars, including a high-profile spat with Toby Keith. It also stalled what until then had been the group's smashingly successful career.
Now, that also sentence could also be read to mean that Maines' remarks led to death threats -- and they also (separately) led to a "backlash" by other country singers. But it's carefully crafted so that it's equally proper to read it as saying that "other country stars" reacted with "death threats and a backlash." I think the ambiguity is deliberate: it's a "dual use" smear, like Hussein's WMD arsenal, to make it possible to deny bad intent when called to account.
So how about that "high-profile spat with Toby Keith?" This is true; there certainly was one. But what this story ignores is that the feud was started by Maines herself, who deliberately provoked it a year before her 2003 London smear -- possibly because the Chicks considered Toby Keith their biggest rival in country music at the time, and they may have wanted to piggyback on his success and celebrity to promote their own multiple nominations at the upcoming Country Music Awards. Specifically, both the Chicks and Keith were up for Entertainer of the Year in 2002, and only one could win. (Hint: it wasn't the Texas tornado.)
Toby Keith is actually from Oklahoma (though from Clinton and Moore, not from Muskogee); and interestingly, he is a Democrat -- in the Zell Miller mold -- and he opposed the Iraq war (from an isolationist standpoint). The Chicks never "got" Toby Keith, just like they never "got" country music itself: to this day, they seem to think Keith is a right-wing Republican war supporter.
Toby Keith originally did not say a single thing to Maines about her 2003 comment in London (let alone any death threats). But that wasn't when the "feud" began; in fact, it started well before 2003... but the attacks have mostly come from the Dixie Chicks, mainly from Natalie Maines herself.
Back in August of 2002, Natalie Maines made her first public, gratuitously nasty comment about Toby Keith's song "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue":
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (LA Daily News) - ABC News Anchor Peter Jennings is apparently not the only celebrity to take issue with Toby Keith's chart-topping country hit, "Courtesy Of The Red, White And Blue (The Angry American)." Now, the Dixie ChickÂ’s lead singer, Natalie Maines, freely shares her dislike of the song.
"Don't get me started," Maines told the Los Angeles Daily News. "I hate it. It's ignorant, and it makes country music sound ignorant. It targets an entire culture - and not just the bad people who did bad things. You've got to have some tact. Anybody can write, 'We'll put a boot in your ass.' But a lot of people agree with it. The kinds of songs I prefer on the subject are like Bruce Springsteen's new songs."
To which Toby Keith said, "you've got to be in my league as a songwriter before I'll even respond to you."
Since then, he's projected images of Maines and Saddam Hussein on big screens behind the stage when he's performing concerts.
But the most infantile attack after Maines' 2003 comment in London came not from Keith, but from the Dixie Chicks themselves:
On May 21, Maines performed on television at the AMC Awards wearing a F.U.T.K. tee shirt – which viewers declared a definite telling off of T.K. (Toby Keith). According to a Dixie Chicks rep, "It’s my understanding that according to chatter on their web site, Natalie’s T-shirt stands for FREEDOM, UNDERSTANDING, TRUTH, AND KNOWLEDGE."
Yeah. Right.
Around this time, a friend's child, whom Keith was very close to, died of cancer. Suddenly the feud between Maines and him just seemed really trivial, and he started ignoring them. Maines may have thought this meant she won; but the reality is that the Dixie Chicks simply ceased to matter in the world of country music: they lost all their award nominations and their CD sales plummeted.
Toby Keith, meanwhile, went on to become one of the greatest forces in the genre in decades. He now owns his own label and has become an institution.
I think at first the Chicks picked on Keith because they percerved him as a rival. They might have thought that attacking him would create the buzz they needed to sweep the CMA awards and launch a huge career in country.
But they wildly misjudged their audience. Toby Keith was not just a musical rival; after 911, and especially after "Courtesy," Toby Keith had become something much larger... and the Chicks never "got it." Keith came to symbolize the angry, defiant American: defiance of Osama bin Laden, of terrorism, and of European-style appeasement. To many Americans, he came to symbolize the spirit of America itself. Keith, the Okie from Clinton, was more Texan than those three dopey Texans.
Natalie Maines clearly understood the defiance part; that's exactly what angered her about Keith's song. Rather than accepting 9/11 as a just rebuke, rather than being humbled and apologetic for all the horrible things we were doing that brought 9/11 on ourselves, Maines understood that Keith's song -- and it's overwhelming reception across the country and especially among the military -- signalled that Americans did not accept the diminished role in the world that Leftists ordered for us. Instead, we made it plain that we were going to fight back -- violently, just as we'd been attacked violently. Keith was a powerful symbol of that resolve.
The Dixie Chicks gambled -- and they lost. They gambled that country fans were just like most rock fans: uncomfortable with the idea that there was something special and essentially good about America, compared to other countries. Maines and the other Chicks thought country fans were basically like the French.
They did not realize what country western music meant to many Americans. Thinking they were attacking American arrogance, they were really attacking the core values of real America. In doing so, the Dixie Chicks have alienated themselves from real Americans
http://biglizards.net/blog/archives/2006/05/toby_vs_natalie.html
Dixie Chicks' Natalie Maines is digging the hole deeper and deeper. After three years of backlash and a stunted career, she is even more defiant. In 2003, on the eve of the Iraq war, Maines hijacked a Dixie Chicks concert in Great Britain to announce -- to cheers from her audience -- that she was "ashamed" that President Bush came from Texas.
NEW YORK (AP) - The Dixie Chicks' Natalie Maines apologized for disrespecting President Bush during a London concert in 2003. But now, she's taking it back. "I don't feel that way anymore," she told Time magazine for its issue hitting newsstands Monday. "I don't feel he is owed any respect whatsoever."
In fact, Maines never really did "apologize" in the first place. She said something along the lines that the office of the presidency should be respected, no matter who holds it. I don't consider that an apology; and she didn't even mean that much. Now, Maines is repudiating even that half-hearted non-apology (which fooled nobody, by the way.)
To tell the truth, I really don't care what three dumb Chicks think of the president or the war. But I am angry at the relentless attacks on country singers, their fans, country western music, and the American spirit itself. Listen to what Martie Maquire, another band member, thinks of country western fans:
"I'd rather have a small following of really cool people who get it, who will grow with us as we grow and are fans for life, than people that have us in their five-disc changer with Reba McEntire and Toby Keith," Maguire said. "We don't want those kinds of fans. They limit what you can do."
We know what Maines thinks of Toby Keith; but now Reba's fans are also uncool? I take that personally.
The mainstream press has clearly taken the Dixie Chicks side of this "debate;" they even imply that other country stars made death threats against the chicks:
[Natalie Maines' anti-Bush] remarks led to death threats and a backlash from other country stars, including a high-profile spat with Toby Keith. It also stalled what until then had been the group's smashingly successful career.
Now, that also sentence could also be read to mean that Maines' remarks led to death threats -- and they also (separately) led to a "backlash" by other country singers. But it's carefully crafted so that it's equally proper to read it as saying that "other country stars" reacted with "death threats and a backlash." I think the ambiguity is deliberate: it's a "dual use" smear, like Hussein's WMD arsenal, to make it possible to deny bad intent when called to account.
So how about that "high-profile spat with Toby Keith?" This is true; there certainly was one. But what this story ignores is that the feud was started by Maines herself, who deliberately provoked it a year before her 2003 London smear -- possibly because the Chicks considered Toby Keith their biggest rival in country music at the time, and they may have wanted to piggyback on his success and celebrity to promote their own multiple nominations at the upcoming Country Music Awards. Specifically, both the Chicks and Keith were up for Entertainer of the Year in 2002, and only one could win. (Hint: it wasn't the Texas tornado.)
Toby Keith is actually from Oklahoma (though from Clinton and Moore, not from Muskogee); and interestingly, he is a Democrat -- in the Zell Miller mold -- and he opposed the Iraq war (from an isolationist standpoint). The Chicks never "got" Toby Keith, just like they never "got" country music itself: to this day, they seem to think Keith is a right-wing Republican war supporter.
Toby Keith originally did not say a single thing to Maines about her 2003 comment in London (let alone any death threats). But that wasn't when the "feud" began; in fact, it started well before 2003... but the attacks have mostly come from the Dixie Chicks, mainly from Natalie Maines herself.
Back in August of 2002, Natalie Maines made her first public, gratuitously nasty comment about Toby Keith's song "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue":
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (LA Daily News) - ABC News Anchor Peter Jennings is apparently not the only celebrity to take issue with Toby Keith's chart-topping country hit, "Courtesy Of The Red, White And Blue (The Angry American)." Now, the Dixie ChickÂ’s lead singer, Natalie Maines, freely shares her dislike of the song.
"Don't get me started," Maines told the Los Angeles Daily News. "I hate it. It's ignorant, and it makes country music sound ignorant. It targets an entire culture - and not just the bad people who did bad things. You've got to have some tact. Anybody can write, 'We'll put a boot in your ass.' But a lot of people agree with it. The kinds of songs I prefer on the subject are like Bruce Springsteen's new songs."
To which Toby Keith said, "you've got to be in my league as a songwriter before I'll even respond to you."
Since then, he's projected images of Maines and Saddam Hussein on big screens behind the stage when he's performing concerts.
But the most infantile attack after Maines' 2003 comment in London came not from Keith, but from the Dixie Chicks themselves:
On May 21, Maines performed on television at the AMC Awards wearing a F.U.T.K. tee shirt – which viewers declared a definite telling off of T.K. (Toby Keith). According to a Dixie Chicks rep, "It’s my understanding that according to chatter on their web site, Natalie’s T-shirt stands for FREEDOM, UNDERSTANDING, TRUTH, AND KNOWLEDGE."
Yeah. Right.
Around this time, a friend's child, whom Keith was very close to, died of cancer. Suddenly the feud between Maines and him just seemed really trivial, and he started ignoring them. Maines may have thought this meant she won; but the reality is that the Dixie Chicks simply ceased to matter in the world of country music: they lost all their award nominations and their CD sales plummeted.
Toby Keith, meanwhile, went on to become one of the greatest forces in the genre in decades. He now owns his own label and has become an institution.
I think at first the Chicks picked on Keith because they percerved him as a rival. They might have thought that attacking him would create the buzz they needed to sweep the CMA awards and launch a huge career in country.
But they wildly misjudged their audience. Toby Keith was not just a musical rival; after 911, and especially after "Courtesy," Toby Keith had become something much larger... and the Chicks never "got it." Keith came to symbolize the angry, defiant American: defiance of Osama bin Laden, of terrorism, and of European-style appeasement. To many Americans, he came to symbolize the spirit of America itself. Keith, the Okie from Clinton, was more Texan than those three dopey Texans.
Natalie Maines clearly understood the defiance part; that's exactly what angered her about Keith's song. Rather than accepting 9/11 as a just rebuke, rather than being humbled and apologetic for all the horrible things we were doing that brought 9/11 on ourselves, Maines understood that Keith's song -- and it's overwhelming reception across the country and especially among the military -- signalled that Americans did not accept the diminished role in the world that Leftists ordered for us. Instead, we made it plain that we were going to fight back -- violently, just as we'd been attacked violently. Keith was a powerful symbol of that resolve.
The Dixie Chicks gambled -- and they lost. They gambled that country fans were just like most rock fans: uncomfortable with the idea that there was something special and essentially good about America, compared to other countries. Maines and the other Chicks thought country fans were basically like the French.
They did not realize what country western music meant to many Americans. Thinking they were attacking American arrogance, they were really attacking the core values of real America. In doing so, the Dixie Chicks have alienated themselves from real Americans
http://biglizards.net/blog/archives/2006/05/toby_vs_natalie.html
Yeah... they only filled Madison Square Garden... oh to suck that much...
Last year they made an average of $640,000 a show. And, they did it on ticket sales... they took all the pressue off of promoters and didn't set a minimum price (as is most often the case in concert series) relying solely on a percentage of ticket sales to make that money.
Once again... it's your "facts" that suck, really, really, suck.
Only a clown would call a half-million dollars for a night of work anything other than success.
What percentage of that take, if the figure is remotely correct, do you think the Dixie Skanks took for themselves. A concert is a very expensive proposition......half a million isn't shit.
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