Like everyone else in the this corner of the blogosphere, I love the Dixie Chicks, and I’m looking forward to seeing their documentary Shut Up and Sing about the aftermath of Natalie Maines’s comment about being ashamed that President Bush is from Texas. Although the odds that I’ll see the trailer on network TV just went way down. As Glenn Greenwald documents NBC and CW television* are refusing to accept ads for The Dixie Chicks documentary.
*The conglomerate that is the combined UPN and WB and a joint venture of CBS and Warner Brothers.
The footage from the trailer is incredible. I’m from the Northeast, and we definitely missed out on the Dixie Chicks backlash. They show Dixie Chicks CDs being smashed by some large piece of construction equipment, ridiculous signs, fans talking about begging radio stations to play their music to no avail. The trailer ends with this creepy guy saying he has no objection to free speech, just free speech in public.
I think Amanda is right and that this is far more about “a build-up of years of pissy resentment from my conservative red state brethern who hated the fact that the Dixie Chicks are cheeky feminists who are wildly popular with the ladies, especially for writing songs like “Goodbye Earl,” than it is about any real outrage. Of course, the insufferable music snob goes on to explain further in another post I really liked, so I’m going take the topic in a slightly different direction, albeit briefly.
There’s been some intimation that the Dixie Chicks really aren’t all that brave (otherwise, they would have criticized Bush while playing a show in Texas instead of in London), that they deserve the fallout from their remarks (or as Bush himself put it, they can’t have their feelings hurt because people don’t buy their records). Or that by bashing Bush, Maines effectively bashed her fans who happen to support Dubya. Of course, none of that explains how one comment warrants death threats, but there you have it. There’s certainly a lot more going on here than a mere disagreement about politics.