Feb 15 2007
Dixie Chicks singing to 5 Grammys… and no one’s listening?
*** UPDATE BELOW ***
Well, perhaps that’s an overstatement.
People do listen to the Dixie Chicks, just generally not the people who like country music.
Over the summer, USA Today and other news organizations reported that the Dixie Chicks had to rearrange their North American Accidents & Accusations Tour and reschedule many of their concert dates due to lackluster ticket sales primarily in the South and Midwest. Also, although their album, Taking the Long Way, initially had strong sales and ended around 2 million copies sold for last year, it was still a fraction of the sales from their debut album and certainly less than the 6 million copies that the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ new album sold.
Even newcomer Carrie Underwood out-sold the Dixie Chicks with Underwood’s sales for 2006 totaling at 3.7 million copies.
Like it as not, they are a political music group. Like other bands with heavy political overtones, such as Rage Against the Machine, the Dixie Chicks appeal to a core audience of liberal listeners.
In 2003 in Britain, they said they were “ashamed” of President Bush, and from that moment on, despite their half-hearted apology to the American public, country music stations in the South and Midwest have virtually boycotted their music. This year they had to cancel their tour in Kansas City, Houston, St. Louis, Memphis and Knoxville along with 14 other cities due to slow sales.
The Dixie Chicks have made it clear that they stand by their accusations against the President, and the Southern and Midwestern states have also made it clear that they stand by their dislike of them.
So, what exactly warrants the 5 Grammy’s that were awarded to the Dixie Chicks?
It is no secret that our artistic communities, Hollywood and the music industries and the like, are left leaning communities devoted to the advancement of their politics. If actual sales are indicative of where the American people are at, then it seems not very many people are listening to our artistic communities. Hollywood movies sales have been slumping for well over a decade with residual DVD sales keeping them afloat, and the music industry is on the ropes.
(As a sidenote, Hollywood is now pining their hopes of survival on the new Blue Ray technology. According to Reuters, “A large-scale failure of AACS could be a threat to the $24 billion DVD industry, which has started to cool and was counting on next-generation DVD sales to reinvigorate it.”)
So far as I can see, as with so many other things from our entertainment establishment, the Dixie Chicks were awarded Grammy’s not from the entertainment values of their music but from the vehemence of their politics.
(Photo By Dima Gavrysh, AP)
Update 2/15/07:
For the Dixie Chicks, politics aside, their core audience base have shifted significantly since their comment against Bush in 2003. Country music has traditionally been focused in the South, the Midwest and parts of the West. From what I understand, the Dixie Chicks’ fan base went from these regions of the United States to the coastal states.
However you cut the cards, that’s a dramatic shift in demographics; and an uncertain shift for any country western band since most country western acts don’t make successful jumps to the “mainstream” or popular music, even with few Grammy’s.
The list of attempts to go to “mainstream” from country is very familiar. Shania Twain, Lean Rhimes, even Garth Brooks (as Chris Gaines). Most of the time, the American public sees them as temporary novelties, which runs for a season; then we’ll see the novelty wear off. That’s when they plummet in sales.
Who knows if the Dixie Chicks have any lasting power in the music industry, but if past acts are any indicators, they’ll enjoy a nice run before people get bored.
Related Posts:
California Conservative: GOP “Frontrunners” And The Dixie Chicks
Fan of the Band: Country Radio Still Cold to Dixie Chicks
arubberdoor: Grammy Vindication for the Dixie Chicks
Texas Rainmaker: The Grammy’s are a joke
Some feel that the Grammy Awards were gives to the chicks as sort of an apology.
I think the reason was to point out how stupid Country radio has been by not play the Dixie Chicks music.
I was at the show in Washington and it drew a big crowd. Not a typical country crowd, but they filled the Verizon Center.
I haven’t been to a Dixie Chicks concert (I haven’t been to a live show in years), but I imagine their fan base to be mainly liberal suburbanites; not the typical conservative country western suburbanites at all.
Yellojkt, I’m actually surprised they filled the entire Verizon Center considering they got little-to-no air play on the country radio circuit. If they’ve been played on top 40 stations, I’m largely unaware of it.
Even though I disagree with their politics in general, it would seem that their controversial statements directly led to their popularity. At least for now, their controversy has been an incredible career boost, even if not many people are talking about their music.
[…] The Thomas Chronicles has an interesting post regarding the shift of the fanbase. […]
The Grammy’s are not about winners of “who sold the most albums” contest. It about who created the best music as voted by the over 11,000 Grammy members (including folks from Nashville, some that even acknowledged they voted for the Dixie Chicks).
The Dixie Chicks won 8 Grammies before the Bush incident and so far they have won 5 Grammies after. The Dixie Chicks latest album is by many music critics opinion is their best yet. They won 13 Grammies because they make great music. If anything the blackballing of the Dixie Chicks from the County Music Awards was the only awards show that was politically motivated.
Larry,
If the measure of good music is not in the volume of direct sales (in CD or online) but in the good opinion of a few elite musical critics, then what can actually be said about the music itself? According to the standard of the latter, there is a sharp disconnect between the music and the people it’s supposed to entertain.
We all know that music is enjoyed subjectively and that aesthetics is no longer measured in terms of harmony and melody and so on. Since the only measure of “good music” nowadays is the subjective tastes of musical aristocrats, perhaps the Grammy’s are more irrelevant than previously thought.
I submit to you that popular music cannot be divorced from the people who listen to them. IF it was, then it would be as irrelevant as modern discordant “art music”, which prides itself on being separate from “the masses”, and which can’t even draw the barest of crowds, much less pay for itself without patronage.
This is not where the Dixie Chicks are at, since they are selling millions of copies of their music. But this is where your reasoning goes.
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