Will the Dixie Chicks and Country Radio ever kiss and make up?

[Trekker4747]

My interest, and listening to, Country Music faded out when it (mostly from the female singers) became mostly pop, teeny-bopper sounding crap.

ever hear "Murder on Music Row"?

I've not listened to a country station in a while, at least not at any meaningful length. Whenever I tune to them what they play sound more like it belongs on the pop/Top-40 station than it does a country station. I can handle some more "poppy" country songs (stuff from Shania Twains' third example (Come on Over) for example) but give me some real country music. Some good Travis Tritt, Garth Brooks, stuff like "Beer for my Horses", give me some of Shania Twain's earlier stuff (from her second album), give me almost anything from the Chicks' first two albums (all pretty darn good, IMO.)

But slowly the music became very pop and it lost that "country sound" I enjoyed it just seemed to blend more and more in to background. I lost interest.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ Here you go.

 

[Dusty Ayres]

If I've ever heard a Dixie Chicks song I didn't know it. But this fracas taught me that Reba McEntire is a piece of shit.

Why is she a piece of shit, and what did she say?

 

[Warped9]

I've not listened to a country station in a while, at least not at any meaningful length. Whenever I tune to them what they play sound more like it belongs on the pop/Top-40 station than it does a country station. I can handle some more "poppy" country songs (stuff from Shania Twains' third example (Come on Over) for example) but give me some real country music. Some good Travis Tritt, Garth Brooks, stuff like "Beer for my Horses", give me some of Shania Twain's earlier stuff (from her second album), give me almost anything from the Chicks' first two albums (all pretty darn good, IMO.)

But slowly the music became very pop and it lost that "country sound" I enjoyed it just seemed to blend more and more in to background. I lost interest.

I feel very much the same way. I've found little to enjoy over the past 10-15 years or so.

 

[Marten]

I feel that the answer is an emphatic "Not just No, but HELL NO!"

The Chicks put on display the perfect way to ruin a wildly successful career!

They totally misunderstood their audience and gravely overestimated their importance!

Sure they had the right to express their own opinion, but when you make your living by entertaining the most patriotic and traditional audience in all of American entertainment, you'd better align yourself with the values of that audience or at the very least "Shut the Hell Up!"

Doing what the Chicks did and the ensuing events -
insincere apology, take back the apology, fued with radio
publicly, the Entertainment Weekly cover, bash other stars of the format for not standing up for them, declaring themselves "no longer part of the country music family" and so on - only served to destroy thri career and relationship with country radio and it's audience.


Their last big album, FLY, sold over 10 million copies. It came out before "the incident".

Their last album, TAKE THE LONG WAY HOME, sold less than one million - just over half a million actually.

Huge drop off! (sure that album won several Grammy's but you can't spend Grammy's)

Not only that, but their FLY concert tour was sold out (through Target of all places) before the incident.

Since then they've been plagued with cancelled shows, poor ticket sales and shows moved to much smaller venues.

They even had shows cancelled with them OPENING for the Eagles. (of course poor economy was also blamed...but still!)

Some radio stations still refuse to even promote their shows or run advertising for them.

Country Music Legend Conway Twitty was once asked why he didn't engage in any political support or action and he said, and I'm paraphrasing here, " Harold Jenkins has political views (his real name btw) but why should Harold Jenkins express HIS political views as Conway Twitty and ruin Conway Twitty's career!"

Too bad the Chicks didn't think like that.​

Taking the long way sold just under 3 million, actually.

 

[Warped9]

I feel that the answer is an emphatic "Not just No, but HELL NO!"

The Chicks put on display the perfect way to ruin a wildly successful career!

They totally misunderstood their audience and gravely overestimated their importance!

Sure they had the right to express their own opinion, but when you make your living by entertaining the most patriotic and traditional audience in all of American entertainment, you'd better align yourself with the values of that audience or at the very least "Shut the Hell Up!"

Doing what the Chicks did and the ensuing events -
insincere apology, take back the apology, fued with radio
publicly, the Entertainment Weekly cover, bash other stars of the format for not standing up for them, declaring themselves "no longer part of the country music family" and so on - only served to destroy thri career and relationship with country radio and it's audience.


Their last big album, FLY, sold over 10 million copies. It came out before "the incident".

Their last album, TAKE THE LONG WAY HOME, sold less than one million - just over half a million actually.

Huge drop off! (sure that album won several Grammy's but you can't spend Grammy's)

Not only that, but their FLY concert tour was sold out (through Target of all places) before the incident.

Since then they've been plagued with cancelled shows, poor ticket sales and shows moved to much smaller venues.

They even had shows cancelled with them OPENING for the Eagles. (of course poor economy was also blamed...but still!)

Some radio stations still refuse to even promote their shows or run advertising for them.

Country Music Legend Conway Twitty was once asked why he didn't engage in any political support or action and he said, and I'm paraphrasing here, " Harold Jenkins has political views (his real name btw) but why should Harold Jenkins express HIS political views as Conway Twitty and ruin Conway Twitty's career!"

Too bad the Chicks didn't think like that.

 

[J.T.B.]

I've not listened to a country station in a while, at least not at any meaningful length. Whenever I tune to them what they play sound more like it belongs on the pop/Top-40 station than it does a country station. I can handle some more "poppy" country songs (stuff from Shania Twains' third example (Come on Over) for example) but give me some real country music. Some good Travis Tritt, Garth Brooks, stuff like "Beer for my Horses", give me some of Shania Twain's earlier stuff (from her second album), give me almost anything from the Chicks' first two albums (all pretty darn good, IMO.)

But slowly the music became very pop and it lost that "country sound" I enjoyed it just seemed to blend more and more in to background. I lost interest.

Commercial country music has been incorporating pop trends since Jimmie Rodgers, and has pendulum swings between more pop and more traditional. The lush Countrypolitan sound of the '60s was followed by Outlaw Country in the '70s. Then there was the slick early '80s MOR-country by people Barbara Mandrell and Sylvia and Eddie Rabbit, and more rock-influenced stuff like Alabama. Then there was a swing back to New Traditionalists in the later '80s, like Randy Travis and Keith Whitley and Dwight Yoakam. Then there was the Garth Brooks phenomenon and the boot-scootin' of the '90s...

I lost interest, too, a long time ago. But it's nothing new, and there is no way to define "country music" that everybody will agree on.

--Justin

 

[BDJ]

Well I don't know about how much corporate organization there was in the protesting of what the girls said and did. I saw way too much grassroots groundswell and heard way too much angry, venomous, villifying, vitriol for it to be accredited to any corporate anger directed at the chicks.

The response was immediate and strong from the listening audience of the day.

I have very much enjoyed reading the opinions and discussions here on this bulletin board. I think the best thing to come out of their misfortune has been the discussion.

I had friends who lambasted me and hollered me down for supporting the Chicks' right to speak their mind (even if I didn't agree with what they said).

But those very same friends said to me four years later that the Chicks were right.

During the whole fiasco I went straight to a local veterns group to ask them what they thought and every single one of those Vietnam, Korea, and Iraqi veterans defended the girls right to speak their minds.

That carried alot of weight with me. If the men and women who actually sacrificed for us in the service thought that this little group of hot headed, loud mouthed ladies had every right to speak their minds then that settled it for me and I thought you could go to no higher an authority.

It was a weird time in our history. Spoiling for a fight over 9/11, finding a country we could lay blame on and then going after them.

People were angry and scared because they never thought the U.S. would've been hit like that on 9/11. Then being asked to send their sons and daughters into harms way added a real edge to it all.

We were all emotionally motivated and though we understood the dangers we knew that we had to stand up for ourselves or there would be another 9/11 real soon.

We had the same intel that all the other countries out there had about Iraq and the U.S. chose to act upon it. I don't know or even pretend to know the realities about that "intel" but I do know that I disagreed with a "first strike" against Iraq.

America shouldn't use it's might to punch first. At least without absolute irrefuteable proof. (I didn't think we had it at that time.)

Folks do forget that Saddam was given ultimatum after ultimatum and he stood firm against those ultimatums believing that America was a paper tiger.

Though he found out otherwise! (who can forget Tarik Aziz standing on the Iraqi government building roof proclaiming his army the victor when the news crews could clearly see our forces coming into the city)

I think the Chicks, and many others, were uncomfortable about our using our forces to whip up on a nation that wasn't openly involved in 9/11 and our striking them first.

It put many young people's lives on the line for something that wasn't proved beyond a shadow of a doubt.

BTW - I do regret not getting the numbers exaclty right on the sales of The Long Way album but still dropping from over 10 million to just over 2 million is an incredible fall.

The Chicks got support from the Adult Contemporary format stations, MSN gave them extensive coverage during the release of "Long Way" and they got the traditional Grammy bump after their wins.

But their tours were and are non-existant and they have not and I don't think ever will attain the status they had before their "incident".

And that can be directly attributable to their disrespect of their audience.

Without an audience an artist is no one. They used to have a huge audience and were superstars. They now have a much more truncated audience are merely stars.
Which still ain't all that bad. Just not incredible...like they were before. ImHo.

 

[Warped9]

The intel wasn't just "bad." It was falsified and exaggerated to justify what the neocons wanted to do all along. They took the flimsiest of tidbits of info and labeled them as factual proof. The entire American public was scammed into supporting a war based on wholly false reasons.

 

[Pingfah]

I feel that the answer is an emphatic "Not just No, but HELL NO!"

The Chicks put on display the perfect way to ruin a wildly successful career!

They totally misunderstood their audience and gravely overestimated their importance!

Sure they had the right to express their own opinion, but when you make your living by entertaining the most patriotic and traditional audience in all of American entertainment, you'd better align yourself with the values of that audience or at the very least "Shut the Hell Up!"

Doing what the Chicks did and the ensuing events -
insincere apology, take back the apology, fued with radio
publicly, the Entertainment Weekly cover, bash other stars of the format for not standing up for them, declaring themselves "no longer part of the country music family" and so on - only served to destroy thri career and relationship with country radio and it's audience.


Their last big album, FLY, sold over 10 million copies. It came out before "the incident".

Their last album, TAKE THE LONG WAY HOME, sold less than one million - just over half a million actually.

Huge drop off! (sure that album won several Grammy's but you can't spend Grammy's)

Not only that, but their FLY concert tour was sold out (through Target of all places) before the incident.

Since then they've been plagued with cancelled shows, poor ticket sales and shows moved to much smaller venues.

They even had shows cancelled with them OPENING for the Eagles. (of course poor economy was also blamed...but still!)

Some radio stations still refuse to even promote their shows or run advertising for them.

Country Music Legend Conway Twitty was once asked why he didn't engage in any political support or action and he said, and I'm paraphrasing here, " Harold Jenkins has political views (his real name btw) but why should Harold Jenkins express HIS political views as Conway Twitty and ruin Conway Twitty's career!"

Too bad the Chicks didn't think like that.​

Taking the long way sold just under 3 million, actually.

Indeed, his half a million figure is what it sold in the first week. It was the 9th biggest selling album of the year

And it opened up a global market for them that didn't exist before, it was easily their most successful album worldwide. I doubt they could care less about Country Radio while they are still holding up those sorts of figures.

 

[BDJ]

Wide Open Spaces sold 12 million. Fly sold 10 million. Take the Long Way sold just under 3 million.
Wide Open and Fly came before the Chicks spat upon country radio and it's listening audience. (Leave out the whole anti-Bush sentiment) I'm speaking directly toward the album sales after incident. Even more damning, and a point no one has touched upon- even with their little emoticons...oh so cute..is that every tour since their fight with country radio has flopped! They are no longer the level of superstars they were when country radio and their listening audience loved them.

Their last major tour, in support of FLY, was PRE-sold out through Target stores! Millions of dollars in ticket sales!
Now they can't even sell out shows OPENING for the Eagles!

Obviously they've since decided that their personal stand was more important than their superstar career. They enjoy a much smaller role in the music industry now.
Much Much smaller because the music they are best at is country.

Natalie can shave her head and prance about like she's at the Lilith Fair but it's not gonna get her a huge rock following. Her music isn't the right style. Especially in this day of Katy Perry and the GaGa.

Referencing back to the original question of this thread, from my own personal experience in country music broadcasting, after what I've heard and seen from listeners, programmers, promoters, consultants and their ilk - the Chicks will grow beaks before they're welcomed back by country radio.

Don't get me wrong, I love their music. I saw them when they opened for Clay Walker's tour and were throwing out "Chick's Kick Ass" buttons back in the day.

I'm simply stating fact. From a career management standpoint, the Chicks made a tactical error with their listening audience AND the main form of promotional media (radio) that their album and ticket sales depended on.

They chose to stand up to the audience and lost their superstar status for it.

They were at the pinnacle of a monsterous career and derailed it with some poor choices, poor timing and just plain old bad luck.

And I'll tell you something else..."Not Ready to Make Nice" pretty much sealed the deal for them after most media news outlets made fun of country radio by proclaiming the song as "The Chicks Strike Back at Country Radio"

I wonder just how many programmers decided the band would never get played on their station again, just because of that?

 

[stj]

^^^Translation: The Dixie Chicks were damn right. The kind of audience that thinks it is being disrespected when the government is criticized is never, ever going to forgive anyone who showed them up that way. This doesn't make country music fans look very nice, of course.

 

[Gil T.Azell]

1st amendment rights gave them the freedom to bash Bush ,just as it gave those who bashed them the right to do so.
I think the media blew it out of proportion.
Just an observation.

(by the way I'm not a fan of Country or the Dixie "Sluts" as my old land lord used to call them.)

 

[Pingfah]

Wide Open Spaces sold 12 million. Fly sold 10 million. Take the Long Way sold just under 3 million.
Wide Open and Fly came before the Chicks spat upon country radio and it's listening audience.

Spat on them Nothing like a bit of hyperbole to make a pojnt is there.

You fail to take into account the fact that CD sales slumped massively in the years between this and the preceeding album. TTLW sold 2 million copies in one year, the biggest selling album of the entire year only sold 3.7 million copies.

The album was a massive success, especially considering it comes off the back of a major controversy, and sold more copies outside of the US than any of their other albums creating touring opportunities elsewhere. That it held it's own against all other competition in a tough year is merely a testament to the fact that they do have a very large crossover appeal, and really don't need Country radio to sell a lot of albums.

Their standing in the music industry is just fine.

 

[BDJ]

But I do believe that the question was regarding their standing with country radio. Not "elsewhere".

The Long Way album enjoyed a huge media push from internet, tv, and media other than country radio. (again alluding back to the original question)

Think of what kind of sales they would've had IF country radio had been there to promote them as well! I offer up that they would've had the best selling album of the year and held up as the sales standard to the rest of music industry.

Boggles the mind!

PS...I eat hyperbole every morning for breakfast!!

 

[Amaris]

But I do believe that the question was regarding their standing with country radio. Not "elsewhere".

The Long Way album enjoyed a huge media push from internet, tv, and media other than country radio. (again alluding back to the original question)

Think of what kind of sales they would've had IF country radio had been there to promote them as well! I offer up that they would've had the best selling album of the year and held up as the sales standard to the rest of music industry.

Boggles the mind!

PS...I eat hyperbole every morning for breakfast!!

If you switched to prunes you would not only be regular, but have more energy as well. Give up the empty carbohydrates!