A very nice well researched post. Bravo. I never got the whole Garth/Chicks 90's Country phenomena. I guess I'm alt.outlaw...... IMO it wasn't what Maines said, it was where she said it. I found her, Lange, Robbins etal to be in poor taste when speaking out against America on foreign soil. Particularly within days of the wars inception. And in an ally country to boot. I'm as right-wing as they come. My all-time favorite American artist? Springsteen. Do his political statements make me cringe? Surely. Do they effect my enjoyment of his genuine, emotional (listen to Backstreets or Streets of Fire, you youngsters) recordings? Not a bit. In fact I respect that Bruce walks the walk. Politics effected the Chicks sales no more than Jesus slowed down John Lennon's royalty checks......
Sure they did not and I am sure they regreted it but they are defiant. Why would they try to switch from a huge country base to a small liberal base? After all very few people buy music records just because they agree with the artist's political views. They buy the records because they like the music... There is a trend for American artists to speak their minds abroad, just to regret it when it gets quoted in the mainstream media in the US. The Dixie Chicks' comment was meant to a concert audience in London and not for the patriotic rednecks buying their albums. But once it was said, what could they do??? So to think that it was a planned PR move, that is just naive...(after all if it was, it sure didn't work)
Poor taste maybe but who cares. I just don't know how one can equate being against Bush or his war to being against America. Using that logic at LEAST 60% of Americans are against America now.