#Dixie Chicks furor shows how reactionary and ossified country music has become

Date: Tue, 27 May 2003 06:24:28 -0700
Newsgroups: alt.society.liberalism,talk.politics.misc,alt.fan.rush-limbaugh
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,7792,964232,00.html
Another country
Whereas country music used to celebrate people who bucked the system,
recent criticism of the Dixie Chicks shows just how ossified and
reactionary it has become, writes Duncan Campbell
Tuesday May 27, 2003
It was the Academy of Country Music awards ceremony in Las Vegas last
week and, being an old, if casual, country fan, I watched it. The
whole notion of an "academy" of country music is pretty silly, of
course, and something that every old country musician would have
mocked as the pretentious piece of commercial nonsense that it is.
Still, I was interested to see what sort of response the Dixie Chicks,
who were nominated in three categories, would receive. Since their
lead singer, Natalie Maines, said on stage in London that they were
"ashamed" that President Bush was also from Texas, they have been
subjected to death threats, boycotts and abuse. Leading much of the
criticism has been fellow country singer, Toby Keith, who was also a
nominee on the night.
The Dixie Chicks were not at the ceremony but appeared live via
satellite from a concert in Austin. One could not help but notice that
Maines's T-shirt had the letters FUTK on it. The last two letters, it
transpired, stood for Toby Keith. (Heaven only knows what the first
two stood for.)
Anyway, the Dixie Chicks won nothing. When Vince Gill announced their
names by playing to the crowd with a knowing sotto vocce, there were
loud boos. The evening's host, Reba McEntire, who started the night
with an obligatory sneer at the French, said afterwards that the Dixie
Chicks had received a "pretty big negative response".
What the three-hour show demonstrated most of all, however, was the
grim state of current country music. Back in the seventies, musicians
like Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and Kris Kristofferson - the
"outlaws" as they were known - provided a much-needed injection of
spirit and wit into the ossified form of country.
Wonderful song writers like Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark, John Prine
and Steve Earle arrived on the scene followed by many others; Lucinda
Williams and Iris DeMent are two that have just been on my CD player.
Some of this percolated into the mainstream but it seems to have had
little lasting effect, although Willie Nelson did appear at the
ceremony and won the vocal event of the year award.
Country music stations, once a dependable companion for a
cross-country drive, now play the same forgettable mix of bland on
bland that was on display at the ceremony.
Merle Haggard wrote the classic reactionary anthem, Okie from Muskogee
- "We don't smoke marijuana in Muskogee/We don't take our trips on
LSD" - back in the 1970s. You didn't have to agree with his sentiments
to recognise that it was a great song and he was a great songwriter.
In contrast, Toby Keith's equivalent, Courtesy of the Red White and
Blue, is banal both in word and music. The fact that he won an award
as "entertainer of the year" - surely that should have gone the Iraqi
minister of information - says it all.
The sad thing is that country music, at its best, used to celebrate
outsiders, people who bucked the system. The awards ceremony showed
that it has now passed completely into the hands of the kind of folks
who look up suspiciously in westerns when a stranger comes into the
saloon. Much of the music sounds as though it has been written by a
self-pitying computer.
Still, whatever happened in Las Vegas, the Dixie Chicks are playing to
sold-out houses on their national tour. Country music, at least the
kind that was on display in Las Vegas, needs them more than they need
country music.
Many of the participants in the awards ceremony dressed like cowboys.
But for some reason, sheep were the animals that kept coming to mind.
"You can tune in for ten minutes and figure
out what [Rush Limbaugh] has been talking about
the past two months. Well, in this case, two years
... he's STILL talking about Clinton."
-- Gary DeWaay
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