Not Ready To Make Nice

The Dixie Chicks who were huge in country music got slammed when Natalie Maines said "we are ashamed that the president is from Texas" while performing in London several years ago. The comment was made as a light hearted statement to audiences in London that probably agreed with the bond by the sounds of the applause. Years later they have released a documentary called "shut up and sing" to show the ordeal the band struggled through due to one comment that nearly damaged their careers. I find it quite unbelievable that certain genres like Punk and Hip-hop are able to make comments about race, gender, sexuality, politics.... and certain genres get more criticism than others. The documentary showed the resistance of the girls to apologise for their comment simply because they meant what they said. It would have been easy enough for them to apologise and maybe then not be banned from all country stations in the states and their cds burnt by once dedicated fans because they said a statement that probably half of texas would agree with anyway. Punk groups are a genre that are wanting change - the outcasts of society - which what became of the Dixie Chicks by most country fans. The lyrics of their song "not ready to make nice" revealed the way the girls felt about the drama that had continued for longer than they had expected with words such as "it's a sad sad story when a mother will teach her daughter that she ought to hate a perfect stranger and how in the world can the words that I said send somebody so over the edge that they'd write me a letter saying that I'd better shut up and sing or my life would be over....". The length that people went to to show their disregard for the Dixie Chicks was enormous. If a comment about the president resulted in extra security for the band's tour because a man had written a letter to Natalie Maines saying she would be dead at a certain time and date, no wonder the Sex Pistols are the biggest name in Punk history with a song called "God save the queen".