Amazing. We’re still in a brouhaha about the Dixie Chicks. Though most of the public comments have been made by their lead singer, Natalie Maines, she keeps being represented as lead spokescritter for The Chicks, so I’ll just keep referring to them as The Chicks. Thus....
They can say what they want, but they are not immune from criticism. They can sing what they want, but some of the lyrics of their new song just sound like whiny little bitch monkey talk. They are not “brave” and I feel like gagging any time I see the words “Dixie Chicks” and “brave” used in the same sentence, where “brave” refers to “Dixie Chicks”. Barf! See?
Over on MSNBC I read an article by some guy about “red state liberals” and how if you’re offended by The Chicks you just need to get over it because it’s what he and his have had to put up with for years, well six years. At least.
Oh puh-leez! What’s most offensive about The Chicks is precisely what’s wrong with this article. It’s this never-ending pity party, a constant whine – sometimes made with sobs, sometimes with anger -- about how repressed and oppressed they are. Barf! Damn, another gag reflex.
You want to feel repressed? Try tuning into your favorite alternative rock station and being aurally mugged because you support Bush, the battle for Iraq, and the entire worldwide war against terror. Try looking for a movie to see and anything that’s not “This Season’s Must See Blockbuster!” turns out to be another anti-Bush screed by pampered snotty little self-righteous gazillionaires. Try listening to some music and hearing that you’re an idiot for supporting Bush. Try tuning into a “left-leaning” talk show and hear that 1) you are genetically defective if you support Bush and 2) you are just a pawn for the “Bush crime family”. Try it, just for a day.
In terms of political debate, The Chicks were (are) chickenshits, okay? Dear sweet little Natalie spouted her bit in London, in front of a Chick-friendly, anti-Bush audience. She would have been brave if she had said the same shit in front of a crowd in Texas, or any other venue within the United States. But she didn’t. Instead, she was in Europe where they're none too happy with Bush to begin with. Natalie’s not stupid, she knew exactly where she was and what she was doing. When the backlash began, she and the The Chicks demanded to be immune from criticism. Rolling Stone and Entertainment Weekly and every other outlet for the MSM granted them the status of saints.
Why? Because country music is predominantly conservative, in terms of artists and fans and songs. So when The Chicks slipped over to the MSM's dark side, the MSM lept to their defense. And the Chicks lept, too, as they embraced the rock and hip-hop scene, publically stating that rock fans and rock stars were more in tune with what they felt and believed. Who abandoned whom?
I’m happy that The Chicks new CD is selling well (though not as well as their last). I enjoy anyone’s capitalist success. That’s true even if I think their “art” is the stuff plagues are made of, because they managed to find an audience that believes otherwise. This is true even if you’re schlock-king Dan Brown. Maybe especially if you’re schlock-king Dan Brown, because if his badly written crap can sell 60 quadrillion copies throughout the known universe, then there’s hope for the rest of us schlock-king-wannabes.
By the same token, though, I embrace everyone’s right to not buy their shit, to be offended by what they produce, and to reject what they spout. I don’t find The Chicks brave (barf!) or even interesting. If anything, they’re whiners and they’ve found a complete whiner’s support group collectively known as The Left. If you want your art to be judged, then present your art and critics be damned, but accept that critics are part of the game. If you want to spout politics, expect to get spouted back at, because that’s part of the political game.
And I should immediately make clear that anyone who sent The Chicks a death threat because of what dear sweet little Natalie said ought to be sought out and introduced, face-first, to the business end of an outhouse. At a minimum. For a start. After all, shit deserves to be introduced to shit. Clear?
If I could stand most country music, maybe I’d hear some pro-Bush or pro-American music. But I can’t so I’m stuck in hell. Since I’m stuck I might as well be amused, and nothing is funnier than a rock star who believes his/her/its music is Significant.
It’s just as bad -- no, it’s worse at the movies. There are at least four movies in production about the battle for Iraq, and all four take a negative spin. (And hey, isn’t it “too soon”?) Where is the pro point of view, the one that says deposing a murderous thug of a dictator is a good thing, that bringing democracy to a region of dictators is a good thing? The snotty of you, maybe even dear sweet little Natalie, would probably say that there is no “pro” view so therefore there cannot be a pro movie.
If so, wow, such hubris.
What the hell am I saying? “If so”? Of course it’s so! You can hear it in the way they argue, in the way the left presents the case, any case. A contrasting POV is never shown because they don’t believe one exists. You see this in all aspects of the media, but most especially in their “dramatic” presentations. Oh the brav -- Barf!
Look, anyone in the entertainment industry is voluntarily participating in slavery. This is especially so for those trying to get their little toe in the door. They live in a part of the country where millionaires have a hard time affording a home. 30 or more rent a single-room studio apartment because you need 30 poverty-level incomes to afford the rent. It’s brutal. It is a system that is not designed to encourage success. Support groups thrive. You have to live in an echo chamber that says, “You are good, you will succeed” because nothing in the business says that. Quite the opposite. Until you do succeed, that is.
If you do achieve success, you’ve been driven somewhat insane by the process. This insanity is visible in any number of ways, and The Chicks declaration of their “bravery” is just one of them. Others would include Britney Spears loving publicity while demanding her privacy and George Clooney believing he has any talent. At all.
Well, actually that last is delusional, but that’s a form of insanity, right?
And that’s not really fair since I kind of like Clooney the actor when he’s being Clooney the actor a la ER or even Three Kings, and he rocked in The Peacemaker. But when he subverts his acting for his activism...barf! Especially given that he gets Edward R. Murrow almost all wrong by leaving out the follow-up to his conflict with McCarthy, that Murrow came to agree that Communism was the major threat to the country, that maybe ol' Tail-Gunner Joe bad it right.
But maybe that’s just Hollywood. Where else would a crowd listen intently, take seriously, and then soundly applaud someone praising them and their industry by reminding them of what sort of racist drivel they often make? (In case you need clarification, during his Oscar acceptance speech Clooney noted with pride that the Academy had awarded an Oscar to a black woman. That woman was Hattie McDaniel, for her performance as Mammy, Scarlett O’Hara’s servant in Gone With the Wind. Her performance and appearance is the epitome of Aunt Jemimah, which is not an altogether flattering term -- or image -- for a black woman. God bless Hattie, but that role...ugh!)
So it’s obvious why The Chicks chose to abandon their “country roots”, embrace the rock culture, and have their latest album produced by someone who specializes in rock and hip-hop albums. That’s their crowd, that’s their base, that’s their insanity. More power to them! I wish them well and fantastic success (good for a capitalist economy to have success stories, you know).
Just don’t call them bra -- Barf!
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