Face it. No matter how much of a big deal the media wants to make of the Dixie Chicks and their “comeback” album, they dug their own grave. Nashville didn’t destroy them. Lite Rock stations didn’t kill them. They did it to themselves.
Their music was played mostly on Country stations. Your average listener did not want to hear the music, no matter how good it was, of these twits. Hence, airplay went to almost zero. Same on lite rock, soft rock, adult format, etc radio stations in the same areas. The listeners were determining the stations output, not the station.
Here in Raleigh, NC, during the original brewhaha, it was rare that you would hear them on any station. And, why not? Stations do not want people switching off.
This has not changed around here, or any of the other areas of NC that I travel frequently in. It is rare that you hear a Chicks song. Too bad, because there are some good ones. But, the majority does not want to hear them. They prefer not to be demeaned by these anti-American “artists.”
To put a finer point on that point, the Chicks’ first single from the new album was “Not Ready to Make Nice,” basically the Time interview with country-pop accompaniment. Sample lyrics: “I’m not ready to make nice/I’m not ready to back down/I’m still mad as hell and I don’t have time to go round and round and round.”
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The song stalled at No. 36 on Billboard‘s Hot Country Songs chart, the music-industry magazine reported Monday. The followup, “Everybody Knows,” topped out at No. 50.
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To be sure, the Chicks haven’t looked to make nice with the country-music; on 60 Minutes, they talked about going for the adult contemporary crowd.
So, they cannot make it in their genre, Country, anymore, so they will change their music to sell albums and pander. Good luck with that.
And that is just album and single sales. They still aren’t getting radio airplay, and no one really cares.
