Surprise: NY Times Critic Says Dixie Chicks Have Broken 'Contract' with Fans

Times music writer Kelefa Sanneh tosses ice on the liberal media’s celebration of the Dixie Chicks in Thursday’s “It’s Dixie Chicks vs. Country Fans, but Who’s Dissing Whom?”

The female country music trio are best known lately for dissing President Bush at a London/>/> concert in 2003, and since then have picked fights with the overtly patriotic country singer Toby Keith. But kudos from liberal media outlets like the Times and Time magazine have proven easier conquests than radio stations, where there first two singles have struggled to get airplay and have tumbled down the charts.

Sanneh, one of the few Times critics able to write non-condescendingly about country music, argues:

“But this isn't really a fight about President Bush or freedom of speech. This is a fight about the identity of country music. There's a contract that binds country singers to their fans, and the Dixie Chicks have broken it.

“The Dixie Chicks were once considered too country for country radio. They didn't take off until Ms. Maguire and Ms. Robison, who are sisters, replaced their twangy old singer with Ms. Maines, who has always seemed like a pop star. Two brilliant albums -- ‘Wide Open Spaces,’ from 1998, and ‘Fly,’ from 1999 -- made them the era's top-selling country act. When their brash (and sometimes mischievous) songs crossed over to pop radio, many country fans felt proud to see a group of their own doing so well.

“Country fans are loyal, but they're not low-maintenance. By the time Ms. Maines made her statement in 2003, many were already questioning the trio's commitment: would they leave their old supporters behind?

Sanneh sniffs out some cultural clues as to why country fans may be tuning out the Chicks:

“For mistrustful listeners in search of an answer, Ms. Maines's comments provided one. Forget about President Bush: she had used the words ‘ashamed’ and ‘Texas/>/>’ in the same sentence, and she had done it on foreign soil. She meant to insult the president, but some former fans thought they heard her insulting Texans, and therefore Southerners, and therefore nonmetropolitan listeners everywhere.

“This interpretation may seem specious. And yet Ms. Maines and her band mates seem to be going out of their way to prove their detractors right. Instead of fighting for their old fans, the Dixie Chicks seem to be dismissing them.

“On ‘60 Minutes’ Ms. Maguire told Steve Kroft that their concerts weren't typical country concerts. ‘When I looked out in the audience, I didn't see rednecks,’ she said. (Did her lip curl slightly as she pronounced the r-word?) ‘I saw a more progressive crowd.’"

Sanneh makes a salient point about the media’s strange embrace of the Chicks and their new album:

“And while the Dixie Chicks would love to position themselves as underdogs, the truth is that they have probably never been more beloved by the mainstream media. It's hard to complain about your musical career when you're plastered on the front of Time.”

For New York Times bias, visit TimesWatch.