Are The Spice Girls Political?

I re-watched Shut Up and Sing last night, the Dixie Chicks' documentary about when they spoke out against George W. ten days before the invasion of Iraq. It also documents the immediate aftermath of their comment and the making of their follow up album Taking The Long Way. The documentary is really good, although I like it a lot maybe because of my affection for "making-of" videos and three part female country harmonies.

At the time, Natalie Maines said "we're ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas." Ole' W had a sky-high approval rating somewhere near 75%, the government was showing the world their "facts" and satellite photos about "definite" WMDs, and Operation Iraqi Freedom (or whatever they called it) was about to begin. Everyone slammed the Dixie Chicks for making such an un-patriotic statement. Boycotts happened over radio stations that played them, their CDs were burned, death threats were made against them, their number one single and album plummeted in the charts, and protests happened at their concerts. That's right. At a time when a war was about the begin, the biggest protests in America weren't against the war, they were against the Dixie Chicks outside the Bi-Lo Centre in Greenville, South Carolina.

Four years later, ole' W has a sky-low approval rating somewhere around the 25-30% range, most of the members of the government that showed "facts" are now enjoying a healthy severance package, and the Americans government is in a war they can't get out of physically or financially. The Dixie Chicks went in a totally non-country direction (a big F.U. to the people that banned them from the radio). While their ticket sales for their tour suffered (some shows in the States were even canceled), musically the Chicks enjoyed their greatest success ever taking home five Grammy awards for their new album. Oh how four years can change everything.

In 2003, the Dixie Chicks represented free speech. Now they represent a middle finger and an "I told you so" to the current American government.

What does this have to do with anything? Nothing really. I just really like the Dixie Chicks especially the after watching the documentary and seriously listening to their music. Required listening for tonight: "Travelin' Soldier" from Home, any version of "Goodbye Earl" (a live one if you can find one), and "The Long Way Around" from Taking The Long Way. Required watching: Shut Up and Sing (only if you can look past the constant whining from Natalie Maines which she herself has said makes her look really dumb in the movie. My favourite dumb-sounding Natalie line: "can we decide what kinda artists we wanna be right now?").