Friday, April 4, 2003 | 8:50 a.m.
In June 1970 Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young released "Ohio," a protest song about the murder of four students during an anti-war rally at Kent State University.
The track's lyrics, penned by Neil Young in the days after the May 4 tragedy of that year, called out then-President Richard Nixon by name:
"Tin soliders and Nixon coming/We're finally on our own/This summer I hear the drumming/Four dead in Ohio."
Though many listeners were outraged, "Ohio" went on to become one of CSNY's most popular singles, becoming a fixture on future greatest-hits collections and an anthem for the anti-war movement.
Flash forward 33 years to March 10. Dixie Chicks singer Natalie Maines made this statement about President George W. Bush during a concert in London: "Just so you know, we're ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas."
What seemed to be an offhand comment ignited an instant firestorm of controversy. Fans of the popular trio reacted with anger, and within days Maines issued an apology.
But the damage was done, however, as country stations across the United States banned the Dixie Chicks from their airwaves.
So why were Young's lyrics greeted with so much enthusiasm, while Maines' words threaten to cost her group a significant chunk of its fanbase?
According to John Marks, program director for Las Vegas new-country station KWNR 95.5-FM, the disparate results illustrate the difference in approach between rock and country musicians, as well as their listeners, during times of war.
"I think there are people with like-minded values who gravitate toward country music," Marks said. "It's mom, apple pie and Chevrolet traditional American values and country music reflects those core values in the music we play."
Though KWNR continues to play Dixie Chicks' cuts, Marks said the station was inundated with listener feedback in the days after Maines made her remarks.
"We got thousands of e-mails, phone calls and faxes, all expressing their opinions," Marks said. "Many people wanted us to quit playing their songs, and others wanted us to continue playing their songs. So we've found that Dixie Chicks music can be a polarizing factor on the radio station."
As a result, the station has cut back on its Dixie Chicks spins and has positioned the group's music away from its peak listening hours.
"We watch out how we play them at certain times of the day, and we don't play them at all on Sunday," Marks said. "Without a doubt, the Dixie Chicks have some bridges to mend. Fortunately, they have some time before the start of their tour in May."
The Dixie Chicks' tour stops at the MGM Grand Garden Arena July 26 and 27.
Jason Fine, a senior editor for Rolling Stone, said the Maines incident demonstrates country music listeners' general disdain for anti-American sentiment.
"Clearly, with country music there are a kind of blanket set of pro-American values," Fine said. "And there's a sense that if you don't support the war you don't support the troops, which I think is totally wrong."
Tim Bonenfant, a UNLV music professor who teaches a course on the history of rock 'n' roll, expressed surprise over Maines' decision to apologize for her statement.
"Country fans tend to be quite conservative, so I didn't think it would go over well, but I was surprised when she took it back," Bonenfant said. "Some people would say part of what makes us American is that we have the right to disagree."
Two country musicians who likely won't have to worry about having their songs banned are Darryl Worley and Clint Black, both of whom currently have patriotic anthems on the radio.
Worley's "Have You Forgotten?" reached No. 1 in Billboard's Hot Country Singles chart this week. The song features a Sept. 11 theme, tying the Iraqi conflict to the war on terror.
For 10 consecutive nights, the song received more votes than its competition in KWNR's popular battle of the singles segment, "The Fights." Marks termed that result "highly unusual," and said Worley's hit has been "retired" from that program as a result.
"The theme of the song is what captures our listeners' imagination," Marks said. "It reinforces their feelings about what happened on 9-11 and what we're doing in Iraq right now."
Head-on assault
Marks said the station has also received a hearty response to Black's "I Raq and Roll," which, as its title suggests, deals directly with the war in Iraq.
"That one is even more direct and to the point," Marks said. "Darryl Worley's song carries a 9-11 theme and alludes to the events in Iraq, but Clint Black's is right down the Saddam route."
The Worley and Black songs stand in contrast to a slew of protest tracks released in recent weeks by rock artists.
The Beastie Boys, R.E.M., Lenny Kravitz, John Mellencamp, Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong and former Rage Against the Machine frontman Zack de la Rocha have all put their stances on the Iraqi conflict to music, all with a decidedly anti-war slant.
Change after Vietnam
Several of those songs were released even before the war began, a sign the current protest climate differs even from the protest movement during the Vietnam War.
"In general, the war protest movement wasn't big until after the war was going on for a while in Vietnam," Fine said. "Here we had a pretty serious anti-war movement before the war even started. I've been sort of amazed about the amount of protest music coming out already."
In part, rock's rapid response to the war can be attributed to technology. Most of the protest songs have been released for download on artists' official websites.
"A lot of artists are reacting emotionally about the war, and that's a very quick and easy way to get it out," Fine said. "It's liberating to have a thought, write a song and get it out there. And people can hear it for free, so it's not perceived as commercial. I think people would have done it 30 years ago if they could have."
Rock on the left
Making the songs available online may also be a way to prevent radio stations from opting against playing them -- something Bonenfant said happened to the likes of Bob Dylan and David Crosby during the Vietnam War.
"During the '60s, rock and roll was still very leftward politically, and there was an attempt to keep some of those songs off the radio," Bonenfant said. "There was a receptive audience of this sort of thing, but there were others -- the love it or leave it crowd -- who thought if you were a kid wearing jeans and wearing your hair long, you were automatically seen as anti-American anyway."
Despite such resistance from conservative America, such protest songs as Country Joe & the Fish's "I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die Rag," Edwin Starr's "War" and Buffalo Springfield's "For What It's Worth" became FM radio mainstays by the end of the Vietnam War.
But not all rock and pop musicians have taken an anti-war stance. R&B star R. Kelly has released a song supporting America's armed forces, "A Soldier's Heart," and Southern rockers the Marshall Tucker Band are organizing a "Rally for the Troops" concert next month in Spartanburg, S.C.
Pearl of wisdom?
In the wake of the Dixie Chicks' backlash, other musicians are also feeling pressure to tone down some of their anti-war sentiments.
The Rocky Mountain News reported that dozens of fans exited Tuesday night's Pearl Jam concert in Denver after singer Eddie Vedder skewered a George W. Bush mask with his microphone stand, slammed it to the stage and stomped on it with his foot.
Despite the audience's strong reaction, Vedder did not apologize, but was quick to announce his support for the American troops fighting in Iraq. His issues, he said, are with the administration, specifically Bush, the subject of a Pearl Jam song titled "Bushleaguer."
Also this week Madonna announced she will not release a planned video for "American Life," which reportedly features the singer -- decked out in camouflage -- tossing a grenade at a Bush look-alike.
"Some folks may be thinking about it, especially after what happened to the Dixie Chicks," Bonenfant said. "That may change how they approach the war in their music."
archive
