In March 2003, the American country band the Dixie Chicks publicly criticized President George W. Bush, triggering a backlash. At a concert in London during their Top of the World Tour, the lead singer, Natalie Maines, said the Dixie Chicks were ashamed Bush was from the same state as them, and that they did not support the imminent invasion of Iraq.

The Dixie Chicks were one of the most popular American country acts at the time. After the statement was reported by the British newspaper The Guardian, it triggered a backlash from American country listeners, who were mostly right-wing and supported the war. The Dixie Chicks were blacklisted by many country radio stations, received death threats and were criticized by other country musicians. Sales of their music and concert tickets declined and they lost corporate sponsorship. A few days later, Maines issued an apology, saying her remark had been disrespectful. She rescinded the apology in 2006, saying she felt Bush deserved no respect.

Some of the comments by prominent fascists at the time(cw misogyny)

  • RiotDoll [she/her, she/her]
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    edit-2
    3 months ago

    Todd In The Shadows on youtube kinda points out that a ton of high profile female country artists just get nuked by the industry right around this time and that creates an imbalance they never recover from, like it's still a huge issue today.

    For the dixie chicks it was this horseshit, but faith hill basically just got shut out of the industry behind the scenes, and all the other high profile lady country artists of the 90s just sort of fucking vanish from public relevance in the wake of 9/11, the face of country going to an extremely masculine and regressive place even relative to it's perrenial conservative disposition

    edit: it's in the context of a video about faith hill, not the dixie chicks, but this happens around the same time iirc

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJpK_SGIcj4