I Will Be Your Dixie Chicken

Earlier today, I was drawn to the Yahoo! headline, "Dixie Chicks Bush-Whacked At Record Stores". I thought it sounded kind of fun and New York Post-y, so of course, I clicked on it.

Turns out it was a Reuters article about the new Dixie Chicks album, "Taking the Long Way," and its debut as Billboard's #1 Album, #1 Country Album, and #1 Internet/Digital Album, and how all of that somehow means that America Hates You.

Although they're the #1 artists in the country, the Chicks' in-store album sales are down, according to the article, in comparison to the debut of their last release, "Home," in 2002. No mention of internet/digital sales; why are those numbers always so mysterious?

It doesn't matter if you're a Dixie Chicks fan, or if you think they're political, or if they piss you off, or if you think they suck, or if you think the music industry will never respect internet/digital sales. What should irritate any music fan about this piece of "rock journalism" is that it asks the reader to take an extraordinary leap in order to buy its premise that the Chicks have somehow been damaged as artists, commercial and otherwise. You'd think they'd wait a few weeks to make such assumptions, after sales have waned, just in the interest of, I don't know, not sounding like idiots, maybe?

A band debuts at #1, one of the strongest debuts in a lackluster year, and we're to conclude that their careers are over, because of some benign and blown-out-of-proportion comment one of them made while pandering to a London crowd over three years ago?

Who writes this garbage? And can I apply, because it really does sound like you can just phone it in, simple common sense be damned. I could learn how to excel at that.

/music journalism rant

Hi, Atrios readers! (I've always wanted to type that.)

Smack, crack, bush-whacked
Tie another one to the racks, baby
Hey, kids, rock and roll
Nobody tells you where to go, baby
What if I ride, what if you walk, what if you rock around the clock
Tick, tock, Tick, tock
What if you did, what if you walk, what if you tried to get off
Baby

- R.E.M., "Drive"