memories of going over the edge
May. 25th, 2006 10:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jenkThe new Dixie Chicks single, Not Ready To Make Nice, has an interesting passage
My brain pops in with "Oh, they probably didn't see Natalie Maines or the other band members as people. Celebrities aren't human. The letter writers had the anonymity of distance - emotional and physical." But: this is country music. In country music, there is an expectation of being "normal". And here, the Chicks are putting that expectation right back on the fans. Yes, normal people may say "Just so you know, we're ashamed the President of the United States is from Texas" as an aside. And yes, normal folks may be angry about this. But threatening to kill them for saying it? That is entirely out of proportion to the offense.
People hear about death threats to this or that performer, shrug, and say, people are crazy. In this song, Maines is trying to put herself in the place of the letter writer, and admitting that it doesn't make sense to her. But I don't hear the letter writer being dismissed; I hear the writer being called to account.
How in the world could those words send you so over the edge that you'd write a letter threatening to kill the speaker? How could you be so far away from rational, adult behavior that you would let yourself act this way?
It's a good question.
Edit: The quoted bit of the song is from Maines' point of view, but the song is credited to all three Chicks (Emily Robinson, Martie Maguire, Natalie Maines) and Dan Wilson.
And how in the world can the words that I saidI wonder if the people who wrote those death threats have heard the song? What do they feel?
Send somebody so over the edge
That they'd write me a letter
Saying that I better
Shut up and sing or my life will be over
My brain pops in with "Oh, they probably didn't see Natalie Maines or the other band members as people. Celebrities aren't human. The letter writers had the anonymity of distance - emotional and physical." But: this is country music. In country music, there is an expectation of being "normal". And here, the Chicks are putting that expectation right back on the fans. Yes, normal people may say "Just so you know, we're ashamed the President of the United States is from Texas" as an aside. And yes, normal folks may be angry about this. But threatening to kill them for saying it? That is entirely out of proportion to the offense.
People hear about death threats to this or that performer, shrug, and say, people are crazy. In this song, Maines is trying to put herself in the place of the letter writer, and admitting that it doesn't make sense to her. But I don't hear the letter writer being dismissed; I hear the writer being called to account.
How in the world could those words send you so over the edge that you'd write a letter threatening to kill the speaker? How could you be so far away from rational, adult behavior that you would let yourself act this way?
It's a good question.
Edit: The quoted bit of the song is from Maines' point of view, but the song is credited to all three Chicks (Emily Robinson, Martie Maguire, Natalie Maines) and Dan Wilson.
