I am currently working on the sequel or companion book to I'd Fight the World: A Political History of Old-Time, Hillbilly and Country Music, which will take the narrative where it ends in that book (in 1974 or so) and bring it up to the present. One of things I have been looking into is the origins of the verb "Dixie Chicked," which has taken on some new urgency, I suppose, with Taylor Swift's recent admission that she has avoided taking political stances until very recently because of a fear--instilled in her by the country music industry--that doing so would destroy her career. "I come from country music," she told the Guardian's Laura Snapes. "The number one thing they absolutely drill into you as a country artist, and you can ask any other country artist this, is ‘Don’t be like the Dixie Chicks!’”
So far, it appears that the first time "Dixie Chicked" appeared in print was in the Drudge Report in March 2003. According to the piece, a"top studio source" was worried that comedian Chris Rock might release a tirade of abuse at George W. Bush at the release of Head of State, a comedy in which Rock starred, directed, co-produced, and co-wrote. Among other things, the film was one of a small number of movies to imagine what it would be like to have a black president before the election of Barack Obama. Drudge reported that the source from DreamWorks simply reached out to offer Rock words of caution:
We are confident Chris knows this is not the appropriate time to make jokes about war and the president. We don't want to get Dixie-Chicked, or anything like that, out of the gate. We've invested tens of millions of dollars in the making of the movie and its marketing.
Drudge claimed the warning was made in response to earlier comments Rock had made about Bush: "He's not stupid, he's just drunk," and "All the black people who voted for Bush are both on his cabinet."
Perhaps what was most amusing about the whole episode was Rock's response several days later in an interview with E! Entertainment Television's online news site:
I don't know Matt Drudge, I never met Matt Drudge, but if I see Matt Drudge, I'm going to take my red-blooded American foot and put it up his un-American ass for trying to disrupt the opening of my movie.
The trailer for Head of State:
Commentaires