Victims of the Dixie Chicks

Music Industry Speaks
It's about politics not talent

When the Grammy Awards ended last night, the headlines should of been about the reunion and great performance by the Police. If not that, how about the superb job done by Carrie Underwood or how great the Red Hot Chili Peppers sounded. Can't forget Stevie Wonder, Lionel Ritchie or Smokey Robinson. Instead, last night was about politics and not talent. Nobody made any long drawn out anti-war or anti-George Bush speeches. However, the music industry members made their political voice loud and clear when they chose the Dixie Chicks the winner in every category they were nominated.

I didn't expect anything less, but it wasn't until the DC won the final award of the night, "album of the year," that I realized that many deserving artists where getting screwed out of a Grammy because of a political agenda. Even the DC themselves knew what was happening. "I think people are using their freedom of speech with all these awards, said DC lead singer Natalie Maines. "We get the message." When she made the comment, I heard uncertainty in her voice. She knew that the awards had nothing to do with honoring the music, she and her cohorts where themselves being used to make a political statement.

You can't blame the DC for what the Grammy voters did. However, I do blame the music industry for snubbing artists just to make a political statement. The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Carrie Underwood, Mary K Blige and Rascal Flatts all had good nights, but they all lost to the DC in one category or another. I know one thing for certain, MKB and the RHCP made music this past year to put the DC to shame. Maines did have the most accurate comment of the night after they won Best Country Performance, "A lot of people just turned their TVs off right now. I'm very sorry for that." I didn't, I wasn't going to turn the channel and not watch the Red Hot Chili Peppers over a political disagreement. There was enough snubbing this night.


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