While the Dixie Chicks were on their “Top of the World Tour” their career was sky rocketing and they were selling more albums then any other country group. Then On March 10th, 2003, during a concert in London, England, Natalie Maines spoke out against George W. Bush, by saying “Just so you know we’re ashamed the President of the United States is from Texas”. Seconds later the Shepherd's Bush Empire was filled with cheers and applause. The next day the London press was all over what Natalie Maines had said, and thanks to the internet the story made its way over to the United States of America. In a matter of a day the Dixie Chicks went from on top of the world, to North Americas’ most hated country group. Their songs started to get pulled of the radio, radio stations started to get hate mail and began to boycott the group, the Dixie Chicks also started receiving hate mail and then name calling began such as traitors, Saddam's Angels, big mouths, ‘Dixie Sluts’, etc… During this time America really showed their support for George W. Bush.
After the Dixie Chicks incident, you would think that people would be scared to speak out against George W. Bush but clearly not. In August 2005, during NBC’s Hurricane Katrina fundraiser, Kanye West said “George Bush doesn’t care about black people". The comment that he made was talked about for a short period of time and made its way on youtube.com but was forgotten right after because people were more concerned with what had happened in New Orleans with Hurricane Katrina. Also because people didn’t really care too much about what he had to say since he has been know to speak his mind about what he feels is important. Kanye West’s comment about George W. Bush was complete out of the blue and he had absolutely no proof, yet it was much worse then what the Dixie Chicks said, but his career didn’t suffer one bit.
Pink now on the other had has gone way past just saying one thing about George W. Bush, she has a written a complete song, where she makes it very clear how she feels about the president. Her song is tilted "Dear Mr. President" in the song she has lyrics that question, his ability to be a president, how he can let the war in Iraq go on and more. Now unlike the Dixie Chicks and Kanye West, Pink is looked up to for writing this song and her fans love it. I think she didn’t get as much criticism, as the other two because her song has a message in it, and if you have listened to Pink’s other songs they all have a message in them.
After looking closely at all of these cases, I looked at the years that they happened and how President George W. Bush was doing with the public. Then I realized that the Dixie Chicks, were almost destroyed because the president was looked up to back in 2003 for starting the war with Iraq, since everybody was convinced the terrorists crashed the planes into the Twin Towers. The Kanye West wasn’t taken serious at all but instead it was a big joke to everybody, since his comment was so random and out of the blue. Finally Pink is being looked up to because George W. Bush is not anymore and people now are strongly disagreeing with the war in Iraq. Over all it all depended on the timing when the three spoke out, because if Natalie Maines was to speak out now her and the Dixie Chicks would be looked up to just like Pink!
Pink - Dear Mr.President
Kanye West “George Bush doesn’t care about black people"
Unknown. "Pink." Unknown. Online image. http://www.ticketstogo.com/images_user/Concerts/Pink.jpg. January 16, 2007
Unknown. "The Dixie Chicks." Unknown. Online image. http://www.mnet.co.za/contentImages/blogs/dixie-chix.jpg. January 16, 2007
Unknown. "Kanye West." Unknown. Online image. http://musicbox.sonybmg.com/files/imagecache/grand_square/files/artist_images/9182961-9182964-slarge.jpg-. January 16, 2007
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