In Nashville, Dissent Doesn't Play Well

Sheryl Crow wore a white T-shirt emblazoned with "War Is Not the Answer" when she accepted her American Music Award in January. Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst was received with cheers when he said, "This war has got to go away as soon as possible" during the Grammy telecast. But when Natalie Maines of the country music trio the Dixie Chicks said from a London stage that she was "ashamed" that President Bush was from Texas, the result was quite different.

Angry fans flooded radio stations in San Diego, Nashville and Dallas with calls demanding that the Dixie Chicks' music be removed from playlists. Many fans-turned-enemies burned posters, and one group of protesters in Louisiana mounted a 33,000-pound tractor and ran over CDs.

First, Maines tried to explain herself. But anti-Chicks warriors continued to destroy CDs, so she took a deep breath and issued a formal apology to Bush, proclaiming that she was "proud to be an American." But South Carolina legislators were not swayed; they passed a resolution asking that the Dixie Chicks apologize directly to South Carolinians and play a free concert for the troops.

No one is mad at Sheryl Crow. No one is burning Limp Bizkit posters. It appears that San Diego, Nashville and Dallas care not at all about the opinion of America's rock stars. But apparently country music and its idols have a duty to be patriotic.

While rock music has its roots in rebellion, country music comes from a storytelling tradition. Considered to be white Anglo-Celtic ethnic music, country was born in the southern Appalachians during the late 19th century; its role was to depict rural life and its hardships. Patriotism stemmed from the fact that people there lived off the fruit of the land; America was feeding them.

While the northern part of the United States continued to industrialize during the early 20th century, the South remained agricultural and politically conservative. Country music then became a reflection of Southerners' desire to preserve their culture and core values: love your country, love God, love your family.

The easy argument to make is that country music fans are patriotic because they're uneducated, poor, white rednecks and hillbillies who don't know any better. This stereotype is justified for some, but not all. According to market research, they are indeed overwhelmingly white but have an average household income of $50,000, and 77% of them own homes.