Anyone here read 1984?
Well, along with the Patriot Act,(that was passes 6 wks. after Sept. 11th) we are allowing for Orwell's frightening predictions to go beyond the expansion of the "pen register" exception in wiretap law. Clearchannel is a participant in the uprising of the "thought police"-- the one prediction most readers found to be impossible. Depicting what music we are "allowed" to hear because of such an incident is an outrage and a completele mockery of the United States citizen. Well aware of the influence Clearchannel has in the US this action was used as a method to think for the average listener, therefore labeling us ignorant. I too urge everyone to take action and reverse Clearchannel's attempt to boycott the Dixie Chicks--buy all of their CD's and cut Clearchannel's stations from your list.

The Dixie Chicks have every right to say whatever they want about the President or their views on the war or whatever and the rest of us have the right to say that we no longer want to buy their CD's or attend their concerts--see how well that works! It wasn't any radio talkshow that made me feel that way--it was me who made me feel that way!

I'll bet you one thing, though; they wouldn't have stood up at a concert in Texas and said that which is why I think that they displayed not just stupidity but cowardice in their choice of venue. A little like badmouthing your Mom to strangers. Unlike some of those here, I was a fan of the Dixie Chicks, but they won't sell me another ticket or CD.

I wasn't a Dixie Chicks fan before this incident and the fact that they slammed the president is going to make me want to rush out and buy any of their music, that's for sure. I personally would like to understand just how ridding the world of Saddam Hussein makes George Bush a bad guy? How is it the people of Iraq are better off with him in power? As of this war, the US Army has clearly established two important facts about the Saddam Regime. 1) Iraq does indeed posess chemical weapons and 2) That Al Qaeda operatives exist and train in Iraq. So what you're basically saying is that we should simply allow this to go on and what the hell if another 9/11 occurs, its only thousands of American lives, right? Take your head out of your ass! This is the land of the free and home of the brave for a reason people! Our armed forces and commander in chief are doing exactly what they are supposed to do and doing a damn good job of it! Stop being so ignorant! I'm sure Al Gore would be content to just sit back and watch our country fall apart at the hands of terrorists but GW is a man of God and a man of action and a man of his word and he's going to get this ugly job done. Fuck the Dixie Chick's, They are sad pathetic excuses for American's, let alone Texan's.

The Dixie Chicks exercised their 1st Amendment Rights...I also have the freedom to buy their CD's and I won't evr again.
I love country music and live in New York City

The truth is Natalie Mains has cast a "Hanoi Jane" shadow over herself that will never leave. She thought her statement would create more popularity for herself...it did, all BAD !!!! Her talent is worthless for me!!!

AH, HELLOOOOOOOOO! This is America, we have the right (and obligation) to dissent. If you don't understand that respecting that right is paramount, then don't bother to call yourself AMerican. Just ask Abe Lincoln, Ben Franklin and Mark Twain....all spoke out against wars the USof A Government fought.
Other countries envy what we have, don't abuse it by abusing each other. Disrespecting another American, just because you don't agree with their position, divides our COUNTRY. Divide and conquer. The corporations are loving it. Already they own the media, they have bought and eroded constitutional protections through policy change. They sway our politicians with bribes and promises of jobs after office. They have the advantage of presenting 'news' in any fashion they want to a public so numbed by and addicted to television that we question nothing. WAKE UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cancer: Well, I don't listen to radio in general, because it all sucks, but come on, NPR is a much more transparent attempt to
"think for the listener", and that's paid for by your taxes!!

Maybe just stop listening to ALL radio, or get a satellite radio
system so you can pick from hundreds of different genres of
music. Or just find out what's new (or old) in the types of music you like, and get it all online, paying for concert tickets of artists you like enough (which gives THEM the most money anyway).

If you WANT to be 'programmed', there is no shortage of those
waiting in line for the opportunity!

Hellooooo again! I just happened to be on the barnesandnoble.com site earlier this evening and noticed that one of the Dixie chicks albums is rated in the top five sellers right now. ClearChannel may control 82% of all the radio stations.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html...80894DB404482&fta=y
But they haven't mastered mind control yet. Obviously their campaign against Natalie Mains BACKFIRED.

Then there's Madonna - who obviously understands the arts of diplomacy far better than George Dubya and Dick Cheney (not to mention Don Rumsfeld who doesn't have a diplomatic bone in his body!). She creates a peace video that corporate monopoly musicdom threatened to ban - then withdraws it. She got loads of free publicity on stations like FOX news. All for a song with such bland lyrics you would never think of it as a peace song anyway. Without all this threatened censorship I would never have heard about her new album yet.

However - these are both well-established artists with multiple platinum albums under their belts. I am deeply concerned by ClearChannel's attempts at censorship of political and social free speech in rock/pop music - and what it means for new artists. After Sept. 11 ClearChannel banned the song "Duck and Run" by 3DoorsDown - one of my favorite bands (along with about 150 others). Now give me a break!

10 or 20 years ago some of the top acts in the nation sang very political lyrics in Top 40 songs. And a lot of Top 10 songs. And yes - Top 10 songs that openly and directly criticized the President.

What sissies – those who can't bear to hear someone express their opinion about a President who told us one falsehood after another:

Saddam linked to al Qaeda!
Saddam is about to get nukes! (he doesn't even have aluminum tubes to build some experimental centrifuges - remember? So not even at step one yet. And the documents "proving" that Iraq tried to buy uranium in Niger in 1998? Forgeries - really really bad forgeries at that. )
Saddam has anthrax! (so… does that mean he kept some of the anthrax the U.S. sold him in the late 1980s when Bush-Quayle cozied up to Iraq and he could get export permits for anything his evil heart desired? Along with cluster bombs and Condor II missile technology through CIA front companies by way of Chile and South Africa?).

Yet anyone who says Bush is telling the American public falsehoods is SOOO unpatriotic. Sheesh - what a bunch of sissies - sissies who can’t stand to hear a difference of opinion. I find most people who can’t stand to hear differences of opinion are just insecure because they can’t defend their position very well.

I heard a GI on TV say a couple days ago it’s important to him that Americans support the troops – even though they may disagree publicly with the presidents decision. And that I do. Hear hear! It’s the sissies and bullies in this country who aren’t putting anything on the line who are most eager to give away every last hard-won liberty of free speech, free assembly, and a free press to the likes of Ashcroft and Pointdexter (just go to Google and type in "pointdexter" along with some terms like "lieing to Congress under oath", "arms for hostages" "Iran-contra" "crack cocaine" and "Los Angeles." Now do you want this man to have a database on all your personal and financial information? (last of all type in "pointdexter" and "Total Information Awareness"). But don’t criticize the Bush administration – that would be UNPATRIOTIC.

Now compare what strong (?) words Natalie Mains and Madonna have to say about Bush and Iraq to what songs American listeners and radio stations vaulted into the Top 40 songs and albums just 10 or 20 years ago. These aren’t exactly warm and fuzzy songs by naïve peacelovers with flowers woven in their hair. These are hard-edged political and social commentary by highly-intelligent singers (many from blue-collar upbringings) who were all too realistic about what comes from the warhawks of our world.


****Dire Straits****
"Brothers in Arms", "Ride Across the River",
"The Man's Too Strong", "One World"
http://www.ada.com.tr/~modabasi/dslyr5.htm
http://www.purelyrics.com/index.php?album_detail=379


****Sting****
"Russians"
http://www.sting.com/discography/lyrics/lyrussia.html


****Don Henley****
"All She Wants to Do is Dance" (catch the references to U.S. involvement in bloody counterinsurgency campaigns in Latin America?) http://www.lyricsdomain.com/lyrics/24701/

"Them and Us" (about as direct a criticism of the president as you can get)
http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/Son...E59482568E0001237D8

"If Dirt Were Dollars" (greed, vice and false patriotism - "we got a press no better than the public men")
http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/Son...893482568E00012FD17

"Dirty Laundry" (Top10-gold song criticizes a press that sensationalizes death and enjoys building people up one week only to tear them down the next over trivial matters)
http://www.lyricsfreak.com/d/don-henley/86201.htm


****Bruce Springsteen****
"Born in the USA" (Got in a little hometown jam So they put a rifle in my hand Sent me off to a foreign land To go and kill the yellow man")
http://www.xs4all.nl/~maroen/engels/lyrics/bornusa.htm

"War" ("War what is it good for absolutely nothing")
http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/Son...932482568710026057C

Springsteen says Afghanistan (surprisingly) well-handled.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/2158381.stm

March 20 2003 - Springsteen marks beginning of Iraq war by singing "War – what is it good for? absolutely nothing" to a packed stadium of 60,000 http://entertainment.news.com.au/common/st...55E%255Enbv,00.html

Do you hear anybody runnin’ over the Boss’s albums with a monster truck? No? I guess those bullies just pick on girls like Natalie Mains, huh? Real tough!


****U2****
"Bullet the Blue Sky" ("And I can see those fighter planes ….And I can see those fighter planes")
http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/Son...F3648256896002B2B37

"God Part II" (Don't believe in the 60's The golden age of pop You glorify the past When the future dries up Heard a singer on the radio late last night He says he's gonna kick the darkness 'til it bleeds daylight I...I believe in love")
http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/Son...B4B48256896002C6F3C

"New Years Day" ("And so we're told this is the golden age. And gold is the reason for the wars we wage… Nothing changes On New Year's Day On New Year's Day)
http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/Son...CE348256896002EA535

"Seconds" ("And they're doing the atomic bomb Do they know where the dance comes from Yes they're doing the atomic bomb They want you to sing along Say goodbye, say goodbye)
http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/Son...E5548256896002FE0F2

"Sunday Bloody Sunday" (another song ClearChannel banned from the airwaves in the days after Sept. 11)
http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/Son...25D482568960030DE57

"Mothers of the Disappeared" tribute to organization in Latin America who refused to forget the tens of thousands who were "disappeared" by military and security forces – whose officers were trained and armed by the U.S. (
http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/Son...B0448256896002E916C


That’s just scratching the surface of what’s on the web - I just stumbled on a site that’s a compendium of nothing but songs about nuclear war:
http://www.inthe80s.com/nuclearwar/index.shtml


 What happened? The Telecommunications Act of 1996 happened. ClearChannel and Saga Communications happened.

The Trouble With Corporate Radio: The Day the Protest Music Died
By BRENT STAPLES
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/20/opinion/20THU4.html

Please, someone can you tell me – can you find any similar songs on the radio by Top 40 mainstream rock/pop artists since the Telecommunications Act of 1996 kicked into high gear? Particularly since Clear Channel took control of 82% of all popular music stations? If you know of some please tell us – I’d really really like to think there is still some freedom of speech in the music industry.

But the closest I can think of to some real political and social commentary by rock/pop singers on mainstream radio are Dave Matthews singing a few songs like "Too Much" (oops – that was released just before Act of 1996 wasn’t it?), one or two songs by Sheryl Crowe (that didn’t get airplay). At least in my music collection.

It isn't that American listeners didn't buy albums by Dire Straits, Don Henley, Bruce Springsteen and U2. All of them played Top 10 songs. All of them played POLITICAL Top 10 songs critical explicitly or implicitly critical of war-hawk Presidents. No, we've been Censored. Censored by one of Bush's and the Republican Party’s biggest campaign contributors.

"Channels of Influence"
March 25, 2003, New York Times
By PAUL KRUGMAN
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/25/opinion/...en=1bcd3d7a662cd65a

Clear Channel: an Empire Built on Deregulation By JEFF LEEDS
Monday, February 25, 2002 Los Angeles Times http://events.calendarlive.com/top/1,1419,...etail-52085,00.html

And you’re defending censorship? You’re defending censorship by a huge monopoly which requires bribes from artists to get a hit? (from $20,000 to as much as $400,000 through indie promoters – for "research") Censorship by a huge monopoly that makes bribes to further enhance its monopoly power? (doing favors like organizing pro-war rallies for the Bush administration – at the same time Colin Powell’s son considers removing the last remaining FCC restrictions on Clear Channel gobbling up even more stations). That’s not democracy. That’s a corporate empire in bed with a military empire.



****************
Dire Straits
Brothers in Arms (1985)
****************

These mist covered mountains
Are a home now for me
But my home is the lowlands
And always will be
Some day you'll return to
Your valleys and your farms
And you'll no longer burn
To be brothers in arm

Through these fields of destruction
Baptism of fire
I've watched all your suffering
As the battles raged higher
And though they did hurt me so bad
In the fear and alarm
You did not desert me
My brothers in arms

There's so many different worlds
So many different suns
And we have just one world
But we live in different ones

Now the sun's gone to hell
And the moon's riding high
Let me bid you farewell
Every man has to die
But it's written in the starlight
And every line on your palm
We're fools to make war
On our brothers in arms

Deciding not to buy Dixie Chicks CD's is also part of our right to dissent. Natalie has already apologized profusely for her error in judgement (not that anybody believes that she's sincere). For the person who wrote "social commentary by highly-intelligent singers (many from blue-collar upbringings) who were all too realistic about what comes from the warhawks of our world..." There's a reason they're singers--they're supposed to entertain. It's when they decide that their background (singing...or acting as it were) bestows upon them a special knowledge and intelligence re: foreign affairs and the idea that the rest of us value their opinions. Give me a break!!! When I want a valued opinion re: foreign affairs, etc., I'll ask those in the know! I certainly won't ask Natalie or Martin or Susan Sarandon--get it?

You're 100% right - whether you choose to buy Dixie Chicks is your choice. Whether you turn on the station that avoids playing Dixie Chicks music is your choice. But remember - obviously all those people who bought their albums that put those songs in the Top 10 *did* like to hear those messages.

Get it? That's what democracy of the marketplace of culture and ideas was *supposed* to be about. And choice vs. monopoly music is what this whole discussion is about.

Now thanks to ClearChannel and their ilk those people who bought so many of these albums to put these songs in the top 10 *don't* have a choice anymore. And not just on the radio - because what does or doesn't play on ClearChannel radio drives which CDs and songs the recording companies will sell too.

"Is Clear Channel selling hit singles? Insiders suggest that the broadcasting giant gave an obscure singer major airplay to promote its pricey new market-research program."
By Eric Boehlert
Salon | June 25, 2002
http://www.salon.com/ent/feature/2002/06/25/eagle_eye/index.html

ClearChannel didn't buy up just half the popular music stations - they bought up 82%. And if FCC chairman Powell removes the last restrictions on monopoly ownership of the airwaves, ClearChannel (oftentimes still going under the prior names of their wholly-owned subsidiaries going by companies such as Citicasters or Premiere Radio Network).

And you agree with this censorship of everyone else's tastes so not just half the radio stations but EVERY radio station has to have bland lyrics devoid of any social or political comentary? (when you add Wilks License Co. and Saga Communications to buy up what ClearChannel/Citicasters/Premiere Radio don't own - they've often got ALL the stations). Check out your own city's radio stations by going to FCC website at:

http://www.fcc.gov/mb/audio/bickel/atlas2.html
and write down latitude-longitude coordinates for your city. Then go to the FCC website "FMQ FM Radio Database Query"
http://www.fcc.gov/mb/audio/fmq.html

Go near the bottom of the page to:
Stations Within a Radius
And enter – say – 70km radius
and the coordinates above
 
Paste this into Excel (if you've got it). Then hide or delete or move all the rows that don't play Popular Music. And see for yourself.

Censorship of political ideas from music sounds like what we criticize Iraq or Russia or China for doing

China has an army of folks patrolling their "internet borders" who shut down sites from dissidents as fast as they can set them up.

If some of the large Internet Service Providers have their way, it may only be a few years before a handful of big portals and ISPs control access to the Internet as well. This in an attempt to force everyone to pay more for accessing information and increase ISP profits.

Censorship is censorship - regardless of whether the rules are established by big governments or by big corporations like ClearChannel (and their rigid playlists).

Susan, I agree with you on this count too. No, I don't form my opinions based on singers either. However once I form my opinions based on other sources, I turn on a radio station and I DO hear DJs and companies imposing their political opinions on me. And now it's only from ONE point of view where I used to be able to find some radio stations that might back warhawks and others that don't.

Last Saturday I heard both Saga Communications DJs and ClearChannel DJs in my community expressing only one-sided opinions on the war and those who oppose it. I wouldn't be half so angry if radio stations avoided politics altogether, but they do promote politics - a lot. Including ClearChannel organizing huge pro-war rallies.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/showcas...03190157mar19.story

"Media giant's rally sponsorship raises questions"
By Tim Jones
Tribune national correspondent
Published March 19, 2003

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/25/opinion/...en=1bcd3d7a662cd65a
"Channels of Influence" By PAUL KRUGMAN New York Times March 25 2003.


When a few monopoly corporations control radio, news, and public spaces (and soon all internet access?), this is the kind of censorship we get in our free (so far) country. How far has corporate regulation already pushed the limits of free speech? A guy was arrested in upstate New York - because he bought a T-shirt in the mall that says "Peace on EArth" and he didn't comply when the mall management insisted he remove it. Give me a break! I don't hear anyone getting arrested for weaing "Liberate Iraq" T-shirts. Regardless of whether you agree with the point of view being censored this time Sonya, tell me: where do you draw the line on infringing on our basic liberties of free speech?

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html...58CDDAA0894DB404482

Metropolitan Desk | March 6, 2003, Thursday
A Message of Peace on 2 Shirts Touches Off Hostilities at a Mall
 
By WINNIE HU (NYT) 751 words
Late Edition - Final , Section B , Page 1 , Column 4

ABSTRACT - Stephen Downs is arrested at Crossgates Mall, Guilderland, NY; was wearing T-shirt with message Peace on Earth and accompanied by son Roger, who was wearing shirt with similar slogan; mall spokesman Tim Kelley says Downs was creating disturbance; Downs denies charge and mall's management has asked police to withdraw charges; photo (M) A father-and-son outing to a local shopping mall here on Monday night has touched off a furor over freedom of expression stemming from the father's refusal to take off a T-shirt emblazoned with the words ''Peace on Earth.''

Edited by author 04-04-2003 01:27 PM
democracyNotEmpire -- I can choose which public artists to listen to without guidance from any media source. You have a little Oliver Stone conspiracy thing going with your Clear channel fetish. Better take some Xanex. I am not a bully because a) the Dixie Chicks offended me, and b) as a result, I do not want to listen to their music or support them anymore. I am sure you boycot all the Country singers who support the war and the President as well as the few Hollywood types who do. Fine, that is your right. However, your 28% of the population who are agsint the war is not going to do as much damage as the 72% who support the war, the President, and the troops, if they decide to wash their hands of the left wingers like Sheen, Sarandon, Streisand. Just last night you hear about Pearl Jam getting booed when they started trashing Bush at a concert. So there you go, some men got yelled at too! So go ahead and dissent -- just don't whine when there are consequences.

It doesn't bother me in the least if individuals boycott the Dixie Chicks. What bothers me is when ClearChannel Communications owns 82% of all the popular music stations in the country boycotts or blacklists a singer, and much of what's left of the popular music stations become controlled by a couple similar corporations such as Saga Communications and Wilks. You haven't responded to this distinction in the least.

When one or two or three monopoly corporations buy out all the radio stations, listeners no longer have a choice.

Edited by author 04-04-2003 01:45 PM
Sure they do. Listen to NPR which is the Rush Limbaugh of the Left, or don't listen. Instead, watch CNN, Peter Jennings, Dan Rather, or read the New York Times, The LA Times, etc. There are a ton of options to gather information. None of this has nothing to do with the fact that the Dixie Chicks can express their views under the Constitution, and we can boycot them and excoriate them under the Constitution.

p.s. If your right to listen to the Chicks is being infringed by the tyrannical radio stations, go by the c.d.

A choice of popular music stations? Where I live my three favorite rock/pop stations all got bought out between 1998 and 1999 - two by ClearChannel/Citicasters and the other by Saga Communications. All the other Class 3 pop/rock stations in my market are also owned by one of those two or a third - Wilks (each of the three companies owns three-to-five stations). Can't listen to any of the three without hearing identical DJs political commentary on Iraq.

There's a couple Class1 FM college stations I listen to sometimes, and there's one Class1 independent commercial station left. Don't know for how long - ClearChannel bought another station recently to compete for the rest of it's audience, so they may be out of business in a year or two as well.

All six commercial Minot stations are owned by ClearChannel. All are on autopilot playing satellite feeds from somewhere else in the country. When a train derailment released a cloud of ammonia gas and the city's alert system failed, emergency authorities couldn't raise a live person at any of the six ClearChannel stations for more than an hour -and-a-half.
    from "The Trouble With Corporate Radio"
By BRENT STAPLES
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/20/opinion/20THU4.html

An overwhelming majority of pop/rock stations in Milwaukee, San Diego, New York and a host of other cities are a similar story - the big three own 80% or more of the rock/pop music market. Like I said, ClearChannel owns about 9% of the stations, but 82% of popular music stations. Much of the remaining 90% of all those little stations around the country are Christian broadcasters playing hymns and the like. And 95% of the concert promotion industry is controlled by ClearChannel since they bought out SFX.

Question - if you don't learn what's going on from newsmedia, how do you get a flying clue what's going on? From radio DJs? Or from your coworkers? I can tell from your previous posts that you probably won't believe this either - but even if you don't read the news yourself and find out what's going on entirely by word of mouth, these people you put your faith in probably got most of *their* info from the newsmedia somewhere along the line. You'll have to trust me on this one.

Hey dNE, guess which President didn't veto the Telecom Act of 1996?
You remember who was pres. in '96 don't you? So don't go laying all of the sins of the FCC at the Republicans door.

And get a freakin' CD burner and listen to the tunes YOU want in the car, christ.

Oh, also, Ave Imperator and kiss my ass.