I wish I didn't know this name, though: Shania Twain. Steve Earle once referred to her as "the highest paid lap-dancer in Nashville." She isn't a real musician. She has very little musical talent, but producers understand that if they put her in certain types of outfits, and have her gyrate on stage... well... the pop side of country works just like any other pop genre in the video age.
Also, get off my lawn.
Anyway, Shania Twain gives us an interesting demonstration of the convoluted politics of music today. She said that, were she a US citizen*, she would have voted for Trump. Backlash ensued. Twain apologized.
But, wait, you say! Country is a Republican/conservative genre! That's why Ted Cruz only listens to country! A decade ago, a group called "The Dixie Chicks" made a statement about being embarrassed by George W. Bush, and backlash against them ensued because you can't do that in country music. Huh?
Several points:
1) Musical preferences, or any other non-political preferences aren't as politically predictive as you think. The basic problem here is that people treat a statistical association, which can have a range of magnitudes, as though it were a 1-to-1 perfect predictor. Nope. This also has implications for that Facebook/Cambridge Analytica stuff. In a previous post, I warned that the kind of data gathered wouldn't be all that helpful in a campaign. This is a small demonstration of my point. If you took their approach too seriously, you wouldn't expect a backlash against Shania Twain when she says she would have voted for Trump.
2) Musicians and performers have niches. Twain's is to get up on stage in front of as many people as possible and gyrate in certain costumes. And she's Canadian. She doesn't even really have much of a twang. I don't go in for that nonsense that you have to be a southerner to be a country musician. Gillian Welch may be the best around today, and she's from New York. The thing is, though, that Twain is a very specific product, and that product is made to appeal to audiences across the political spectrum. That's how she got rich and famous. In contrast, Jason Isbell can sing songs like "White Man's World," and it won't piss off his fanbase because the rightwing, conservative Republican types you expect to listen to country music never listen to him in the first place. He can sing whatever he wants. Amanda Shires? Not so much, and that's kind of the point there. Twain, though, needs to be an apolitical product. Otherwise, she's stepping out of her niche. Isbell? He might piss off one or two fans with "White Man's World," but most who listen were either with him already, or are willing to be challenged because you don't listen to Jason Isbell for the same reasons people watch Shania Twain. Note the verb change.
3) Twain's apology for her statement was interesting too. She made a statement about having "no common moral beliefs" with Trump. Quite an endorsement. This says something, though. You have to apologize for endorsing someone by saying that you have no common moral beliefs with him. That's our Donny! So, why support him? She claimed that she found him "honest."
Seriously.
[Facepalm]
Not really earning any respect from me here...
Well, there's a rant. Here's a sort-of tribute to Steve Earle from one of the great, young country musicians, Lydia Loveless. Incidentally, she's from just down the road-- Columbus.
*She's Canadian, and I, as a US citizen, demand an apology.