A survey of 1,200 online Country Music Fans shows that a majority are “less likely” to purchase Dixie Chicks CDs, concert tickets and merchandise due to comments made by lead singer Natalie Maines to a London audience almost four weeks ago.
New Media Strategies (NMS), an online business intelligence and marketing company whose clients include many top recording labels, corporations and worldwide brands, surveyed over 1,200 Country Music fans in the most popular Entertainment and Country Music communities on the Internet and found that 58% percent are less likely to support ‘The Chicks’ at the cash register because of the ongoing controversy surrounding Maines’s comment that the group was “ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas.”
The jab immediately drew the ire of Country Music Fans, and many radio stations boycotted the band’s music. A number of industry reports show that sales of the group’s new release, “Home,” dropped by over 40% since the comments were made.
Nearly a month later, the controversy remains alive and heated, due to several conflicting apologies, then retractions, made by the group. Earlier this week, Maines told a New Zealand journalist that the remarks were “just a joke,” but the next day told the Australian press, “The more flack I get for it, the prouder I am.”
Cutting to the heart of Maines’ remarks, New Media Strategies also asked a sub-sample of Country Music Fans from Texas, “Are you are embarrassed that Natalie Maines and The Dixie Chicks are from the Lone Star State?” Seventy- five percent said, “Yes.”
“While The Dixie Chicks’ new release may be called, ‘Home,’ this is a classic case of forgetting where you come from and who your fans are,” said New Media Strategies CEO Pete Snyder. “Country Music Fans are traditionally more conservative and pro-military. It was unquestionably a poor decision on Maines’s part to make a comment like this in a Country Music venue. As this survey shows, it was a decision with a dollars-and-cents impact.”