Shut Up And Sing

[kayeandjim00]

Anyone seen it?
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/shut_up_and_sing/about.php

I know that the Dixie Chicks can get some of the DISers REALLY wound up so I post this with a little trepidation but I'm going for it. I just watched this documentary tonight and thought it was fabulous! A great look inside what it was like during that time and a fun peek into the making of their latest (GREAT) CD. Even without the drama that they were going through it was a good tour DVD and a neat look behind the scenes. I can only hope that they will add a leg of their tour and try the Midwest again after those Grammy wins.

 

[teacups]

 

[Fitswimmer]

Love the CD, hated the victim tour. Those who made death threats should have been prosecuted. Radio station owners and listeners have the right to choose what they want to hear. However, after millions of CD's sold and they have now won 5 grammys, it's tough to believe that there was really any true negative impact for them.

They need to talk to some of the victims of the Blacklist in the 1950's, there are some still alive. They could tell them stories of their friends that lost their entire careers because they went to a party that the "wrong" people attended.

 

[Fitswimmer]

He should be prosecuted for battery-there's intent, there's offensive contact and it caused the concert to be disrupted the concert for other patrons. Just because he paid his $30 that doesn't give him the license to be offensive.

 

[kayeandjim00]

I found it interesting how many people from The Top of The World tour said that they went just because they couldn't get their money back but they hated The Chicks and wore shirts that said so. What's the point? If the money is already gone why bother going if you hate them? If it was me I'd just stay home, the money is spent and I wouldn't go see someone I had such an issue with just because of the fact that the tickets were non refundable.
I love that Natalie Maines is so passionate and that she sticks to her guns no matter what. I think a strong woman like that is to be admired no matter whether you agree with her or not.

 

[teacups]

I LOVED the tour! My then 3 year old sang karaoke before the concert out front... and then they showed her on THE BIG SCREENS during the concert! It was the best concert EVER because my daughter was ADORABLE! Little piggie tails and a big ol' smile! BUT, she feel asleep before they showed it.

 

[MAKmom]

Love the CD, hated the victim tour. Those who made death threats should have been prosecuted. Radio station owners and listeners have the right to choose what they want to hear. However, after millions of CD's sold and they have now won 5 grammys, it's tough to believe that there was really any true negative impact for them.

They need to talk to some of the victims of the Blacklist in the 1950's, there are some still alive. They could tell them stories of their friends that lost their entire careers because they went to a party that the "wrong" people attended.

Whoopi Goldberg was blacklisted for a Bush Joke. She is still recovering from it.

 

[User Name]

Whoopi Goldberg was blacklisted for a Bush Joke. She is still recovering from it.

Blacklisted? By whom?

Hollywood is filled with, and run by, the worst Bush haters in the country.

Methinks that's just an excuse.

 

[Fitswimmer]

Whoopi Goldberg was blacklisted for a Bush Joke. She is still recovering from it.

Blacklisted from what?? She's doing commercials for a weight loss company. If she were really blacklisted, no company would hire her to promote their product. I believe she also has a radio program on one of the satellite stations.

Seriously, rent "Good Night and Good Luck". It addresses the McCarthy era and real blacklisting. My Dad used to talk about it all the time, so it's a big thing to me. There were people that killed themselves over not being able to work anymore. If you were believed to be one of "them", YOU DIDN'T WORK. You lost your livelihood. NOBODY would hire you. By the time Edward R Murrow exposed McCarthy for what he was, much of the damage had been done. It's one thing that I have trouble with Walt Disney about-he testified for McCarthy at those hearings. The entertainment and news industry took a while to recover from that period. You can also find some discussion of it in the old Streisand/Redford movie "The Way We Were". It's a really ugly period in our history and equating what happened to the Dixie Chicks, Whoopi Goldberg or Bill Maher to the kind of blacklisting that went on then is just plain inaccurate.

 

[Soubrette]

Blacklisted from what?? She's doing commercials for a weight loss company. If she were really blacklisted, no company would hire her to promote their product. I believe she also has a radio program on one of the satellite stations.

Seriously, rent "Good Night and Good Luck". It addresses the McCarthy era and real blacklisting. My Dad used to talk about it all the time, so it's a big thing to me. There were people that killed themselves over not being able to work anymore. If you were believed to be one of "them", YOU DIDN'T WORK. You lost your livelihood. NOBODY would hire you. By the time Edward R Murrow exposed McCarthy for what he was, much of the damage had been done. It's one thing that I have trouble with Walt Disney about-he testified for McCarthy at those hearings. The entertainment and news industry took a while to recover from that period. You can also find some discussion of it in the old Streisand/Redford movie "The Way We Were". It's a really ugly period in our history and equating what happened to the Dixie Chicks, Whoopi Goldberg or Bill Maher to the kind of blacklisting that went on then is just plain inaccurate.

But isn't it just a matter of degrees? Or maybe it's just a matter of $$$? It's curious to me that you would know so much about the blacklist during the Cold War era and be sympathetic toward those artists but not toward artists today who take controversial positions. What financial level makes the offense against artists acceptable?

The culture wars today have some very scary parallels to today's conservative backlash against "Blue State Entertainment."

 

[Soubrette]

Also...thanks OP for the review. I just moved this to the top of my Netflix Q.

 

[Fitswimmer]

But isn't it just a matter of degrees? Or maybe it's just a matter of $$$? It's curious to me that you would know so much about the blacklist during the Cold War era and be sympathetic toward those artists but not toward artists today who take controversial positions. What financial level makes the offense against artists acceptable?

The culture wars today have some very scary parallels to today's conservative backlash against "Blue State Entertainment."

I never said that I was unsympathetic to people taking controversial positions-but look at the reality. Looking at all the numbers, the Dixie Chicks had the best year of their careers! Bill Maher lost a job at ABC, but picked one up at HBO within a month. How can you compare that to people who were accused of being Communists and NEVER WORKED AGAIN??? Some of those folks committed the crime of being seen at the wrong party given by the wrong host. They lost everything due to guilt by association. That's the financial level, people being robbed of everything. I just can't feel as badly for people who maintain their careers or in the case of the Dixie Chicks actually improve their careers. Remember when Linda Ronstadt starting bad mouthing the President? Good grief, I hadn't heard of her in years, she makes one comment and she's all over CNN.

Consumers choosing not to buy a CD, see a TV show or watch a movie is MILES from people being unable to get published, get a job as an actor or director or write articles for a newspaper.

On every one of these threads, I've emphasized that criminal behavior such as death threats and the heckler at the concert should be punished as the crimes they are. If that isn't being done, that's wrong.

 

[Pugdog007]

They stole the title from Laura Ingraham's book of the same name. She should sue them.

 

[nuke]

Whoopie has a national morning radio show.

I haven't seen the movie but I wouldn't be opposed to seeing it. I have all of the Chick's cds.

 

[Soubrette]

I never said that I was unsympathetic to people taking controversial positions-but look at the reality. Looking at all the numbers, the Dixie Chicks had the best year of their careers! Bill Maher lost a job at ABC, but picked one up at HBO within a month. How can you compare that to people who were accused of being Communists and NEVER WORKED AGAIN??? Some of those folks committed the crime of being seen at the wrong party given by the wrong host. They lost everything due to guilt by association. That's the financial level, people being robbed of everything. I just can't feel as badly for people who maintain their careers or in the case of the Dixie Chicks actually improve their careers. Remember when Linda Ronstadt starting bad mouthing the President? Good grief, I hadn't heard of her in years, she makes one comment and she's all over CNN.

So, what you're basicially saying is that you're OK with corporate censorship...a lot of people are, so I get it. But once you starting going down that road, you're in trouble. I'm not comfortable with corporations limiting what views I have access to as an American citizen. And I believe that my rights as a citizen extend beyond by rights in the consumer marketplace.

BTW- not all of the artists under investigation during the McCarthy investigations lost everything. The committee (including Nixon) was corrupt and bowed under public pressure. Take Arthur Miller, for example. Had he not been married to Marilyn Monroe at the time, his refusal to name names would have placed him at the top of the blacklist. His public profile saved him, and made hypocrites out of the committee. Miller's career continued uninterrupted BECAUSE he had acess to the media and used it to his advantage.

I see a lot of parallels in what the Dixie Chicks did. They only came back because of their willingness to "speak truth to power" and their use of the media to their advantage.

Consumers choosing not to buy a CD, see a TV show or watch a movie is MILES from people being unable to get published, get a job as an actor or director or write articles for a newspaper.

I don't think these things are as far apart as you think. Consumers don't buy CDs they don't have access to; artists need access to the mechanism of corporate distribution. Consumers don't watch TV shows that aren't placed on the air; writers and directors that produce controversial work are censored in todays marketplace.

 

[Fitswimmer]

So, what you're basicially saying is that you're OK with corporate censorship...a lot of people are, so I get it.

How did the DC's sell all those CD's if they were censored by the "corporations". If nobody heard them, how did people know to go buy them? How did I know that there were good songs on there if I didn't hear them? Yes, the country stations stopped playing them, but the pop stations picked up the slack. That's the difference. The DC's got new outlets for their art. People who would have never bought their CD's before, bought them BECAUSE of the controversy.

FYI: There were many more people involved in the Blacklists than Arthur Miller. The ones you never heard of were the ones that lost their livelihoods.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_blacklist) Ever hear of Lionel Stander, Adrian Scott or Dorothy Comingore? There was no other outlet for them.

 

[kayeandjim00]

How did the DC's sell all those CD's if they were censored by the "corporations". If nobody heard them, how did people know to go buy them? How did I know that there were good songs on there if I didn't hear them? Yes, the country stations stopped playing them, but the pop stations picked up the slack. That's the difference. The DC's got new outlets for their art. People who would have never bought their CD's before, bought them BECAUSE of the controversy.

.

You are incorrect the Dixie Chicks haven't really been played anywhere. They aren't Top 40 and they aren't country, rock, or alternative which leaves no real place to play them. At work my coworker listens to a pop station - never heard them there either. I'd be willing to bet people who don't have the CD have never heard more than the first single.

 

[Soubrette]

FYI: There were many more people involved in the Blacklists than Arthur Miller. The ones you never heard of were the ones that lost their livelihoods.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_blacklist) Ever hear of Lionel Stander, Adrian Scott or Dorothy Comingore? There was no other outlet for them.

Yes. Wikipedia aside, I've studied the blacklist and this period of history, and I understand how many people had their livlihoods crushed by the overzealous fear mongering of McCarthy and Nixon. And what you are seemingly saying is that censorship is bad ONLY when artists are left broke. In other words, a little censorship is not so bad. Talk about your slippery slope...

 

[Fitswimmer]

You are incorrect the Dixie Chicks haven't really been played anywhere. They aren't Top 40 and they aren't country, rock, or alternative which leaves no real place to play them. At work my coworker listens to a pop station - never heard them there either. I'd be willing to bet people who don't have the CD have never heard more than the first single.

I heard "Not Ready to Make Nice" on WPLJ 95.5 which is an adult pop station in the NY area-after the "event". They played it quite frequently which made me decide to buy the CD.

Just because they weren't played on your station, doesn't mean they never got played at all.

 

[JoeEpcotRocks]

Whoopi Goldberg was blacklisted for a Bush Joke. She is still recovering from it.

Perhaps she could recover by being funny.