April 23, 2018

Country Music Is Not Trump Country

If Shania Twain doesn't want to spend the rest of her career singing at Canadian "football" games, she'd better get her views on President Trump straight.Daniel Lea/CSM via ZUMA

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Back in 2003, when the Dixie Chicks said “we’re ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas,” they were practically tossed out from the country music business on their ears. Shania Twain discovered yesterday that times have changed:

“I would have voted for [Trump] because, even though he was offensive, he seemed honest,” the 52-year-old singer said. “Do you want straight or polite? Not that you shouldn’t be able to have both. If I were voting, I just don’t want bull—. I would have voted for a feeling that it was transparent. And politics has a reputation of not being that, right?”

Her quote went viral on social media, and hours later, “Shania Twain” was trending worldwide on Twitter. Given that lots of people were not pleased by her comments, the hashtag #ShaniaTwainCancelled had hundreds of tweets.

Twain, the highest-selling solo female artist in country music history, apologized Sunday night after the backlash intensified. She called her answer to the Guardian “awkward” and said that she wished she had given it more context. Twain also emphasized that she does not endorse Trump.

The question is, what changed? Is country music now more mainstream and less conservative? Is Trump worse than Bush? Is peacetime different from wartime? Do we not disapprove of Canadians saying they like our presidents? Hmmm.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

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