FRANKIE DeGROOT | News | CONTACT
The group formerly known as ‘The Dixie Chicks’, who dropped the apparently racist ‘Dixie’ part of their name last month, have again changed their name by also removing the sexist ‘Chicks’ component. The group will now be known as “The”
Formed in Texas in 1989, the all-female country group originally focussed on bluegrass and dressed in cowgirl outfits, a format that unsurprisingly turned out to be popular in Texas, Nashville, and Tamworth, New South Wales, and nowhere else.
In the mid 90s, two of the original Dixie Chicks left the group, including lead singer Laura Lynch, who was replaced by Natalie Maines. These changes led to a more contemporary sound which found widespread popularity and commercial success.
In 1998, the year the popular song ‘Wide Open Spaces’ was released, the Dixie Chicks were selling more CDs than all other country music groups combined.
This popularity continued until 2003 when Maines criticised then-President George W. Bush at a concert in London. This alienated much of their country fanbase and saw them blacklisted from many radio stations.
A new album in 2006 was the 9th bestselling album in the US but the group went on hiatus in 2008, reforming in 2014.
In late June, The Dixie Chicks became “The Chicks” after responding to calls to drop the ‘Dixie’, a word which is believed to be a bastardised version of the ‘Mason-Dixon Line’, the line which separated the free North from the slave-owning South.
Now, in a new twist, the group formerly known as The Chicks have also dropped the ‘Chicks’ part of their name, releasing a statement on Twitter saying it “was important to move forward to a time when women are not subject to casual sexism like being referred to as ‘chicks’”.
“Transitioning from The Dixie Chicks to The Chicks was hard, but going from the Chicks to The is even harder” said Maines.
“We know it’s really hard to introduce a group called ‘The’ – but this is the path we have chosen to take”
“At a concert on Tuesday a stage MC said “I hope you’re ready to rock because here comes The” and a paramedic dragged him into an ambulance because he thought he’d had a stroke.”
The change has also angered music retailers who are scrambling to recover from a disastrous 2020.
“We get people coming in saying ‘Hey, do you guys have the CD?’ And we’re like ‘sure, we have heaps of CDs, what artist?’ and they just look at us without saying anything. It’s very confusing”.
However, some positive feedback has come from an unusual source. Musician Grimes and partner Elon Musk have described the non-existent name as “exciting” and “futuristic”.
