DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ Beyoncé's first country music foray drew harsh criticism—here's how she used it to craft a No. 1 single
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-28 | by ( Ashton Jackson | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

It was born out of an experience I had years ago where I did not feel welcomed…and it was very clear that I wasn't," Beyoncé wrote in a recent Instagram post. She was likely referring to a 2016 performance of her first country song, "Daddy Lessons," at the annual Country Music Awards. !," one user on social media platform X posted. Instead of letting those opinions deter her, Beyoncé spent five years crafting her country album, she wrote. "Because of that experience, I did a deeper dive into the history of country music and studied our rich musical archive," she wrote.

Persons: Cowboy Carter, wasn't, Beyoncé, @DixieChicks Organizations: The Chicks, Dixie Locations: Texas

☆ An Oklahoma radio station refused to play Beyoncé's new country single until fans fought back. Here's why the country music industry keeps excluding the singer.
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-16 | by ( Ayomikun Adekaiyero | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

On Tuesday, Oklahoma's country music station KYKC refused to play Beyoncé's new song "TEXAS HOLD 'EM." Here's what to know about Beyoncé's challenges with being recognized by the country music industry. I requested Texas Hold ‘Em at my local country radio station (KYKC) and after requesting, i received an email from the radio station stating “We do not play Beyoncé on KYKC as we are a country music station. Although critics and fans praised Beyoncé's country pivot, the Country Music Association Awards and the Grammy's country music committee did not nominate the song for any awards, which was viewed as a snub. Slate reported in 2016 that Orlando's country radio station K92.3 received backlash from its listeners after playing "Daddy Lessons" on air.

Persons: KYKC, —, Beyoncé, Oklahoma's, @BeyLegion, eQksQemk6m, JUSTIN 🫧, ong, addy, hicks, hite, arius Organizations: Service, TEXAS Locations: Texas

Conservatives have looked to country music over the decades to voice political beliefs and react to social change. Maines called Keith’s song “ignorant,” while Keith began performing in front of a doctored photo of Maines with Saddam Hussein. KEITH WAS A FAN OF THE MILITARY, AND VICE VERSAIn the years following “Courtesy,” Keith participated in 18 USO tours, performing for more than 250,000 service members in his lifetime. Lucas says he and others sent CDs with Keith’s song, “American Soldier,” to the wives of the men serving with his son. Keith “emboldened others in country music to think viewpoints that might be perceived as angry and conservative were okay to express,” Willman says.

Persons: — Toby Keith’s, Keith, We’ll, Jason Aldean, Jason Isbell, ”, Chris Willman, “, Willman, Willie Nelson, Amanda Marie Martinez, Jim Crow America, ” Martinez, Merle Haggard, “ Okie, Haggard, Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama’s, “ Let's, George W, Bush, Obama, Donald Trump, it’s, Joseph M, Thompson, Alan Jackson, Jackson, Darryl Worley’s “, Clint Black’s “, Natalie Maines, Maines, Saddam Hussein, KEITH, ” Keith, John A, Lucas, ” Lucas, ’ ” Lucas, Aldean, Oliver Anthony’s “ Rich, Keith “, ” Willman, Pat Finnerty, Toby Keith, Hogan, ” Finnerty, ‘, Finnerty, Jude ’, it’d, Maria Sherman Organizations: Country Music, Variety, Pentagon, Dixie Chicks, U.S . Army, Army, North Locations: NORFOLK, Va, U.S, Afghanistan, Iraq, America, Vietnam, Muskogee, Iran, Clint Black’s “ Iraq, Richmond , Virginia, Tennessee, Richmond, ”, Philadelphia, Los Angeles

NORMAN, Okla. (AP) — “Beer For My Horses” singer-songwriter Toby Keith has died. “The money to be made was unbelievable,” Keith told The Associated Press in 1996. “Should’ve Been a Cowboy,” his breakout hit, was played 3 million times on radio stations, making it the most played country song of the 1990s. “They were trying to get me to compromise, and I was living a miserable existence,” Keith told the AP. “I always felt like that the songwriting was the most important part of this whole industry,” Keith told the crowd of fellow singers and writers.

Persons: NORMAN, Okla, Toby Keith, Keith, “, ”, Beer, Willie Nelson, ” Keith, I’ve, I’m, ” ‘, Harold Shedd, Shedd, “ Should’ve, Shania Twain, That’s, “ I’ve, Bobby Braddock, “ They’re, He’s, George W, Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, We’ll, Singer, Steve Earle, Natalie Maines, Maines, Saddam Hussein, FUTK, Ethan Hawke, Kris Kristofferson, Hawke, Vince Gill, Scott Borchetta, Trace Adkins, Joe Nichols, Josh Thompson, Clay Walker, Phil Vassar Organizations: Associated Press, Oklahoma City Drillers, United States Football League, Mercury Records, Alabama, AP, DreamWorks Records, Academy of Country, “ Billboard, Arts, “, Universal Music Group, DreamWorks, Universal, Songwriters Hall of Fame, BMI Locations: Oklahoma, Texas, Nashville, Mercury, Oklahoma City

☆ Opinion | Taylor Swift and the Profound Weirdness of MAGA
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-04 | by ( David French | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

That’s a key lesson of the MAGA right’s deeply strange turn against Taylor Swift and her boyfriend, the Kansas City Chiefs’ star tight end Travis Kelce. In fact, that’s a key lesson from this entire sorry era in American political and cultural life. Even as he condemned Swift, one prominent MAGA figure recently boasted that his “side” still had Kid Rock, Ted Nugent and Jon Voight. According to them, Taylor Swift’s extraordinary popularity isn’t the organic outcome of a talented and appealing superstar’s bond with her fans. No, according to them, Swift’s rise is an “op” or a “psyop” engineered by the deep state in order to benefit Joe Biden.

Persons: Hatred, MAGA, Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce, Swift, Phil Bredesen, Republican Marsha Blackburn, Joe Biden, Kelce, “, Laura Ingraham’s, Rock, Ted Nugent, Jon Voight, Ronald Reagan, Donald Trump, can’t, Taylor Organizations: Kansas City Chiefs, Democratic, Senate, Republican, Pfizer, —, Fox News, Dixie Locations: Tennessee, MAGA America

☆ Analysis: Country music is at a crossroads. Two of its most viral songs show why
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-29 | by ( Aj Willingham | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

The struggle for the soul of country music is on full display now as two very different songs have been making headlines. Michael Loccisano/Getty ImagesThese two songs, so differently received yet recorded under the same big country umbrella, are an embodiment of the crossroads where country music currently stands. Like all musical traditions that fuse, evolve and splinter, country music and its legions of fans are engaged in a negotiation for the genre’s main identity. When the Dixie Chicks spoke out against the Iraq War in the early 2000s, their popularity in country music circles never fully recovered.. Small towns, fast cars and American values are as essential to country music as four chords and the truth.

Persons: Jason Aldean, Luke Combs, Tracy Chapman, Chapman, Combs, ”, Tracy, ” Chapman, “, Luke, Bryan Bedder, they’ve, Aldean, Little Richard, Otis Redding, ” Aldean, —, Holly G, Morgan Wallen, Michael Loccisano, foremothers, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, ” Combs, it’s Organizations: CNN, CMT, Billboard, Singer, Amarillo, Black Opry, Washington Post, Texas Democrat, country’s, Dixie, Grand Ole Opry Locations: Copenhagen, underrepresentation, Aldean, Macon , Georgia, Iraq

Search resuls for: "Dixie Chicks"

6 mentions found