Am I the Only One (Who's Ever Felt This Way)?

Who had the best album of the year last year?  The best song?  The best record?  The Recording Academy tells us it was the Dixie Chicks.  Or does it?  This story tells us that at least some voters cast their ballots for a Dixie Chicks sweep not because of the music itself, but to strike a blow against country radio's campaign of private censorship in the wake of lead singer Natalie Maines's storied comments about President Bush.  Thus, Jeff Ayeroff, a well-known music executive and academy member, told the Times that the vote represented "the artist community, which was very angry at what radio did, because it was not very American."   The article portrays the awards as vindication for the Dixie Chicks, especially in the wake of their shut-out at the Country Music Association's awards.  And unnamed "analysts" are quoted characterizing the vote as reflecting "the desire of many voters to strike a blow for freedom of expression."

Well, that's all very nice; and doubtless the votes also reflected some fondness for the music itself.  But I would have been rather curious to know what music the Academy actually liked, rather than what message they wanted to send.  After all, the Academy has made some exquisite choices in the past, and I would have appreciated their aesthetic advice this time around too.  Not to sound shocked or anything; one doesn't expect awards to be purely merits-driven, or at least one shouldn't after reading this book, and many others that tell similar stories.  Still, if one casts a vote for an award based on vindication grounds, and therefore not on the merits, isn't one saying that one can't see past the politics of the occasion, and thus negating the artist's vindication as an artist?  (And vice versa, of course; the CMA awards were likely no better indication of the merits of the work in the eyes of the country music community.)

Incidentally -- how's the music, you ask?  OK, in my view, but far from their best.  Leaving aside private individual decisions not to support the band, which may or may not have been wrong but was far from censorship, and leaving aside the trickier question of the actions taken during l'aiffaire Dixie by country radio and other corporate actors, I can't imagine what it's like to face heaps of death threats and vile messages, and I don't doubt I would be fixated by such an experience if it did befall me.  But it's too bad the whole album is built around it.  The righteousness and angry defiance, however justified by the band's personal experiences, wear thin pretty quickly over the course of the album.  Good production values, though!  And there's always the hope they'll introduce more people to Patty Griffin.  And at least they beat James Blunt!

Hat tip for the title goes to Maria McKee, by way of the D.C.