The 2006 Grammy nominations were announced yesterday, and while I normally could care less about the Grammys — they’re easiliy the least representative of the industry they recognize than any of the other major awards shows — I took no small sense of satisfaction in seeing that the Dixie Chicks were nominated for five awards this year. And it’s not just they they received the five nominations, it’s which categories the nominations were in: Album of the Year (for Taking the Long Way), Record of the Year (for “Not Ready To Make Nice”; given for the song’s performance), Song of the Year (given for songwriting), Country Album of the Year and Country Song of the Year.
That’s right — a song specifically written as a middle-finger salute to the country music industry and its fans for being a bunch of backwards, ignorant yokels just got nominated for Country Song of the Year. This fact makes me almost giddy with glee. I honestly don’t care it they win a single award; just the fact that were nominated, especially in the country categories, plants a field of black flowers in the topsoil of my petty, vengeful little heart.
I realize that the nominations were likely less a rebuke of country radio and fans than it was the fact that Grammy voters usually seem to know almost nothing about the music for which they’re voting. “Dixie Chicks? Oh, I’ve heard of them, they’re supposed to be good! They’re country, right?” But I really don’t much care about the whys or wherefores in this situation — all I know is, the country nominations for the Chicks will surely piss off all of the right people, and that’s enough for me.
Technorati tags: Music, Dixie Chicks, Grammys
