I’m looking forward to seeing Shut Up And Sing, Barbara Kopple and Cecilia Peck’s documentary about the backlash the Dixie Chicks faced after the country rockers spoke out against George W. Bush on the evening of the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

Alternet has a great piece that centres on the forces that fuelled hatred for the Chicks, mainly concentrated corporate power — “Travelin Soldier was the number one single when it was removed from playing rotation. Cumulus Media, a consortium of 306 radio stations, told their affiliates not to play the Chicks’ music. Several disc jockeys who broke the ban were fired according to press reports” — and good, old-fashioned sexism: “Did the Dixie Chicks pay a higher price for speaking out because they were women? Kopple believes women get into trouble for speaking their minds when the expectation is that men are the ones to speak out, to take a stand, and a womans role is to stand with her man. I think these ideas still permeate our culture. Apparently to the country music world, seeming unpatriotic in a time of war is a far worse sin than being a convicted wife batterer like Tracy Lawrence, who has been able to rehabilitate himself with his fans.”