The Dixie Chicks have had their reputation suffering ever since the early 2000s. This is because of an incident that happened while the Dixie Chicks were in Europe singing at one of their concerts. Due to their beliefs, Natalie Maines made a comment about the current president at the time, George W. Bush about his decision into sending America and many other countries into war. In protest, almost all of their fans have left them and their names have been in headlines ever since. The Dixie Chicks couldn’t believe what was happening and Maines especially was asked to apologized of which she denied – she confessed that apologizing to the president would be her greatest regret. But still their reputation was ruined and in outrage the Dixie Chick recorded a song called “Not Ready to Make Nice”.
“Not Ready to Make Nice” is a song that was written by the Dixie Chicks as they believed that they should further explain the incident, further explain their beliefs. They wanted to express how idiotic it was for people to react in such a way – especially if they were to agree. This is shown in the quotation, “And how in the world can the words that I said / Send somebody so over the edge / That they’d write me a letter sayin’ that I better / Shut up and sing or my life will be over”. They also wanted to show the audience how it is in their shoes. Everyone believes in many different things, everyone has different values so why would everyone threaten The Dixie Chicks’ lives over saying a comment based on their own beliefs.
Anger is crowding the song with strong words used to express this frustration such as ‘hate’ and ‘shut up’. The Dixie Chicks and especially Maines is outraged and fuming as everyone seems to make one comment based upon their own views a big deal. Of course Maines’ beliefs are a big deal to her, but the reaction caused by such a value is quite immature. For an Example, “It’s a sad, sad story when a mother will teach her / Daughter that she ought to hate a perfect stranger”. This is for when a child came up to them one day and protested against them as well due to her mother’s opinions. Indeed it is a sad story as protests shouldn’t always have to come to these sorts of situations – specifically involving a child. There is sadness there as well as Maines and the rest of the Dixie Chicks would have felt sad for how people have gotten so involved in such a bad way and they would have felt sad that a child has even gotten involved. They thought they had to fight back, to show how people can focus their attention on the most unnecessary things.
There are a total of 9 stanzas within the song (refer to lyrics posted before) which consist of four lines each. “Not Ready to Make Nice” has an interesting rhyming scheme as such that in the first 2 stanzas (1st verse) the first two lines rhyme. In the chorus (Stanzas 3 and 4) rhyme every second line. In the next stanza there is no appearance of any rhyming but in the next 2 stanzas (2nd verse), they rhyme on the last 2 lines. As you read on there is a use of repetition of stanzas and the first stanza of the song, is then repeated at the end of the song. This is intriguing as it seems as though the writer is purposely doing this to enforce their point in sort of an angry matter.
Similies such as “I made my bed and I sleep like a baby” suggest a meaning against the most used saying, “How can you sleep at night?” whenever someone was to do something shameful or bad in any way. This is confirmed in the next line, “With no regrets and I don’t mind sayin’”. The Dixie Chicks are suggesting that they don’t regret the incident; they are not guilty at all – because they believe that it is the right thing, they have a right to have a freedom of speech. It is a free country after all. The language is emotive; it gets the audience to feel for the country singers. This is the purpose of the song, to get the audience to feel for the singers, to get them to empathize with the Dixie Chicks – which was rather successful in some ways.
The song’s music video also visually implements the meaning in more of a creative way. Women are shown in bleach white, olden-day dresses and hands with black ink are staining the dresses the women are wearing. Metaphorically, this can suggest many different things. As the women are standing without moving, like they standing for something – implying the singers are standing up for themselves and not shying away. The staining of the dresses can entail that their innocence may be getting stained for standing up. There is imagery shown within the song lyrics such as the line “I made my bed and I sleep like a baby” shows a vision of innocence. This is because babies and infants are seen as innocent – because they are – and it makes it seem that they are not guilty for what they are doing, to them they feel innocent, and it is their right to have some sort of freedom of speech.
Within the start and the last stanzas, they are sung softly with soft music within the song, it is quite strange as in the middle of the song, the overall movement and sound is loud and harsh. To me it reminds me of how people can have a rage session. At the start, they are all calm but one thought or word or sentence can set them off. But at the end of the rage, the person starts to feel calm as they have drained it out of their system – they feel much better. This is successful in the song because it really does enhance the emotion of the song. The audience now knows that they are really angry about it. If you were to read the lyrics itself, you might have hinted at the anger but without this technique, you would have thought it was just a sheet of words. That they are angry but no one really understands it because they cannot get the emotion of the song.
Overall the song is very expressive and emotional, it changes many views about the Dixie Chicks, and it has especially influenced me that they are right – they are innocent.
“Not Ready to Make Nice” is a song that was written by the Dixie Chicks as they believed that they should further explain the incident, further explain their beliefs. They wanted to express how idiotic it was for people to react in such a way – especially if they were to agree. This is shown in the quotation, “And how in the world can the words that I said / Send somebody so over the edge / That they’d write me a letter sayin’ that I better / Shut up and sing or my life will be over”. They also wanted to show the audience how it is in their shoes. Everyone believes in many different things, everyone has different values so why would everyone threaten The Dixie Chicks’ lives over saying a comment based on their own beliefs.
Anger is crowding the song with strong words used to express this frustration such as ‘hate’ and ‘shut up’. The Dixie Chicks and especially Maines is outraged and fuming as everyone seems to make one comment based upon their own views a big deal. Of course Maines’ beliefs are a big deal to her, but the reaction caused by such a value is quite immature. For an Example, “It’s a sad, sad story when a mother will teach her / Daughter that she ought to hate a perfect stranger”. This is for when a child came up to them one day and protested against them as well due to her mother’s opinions. Indeed it is a sad story as protests shouldn’t always have to come to these sorts of situations – specifically involving a child. There is sadness there as well as Maines and the rest of the Dixie Chicks would have felt sad for how people have gotten so involved in such a bad way and they would have felt sad that a child has even gotten involved. They thought they had to fight back, to show how people can focus their attention on the most unnecessary things.
There are a total of 9 stanzas within the song (refer to lyrics posted before) which consist of four lines each. “Not Ready to Make Nice” has an interesting rhyming scheme as such that in the first 2 stanzas (1st verse) the first two lines rhyme. In the chorus (Stanzas 3 and 4) rhyme every second line. In the next stanza there is no appearance of any rhyming but in the next 2 stanzas (2nd verse), they rhyme on the last 2 lines. As you read on there is a use of repetition of stanzas and the first stanza of the song, is then repeated at the end of the song. This is intriguing as it seems as though the writer is purposely doing this to enforce their point in sort of an angry matter.
Similies such as “I made my bed and I sleep like a baby” suggest a meaning against the most used saying, “How can you sleep at night?” whenever someone was to do something shameful or bad in any way. This is confirmed in the next line, “With no regrets and I don’t mind sayin’”. The Dixie Chicks are suggesting that they don’t regret the incident; they are not guilty at all – because they believe that it is the right thing, they have a right to have a freedom of speech. It is a free country after all. The language is emotive; it gets the audience to feel for the country singers. This is the purpose of the song, to get the audience to feel for the singers, to get them to empathize with the Dixie Chicks – which was rather successful in some ways.
The song’s music video also visually implements the meaning in more of a creative way. Women are shown in bleach white, olden-day dresses and hands with black ink are staining the dresses the women are wearing. Metaphorically, this can suggest many different things. As the women are standing without moving, like they standing for something – implying the singers are standing up for themselves and not shying away. The staining of the dresses can entail that their innocence may be getting stained for standing up. There is imagery shown within the song lyrics such as the line “I made my bed and I sleep like a baby” shows a vision of innocence. This is because babies and infants are seen as innocent – because they are – and it makes it seem that they are not guilty for what they are doing, to them they feel innocent, and it is their right to have some sort of freedom of speech.
Within the start and the last stanzas, they are sung softly with soft music within the song, it is quite strange as in the middle of the song, the overall movement and sound is loud and harsh. To me it reminds me of how people can have a rage session. At the start, they are all calm but one thought or word or sentence can set them off. But at the end of the rage, the person starts to feel calm as they have drained it out of their system – they feel much better. This is successful in the song because it really does enhance the emotion of the song. The audience now knows that they are really angry about it. If you were to read the lyrics itself, you might have hinted at the anger but without this technique, you would have thought it was just a sheet of words. That they are angry but no one really understands it because they cannot get the emotion of the song.
Overall the song is very expressive and emotional, it changes many views about the Dixie Chicks, and it has especially influenced me that they are right – they are innocent.
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