TikTokers Use ‘Not Able to Make Good’ by The Chicks to Criticize Kamala Harris—They Missed Context

August 10, 2024 4:46 PM EDT

The hit music “Not Able to Make Good” by The Chicks (previously referred to as the Dixie Chicks) has been making the rounds on TikTok over the previous couple of weeks after conservative customers posted movies with the music to rally towards Vice President Kamala Harris’ bid for the 2024 presidential election and categorical help for the Republican Occasion.

Some TikTokers have posted movies of them mouthing lyrics like “And the way on this planet / can the phrases that I mentioned / ship any individual so over the sting / that they’d write me a letter / sayin’ that I higher shut up and sing / or my life shall be over?” because the music performs within the background. Others have additionally imposed textual content onto their movies, saying issues like “Utilizing this music as a result of that is precisely how the liberal social gathering is treating us conservatives,” or have posted the movies with hashtags like “#trump” and “#useyourvoice.”

However because the movies gained traction, liberal TikTokers started responding, chiding individuals who didn’t perceive the political context behind the music, which was launched in 2006 as a direct response to the backlash The Chicks acquired for not supporting the Iraq Warfare. 

“Media literacy is so [dead] if the maga people don’t know the historical past of this music and The Chicks bc yall this music is about folks like YOU,” one consumer wrote in a TikTok.

On March 10, 2003—days earlier than the U.S. invasion of Iraq—The Chicks’ lead singer and Texas native Natalie Maines mentioned onstage in London: “We are not looking for this conflict, this violence, and we’re ashamed that the President of the USA is from Texas.”

After information retailers reported on Maines’ remarks, lots of the group’s followers who supported Republican President George W. Bush erupted in outrage. The Chicks had been on the high of the nation music world on the time, says Marissa R. Moss, a music journalist and the creator of Her Nation: How the Ladies of Nation Music Grew to become the Success They Have been By no means Purported to Be. However after Maines’ remarks, nation radio stations stopped enjoying their music as hundreds of individuals known as in to complain concerning the group. The group even acquired loss of life threats. Whereas Maines initially apologized for disrespecting the workplace of the President, she later retracted her apology.

“Not Able to Make Good” was written by all three band members—Maines, Emily Strayer, and Martie Maguire—together with singer-songwriter Dan Wilson. The music consists of lyrics like: “I’m not able to make good / I’m not able to again down / I’m nonetheless mad as hell.” Maines beforehand described the album the music seems on as “pure remedy.” (The Chicks’ publicity staff didn’t reply to a request for remark).

Moss says she considers Maines’ remarks to be “one of many extra vital occasions in nation music historical past” and the music to be “probably the most vital protest songs of the trendy period.”

“Their lives have been made to be not simply depressing, not simply financially impacted, not simply their creativity tried to be stifled, however their bodily security and security of their households was threatened,” Moss says. And but—“They actually mentioned no, we’re not gonna ask for forgiveness.”

“Not Able to Make Good” went on to be successful, profitable three Grammy Awards. Moss says the music confirmed artists that they might “converse [their] thoughts” and obtain backlash, however nonetheless “come again” and make music and discover an viewers that appreciates it.

Moss says it’s “ironic” that conservatives on social media are actually utilizing the music to specific help for the Republican Occasion. She says there’s a “lengthy custom” of individuals assuming that each one nation music or musicians share conservative values—like how many individuals misinterpreted Martina McBride’s music “Independence Day” as a patriotic anthem when it’s actually a music about home violence, Moss says.

“They’re utilizing a music … by ladies that stands for the whole lot that they declare to face towards,” Moss says of the conservative TikTokers utilizing “Not Able to Make Good” to rally towards the Democratic Occasion. “Possibly everybody must do some bit extra analysis and they’re going to perhaps acquire some empathy from that have.”

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