美国国家公共电台 NPR For Country Music Industry And Artists, Gun Politics Presents A Minefield

 

KELLY MCEVERS, HOST:

The Country Music Association Awards ceremony was Wednesday night, and people are still talking about the show because of what wasn't said that night.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

CARRIE UNDERWOOD: Now, Brad, I don't know if you've heard about this, but the CMA has given us some guidelines with specific topics to avoid. So we can't...

BRAD PAISLEY: What?

UNDERWOOD: ...Be doing any of our silly little songs because this year's show is a politics-free zone.

PAISLEY: Are you kidding me?

(CHEERING)

PAISLEY: That's not fair. Hold on. So we can't even do, like, (singing) well, way down yonder on the Scaramucci? That doesn't work?

(LAUGHTER)

UNDERWOOD: No, no. No Scaramucci, Brad, no.

MCEVERS: That was Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley, who co-hosted the CMAs. And they weren't the only ones who were given guidelines. A week before the awards ceremony, the Country Music Association sent out media guidelines telling reporters not to focus on gun rights, political affiliations¹ or the Las Vegas tragedy. That of course was the shooting where 58 people were killed, and it happened at a huge country music festival.

Brad Paisley and others spoke² out against the restrictions³, and then those restrictions were reversed. But it brought into focus the relationship of the country music industry and the debate about guns in the U.S.

Music journalist Jonathan Bernstein has written about this, and he's with us now. Welcome to the show.

JONATHAN BERNSTEIN: Thanks for having me.

MCEVERS: I mean, what do you think the Country Music Association was worried about?

BERNSTEIN: I think the Country Music Association was very worried that politics or what they view as politics or sort of debates about guns, about the NRA, about sort of what happened in Las Vegas would take the center stage on sort of what is generally considered to be the most important night of country music.

MCEVERS: Of course that seemed to backfire in a way. And there was a...

BERNSTEIN: Yeah.

MCEVERS: ...Gallup poll from several years back - 2004 - that showed more than 60 percent of country music fans are conservative. What about the artists themselves? What are their political affiliations?

BERNSTEIN: You know, while they're certainly - there are mainstream⁴ country stars who are deeply conservative, and there are mainstream country stars who fall much more closely in line with liberal and progressive ideas. I think for the most part, you find with big entertainers at this point in country music, that the situation feels as though, you know, if you make one sort of strong statement in one way or the other, really you're risking alienating⁵ just a really large portion of your fan base.

MCEVERS: Right. One thinks of the Dixie Chicks - right? - coming out against George Bush and the Iraq War.

BERNSTEIN: Absolutely. If you talk to people in the country music industry about, you know, any topic relating to the intersection⁶ between politics and country music, the first name that you'll hear is the Dixie Chicks.

MCEVERS: Billboard⁷ had a piece yesterday. It was a profile of Tim McGraw and Faith Hill. They have a new album. In this piece, they say they are in favor of gun control. Were you surprised by that - that they spoke out so clearly on an issue like that?

BERNSTEIN: I would imagine there are these sort of whisper networks in country music of sort of who are the secret progressive, and who are the secret Democrats⁸ and liberals. And Tim McGraw and Faith Hill haven't been super secretive about their politics in the past. They donated money to Hillary Clinton's campaign, and they - and even on the issue of gun control, Tim McGraw - a couple of years ago, he had agreed to play a little - a benefit concert after the Sandy Hook shooting with this organization that was associated with gun control. And he received a lot of blowback from that.

Tim McGraw and Faith Hill are two of the most successful and most-beloved country entertainers of the past 20 years, and they have, you know, a whole lot of money and a whole lot of fans that are devoted⁹ to them at this point. So I think that it's - it is easier for them to do it than, say, someone who's to any degree less proven, which is almost everybody in country music.

MCEVERS: (Laughter).

BERNSTEIN: I don't expect there to suddenly be sort of some huge wave of country artists that are, you know, coming out and getting really involved. But I think that people are continuing to, at the very least, have this conversation with themselves. And I think that it's going to continue to be an issue on the minds of everybody in the industry for a long time.

MCEVERS: Music journalist Jonathan Bernstein, thank you so much.

BERNSTEIN: Thanks for having me.

1 affiliations   

n.联系( affiliation的名词复数 )；附属机构；亲和性；接纳

参考例句：

• She had affiliations of her own in every capital. 她原以为自己在欧洲各国首府都有熟人。 来自辞典例句
• The society has many affiliations throughout the country. 这个社团在全国有很多关系。 来自辞典例句

2 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

3 restrictions   

约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则）

参考例句：

• I found the restrictions irksome. 我对那些限制感到很烦。
• a snaggle of restrictions 杂乱无章的种种限制

4 mainstream   

n.（思想或行为的）主流；adj.主流的

参考例句：

• Their views lie outside the mainstream of current medical opinion.他们的观点不属于当今医学界观点的主流。
• Polls are still largely reflects the mainstream sentiment.民调还在很大程度上反映了社会主流情绪。

5 alienating   

v.使疏远( alienate的现在分词 )；使不友好；转让；让渡（财产等）

参考例句：

• The phenomena of alienation are widespread. Sports are also alienating. 异化现象普遍存在，体育运动也不例外。 来自互联网
• How can you appeal to them without alienating the mainstream crowd? 你是怎么在不疏忽主流玩家的情况下吸引住他们呢？ 来自互联网

6 intersection   

n.交集，十字路口，交叉点；[计算机] 交集

参考例句：

• There is a stop sign at an intersection.在交叉路口处有停车标志。
• Bridges are used to avoid the intersection of a railway and a highway.桥用来避免铁路和公路直接交叉。

7 billboard   

n.布告板，揭示栏，广告牌

参考例句：

• He ploughed his energies into his father's billboard business.他把精力投入到父亲的广告牌业务中。
• Billboard spreads will be simpler and more eye-catching.广告牌广告会比较简单且更引人注目。

8 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 devoted   

adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的

参考例句：

• He devoted his life to the educational cause of the motherland.他为祖国的教育事业贡献了一生。
• We devoted a lengthy and full discussion to this topic.我们对这个题目进行了长时间的充分讨论。