Martina McBride was, once upon a time, one of country’s biggest stars. The emphasis there is once upon a time; a long time, unless you’re one of those types who thinks it’s only yesterday that Pearl Jam and the Strokes were on the radio and any large group of people still listened to any of those three. (No shame in that; I’m in your numbers.)
McBride’s last album that appeared in the Billboard 200 was released in 2014. Her last album certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America — for between 500,000 to 1 million sales or equivalent streams — was released in 2007. Her last RIAA platinum record — over one million — was in 2005. In less than five months, people born on the day that album was released will be able to legally drink.
Nor is she an artist with a cult audience. We’re not talking Barbra Streisand, or Phish, or the Pet Shop Boys — singers or groups with dedicated fanbases despite a lack of commercial success. Nobody’s following her around the country in a VW Microbus with the lyrics to “Wild Angels” painted on the side.
Ergo, why is the media not only paying so much attention to the fact that she and other third-rate musicians are pulling out of an event that was being hailed as the “worst concert lineup ever assembled,” but painting it as an act of brave anti-Trump resistance?
McBride became the biggest name (already saying something) to pull out of a concert series on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., for America’s semiquincentennial. (That’s “250th anniversary,” for those of you subjected to a Common Core education.)
“I was presented with an opportunity to perform at a nonpartisan event but that turned out to be misleading,” McBride wrote on Instagram.
“I asked lots of questions and was assured this was a nonpartisan event that was meant to celebrate ALL 50 states.”
Is this a manufactured controversy?
However, she stated that “things started changing.”
“I’ve spent my entire career singing songs about real people with real issues. I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to be a voice for those who have felt like they didn’t have one,” she wrote in the post.
“It greatly upsets me that any fan who has been moved by my music may now feel like I’m abandoning the meaning behind those songs.”
The reason behind this? Apparently the fact that the group putting on the bash is affiliated with President Donald Trump. She couldn’t have found this out through her agents — or by doing a Google search, or a ChatGPT prompt, like virtually anyone could have done.
Right, that excuse is totally believable. In the same way I find it believable that Jimmy Hoffa is alive and managing a Blockbuster Video on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Really! Some guy said it on a podcast somewhere. I think.
Nor, as The Hill pointed out, is McBride alone in the list of now-nobodies who are backing out.
Admit it: You can’t name anything Young MC has done since the song “Bust a Move,” which came out in 1989. But the media can name one more thing he’s done: Withdraw from the concert.
“I HAVE INFORMED MY AGENTS THAT I WILL NOT BE PERFORMING AT THE FREEDOM 250 EVENT,” Young MC said on Facebook. “The artists were never told about any political involvement with the event.”
“And despite the claims by the organizers that the event is non-partisan, SPIN magazine describes it as ‘Trump-backed’. I hope to perform in D.C. in the near future at an event that is not so politically charged.”
Celebrating America! So political! So charged!
Others to pull out include Poison singer Bret Michaels, Morris Day, C+C Music Factory, and The Commodores. And pretty much every iteration of this mentioned some version of how “divisive” this is all going to be.
Dude, you’re the lead singer of Poison. If there’s anything divisive, it’s when “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” pops up on someone’s Spotify playlist during a long drive. If you’re the one in charge of the CarPlay, that’s an impeachable offense.
But herein lies the point: The Babylon Bee’s non-satire site, Not the Bee, had already asked, “What is up with the ‘worst concert lineup ever assembled’ for America’s 250th birthday celebration?” As in, who thought it was a good idea to invite Milli Vanilli and Vanilla Ice? Except if it was a way for them to obtain relevance again by loudly rejecting a gig they were wholly familiar with.
This is the very definition of manufacturing air-quotes “resistance.” You can almost taste the astroturf.
And it’s not as if America is clamoring for a show like this. Let’s say my aforementioned teenaged heroes were included, along with some of today’s better artists. I still don’t think, for our semiquincentennial, this is appropriate stuff. Get a band playing Sousa. Shoot off some fireworks. Save some money.
But no. Instead, we have what some are calling the “worst concert lineup ever assembled” and some members of that contingent bowing out to get a bit of coinage in the attention economy. Great work, everybody.
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