The hit song “Not Ready to Make Nice” by The Chicks (formerly known as the Dixie Chicks) has recently become popular on TikTok. Conservative users have been posting videos featuring the song to express opposition to Vice President Kamala Harris and support for the Republican Party.
Some TikTokers have created videos of themselves mouthing lyrics like “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?” as the song plays. Others have added text to their videos, such as “Using this song because this is exactly how the liberal party is treating us conservatives,” or have used hashtags like “#trump” and “#useyourvoice.”
However, liberal TikTokers have been responding, criticizing those who misunderstand the song’s political context. The song, released in 2006, was a direct response to the backlash The Chicks received for speaking out against the Iraq War.
“Media literacy is so [dead] if the maga individuals don’t know the history of this song and The Chicks bc yall this song is about people like YOU,” one user wrote in a .
On March 10, 2003, days before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, The Chicks’ lead singer and Texas native Natalie Maines onstage in London: “We do not want this war, this violence, and we’re ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas.”
After news outlets reported on Maines’ remarks, many of the group’s fans who supported Republican President George W. Bush reacted with anger. The Chicks were at the peak of their success in country music at the time, according to Marissa R. Moss, a music journalist and author of Her Country: How the Women of Country Music Became the Success They Were Never Supposed to Be. But following Maines’ statement, country radio stations playing their music as thousands of people expressed their disapproval. The group even received . Although Maines initially apologized for disrespecting the office of the President, she later her apology.
“Not Ready to Make Nice” was written by all three band members—Maines, Emily Strayer, and Martie Maguire—along with singer-songwriter Dan Wilson. The song includes like: “I’m not ready to make nice / I’m not ready to back down / I’m still mad as hell.” Maines the album the song appears on as “pure therapy” (The Chicks’ publicity team didn’t respond to a request for comment).
Moss considers Maines’ remarks to be “one of the more significant events in country music history” and the song to be “one of the most important protest songs of the modern era.”
“Their lives were made to be not just miserable, not just financially impacted, not just their creativity attempted to be stifled, but their physical safety and safety of their families was threatened,” Moss says. And yet—“They literally said no, we’re not gonna say sorry.”
“Not Ready to Make Nice” became a hit, . Moss says the song demonstrated that artists could “speak [their] mind” and face backlash, but still “come back” and make music, finding an audience that appreciates their work.
Moss finds it “ironic” that conservatives on social media are now using the song to express support for the Republican Party. She points to a “long tradition” of people assuming that all country music or musicians hold conservative values—citing how many people Martina McBride’s song “Independence Day” as a patriotic anthem when it’s actually about domestic violence, Moss says.
“They’re using a song … by women that stands for everything that they claim to stand against,” Moss says of the conservative TikTokers using “Not Ready to Make Nice” to rally against the Democratic Party. “Maybe everyone needs to do a little bit more research and they will maybe gain some empathy from that experience.”
