"The Dixie Chicks"

In an online article, Betty Clarke presents the Dixie Chicks as a refreshing challenge to the country music world.

Here are all the word lists to support the reading of Grade 12 Unit 4's texts from SpringBoard's Common Core ELA series: How the Media Twists the News, Why Partisans View, Bush's Address on Iraq Invasion, The Dixie Chicks, Keep the Heat, Chicks Reap Whirlwind, No More Whistlin' Dixie, America Catches Up, Speaking Up and Speaking Out, Esteemed Outlaws, A Tired Old Song
10 words 6 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. establishment
    the group of people who manage or direct an institution
    The Dixie Chicks are the good-time girls the country establishment loves to hate.
  2. vanguard
    the leading units moving at the head of an army
    The old vanguard liked their women feisty but second-class, preferably wearing cowgirl outfits and a smile.
  3. renegade
    break with established customs
    But the Dixie Chicks were renegade ladies of country who sung gleefully about killing abusive spouses and dressed like an older Britney Spears.
  4. emasculate
    deprive of strength or vigor
    Add the success they have had selling a progressive bluegrass sound to fans ignorant of banjos and whistles and you have an emasculating threat.
  5. controversy
    a dispute where there is strong disagreement
    Aside from courting controversy, the band has sold 25m LPs since their debut album.
  6. effervescent
    marked by high spirits or excitement
    Featuring two sisters, Martie Maguire and Emily Robison, along with the effervescent Maines, their passion for tradition and love for pop made the country genre a contender again.
  7. poignancy
    a quality that arouses emotions, especially pity or sorrow
    "Long Time Gone" adopts the chatty style of Loretta Lynn and the poignancy of Hank Williams
  8. quaint
    attractively old-fashioned
    "Tortured, Tangled Hearts" is similarly quick and quaint
  9. palatable
    acceptable to the taste or mind
    Bluegrass's charm lies in its rawness, but the Dixie Chicks have polished the mountain sound and made it palatable for a new audience.
  10. giddy
    lacking seriousness; given to frivolity
    But it's in the giddy "Sin Wagon", which turns religious worship into a hymn for sex, that the Dixie Chicks hit their stride, shrieking, shouting, unrepentant.
Created on Sat Mar 07 13:22:01 EST 2015 (updated Sat Mar 07 19:08:17 EST 2015)

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