In the aftermath of 9/11, as the Bush administration was mobilizing to invade Iraq and Americans were urged to stand up and fly straight, "Dixie Chick" somehow became a verb.

Natalie Maines, singer for the mainstream country trio, told an audience in London she was ashamed of fellow Texan George W. Bush, and the next thing you knew, the Dixie Chicks were getting fried. Radio stations were pulling their songs, fans were burning their records, and Toby Keith was giving them the boot.

When Rolling Stone asked Chris Rock about the administration, he balked, saying "I don't want to be Dixie Chicked."

But now that the Iraq war is dragging on and the campaign season is heating up, musicians are no longer keeping quiet.

Even Bruce Springsteen is breaking his silence.

Although The Boss' music had been co-opted by presidential candidates in the past (in fact, he rebuffed Ronald Reagan for using "Born in the U.S.A."), he has never gone so far as to endorse one in such a high-profile way.

In an editorial he wrote for The New York Times, Springsteen addressed why he would be taking part in the Vote for Change concerts that support John Kerry:

"These questions are at the heart of this election: who we are, what we stand for, why we fight. Personally, for the last 25 years, I have always stayed one step away from partisan politics. Instead, I have been partisan about a set of ideals: economic justice, civil rights, a humane foreign policy, freedom and a decent life for all of our citizens. This year, however, for many of us the stakes have risen too high to sit this election out."

Springsteen is among the marquee names in MoveOn Pac's Vote for Change tour of the swing states, an unprecedented show of support for a presidential candidate by rock musicians. The Dixie Chicks and James Taylor play Heinz Hall on Friday. Other shows will feature the Dave Matthews Band, R.E.M., John Mellencamp, Jackson Browne and Pearl Jam, who, like the Chicks, were skewered for bashing Bush.

In July, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Black Eyed Peas, Mellencamp, Willie Nelson and Lauryn Hill all lent their voices to the Democratic National Convention. Other tours, from Yo La Tengo to the Anti-Flag-led PunkVoter.com bill, are targeting Bush.

It's not surprising that rock musicians, generally tilting to the left, would back the more "liberal" candidate. The antiwar/pro-justice tradition in rock is well established, from Bob Dylan and John Lennon through the Haight-Ashbury scene, CSNY, soulful poets Marvin Gaye and Gil-Scott Heron, the No Nukes concerts, Brits like The Clash and Billy Bragg and, later, more militant groups, such as Public Enemy and Rage Against the Machine. And who could forget Country Joe and the Fish?

Today, it's unlikely those sort of political sentiments would get the airplay once enjoyed by "Feel Like I'm Fixin' to Die Rag," "Ohio" or "Give Peace a Chance" in the Vietnam era -- not with radio, controlled by a few big corporations, including the conservative Clear Channel, shying from controversy.

But there are plenty of examples of rockers reacting to the political times. Steve Earle stirred things up in 2002 with a song called "John Walker's Blues," written from the point of view of the young American fighting for the Taliban in Afghanistan. His latest, "The Revolution Starts Now," calls for change with the title track and songs like "Rich Man's War." Pittsburgh's Anti-Flag, the most political of punk bands, does a full frontal assault on the current administration on "The Terror State." Bad Religion chimed in the cleverly titled "The Empire Strikes First," and there have been political records by the likes of Patti Smith, the Beastie Boys, Dan Bern and NOFX.

The Bush-Cheney ticket is not without its supporters, some of them Confederate flag-waving Southern rockers. Lynyrd Skynyrd, ZZ Top, Dickey Betts and Kid Rock all played the Republican National Convention, indicating that Kerry could have a rough ride in the South.

"There are Democrats in Lynyrd Skynyrd, too," says singer Johnny Van Zant. "Not everyone's Republican. But I think everyone wants to do something for Bush, whether they're Republican or not. For me personally, I think he's had the hardest job of anyone who's ever been the president of the United States, 'cause none of them faced what the hell he faced -- except maybe Lincoln, with the country being divided itself."

The Republicans also boast support from Jessica Simpson, who, upon meeting Interior Secretary Gale Norton, told her "You've done a nice job decorating the White House," and Britney Spears, quoted in Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" saying, "Honestly, I think we should just trust our president in every decision that he makes."

Bush's favorite music is country, and it seems to like him, too. Although Toby Keith is a registered Democrat, he took the Bush-Cheney line with the post-9/11 rallying cry, "We'll put a boot in your ass, it's the American way." Keith also bashed our enemies with "The Taliban Song" and pumped up the troops with "American Soldier."

Bush also can count on Ted Nugent and at least one vote from Kiss. Gene Simmons, the fire-breathing, blood-spewing bassist, says he disagrees with Bush on most things. But the native of Israel told Nuvo magazine, "I fully support his foreign policy. If this was a time of peace, I'd go for Kerry. But because the war is ongoing, and al-Qaeda is a living, breathing thing, I'd say Mr. Bush will do a better job. If you have cockroaches in the kitchen, you don't want somebody to come in and have a conversation with them."

For anyone who attended the Vans Warped Tour at the Post-Gazette Pavilion in August, there was no question where the punk scene stands. It was open season on the president, with everyone from Anti-Flag to Bad Religion to the poppy Yellowcard taking shots at him and carrying on the antiestablishment tradition of the Clash and Dead Kennedys.

California punk veterans NOFX and the band's label, Fat Wreck Chords, had a busy booth pushing two volumes of "Rock Against Bush," each featuring dozens of punk bands, and the ubiquitous "Not My President" and "Idiot Son of an [Expletive]" T-shirts. At the same booth, PunkVoter.com, a band-based, nonpartisan group whose members range from Green Day and the Donnas to Pittsburgh's own Anti-Flag, was registering voters while offering literature that opposed the president's policies.

By contrast, at OzzFest, the flagship for the metal scene, the only political discourse was about kicking butt. While kingpin Ozzy Osbourne, a surprising guest of the White House in 2002, kept his banter to telling the crowd he loved them, the most overtly political comment of the day came from Superjoint Ritual frontman Phil Anselmo, who said, "This is the United States of America, and we can hate whoever we want! So, let's start busting heads!"

The hip-hop community seems to be most divided over whether the election even matters.

Chuck D certainly thinks it does. The leader of fiery political rap group Public Enemy, who once said that "Rap is CNN for black people," recently released a single with Moby called "Make Love, [Bleep] War" and is also getting his message out as co-host of Unfiltered on the liberal radio network Air America.

He also was the keynote speaker in June at the first-ever National Hip-Hop Political Convention in Newark, N. J., where they created a five-point agenda for urban America that included funding for schools, prison reform and an end to tax cuts.

Rapper Jadakiss recently raised controversy with the single "Why," which included a line some radio stations were cutting out: "Why did Bush knock down the towers?"

Russell Simmons, hip-hop tycoon and founder of Def Jam, admits that he was never much of a voter. But now, he has put his Hip-Hop Summit Action Network (HSAN) to the task of registering minority voters with a street-level program called the Hip-Hop Team Vote.

The network has been presenting hip-hop summits throughout the country, with artists such as Eminem, Nelly, Will Smith and Lloyd Banks. Admission requires that people register to vote. Benjamin Chavis, president of the network, estimates that more than 200,000 people have attended the concerts and, although he can't drive them all to the polls, the organization is doing its best to pound home the message that voting is critical. Thus the subtle P. Diddy shirt: "Vote or Die."

Chavis says the network is nonpartisan but that "the artists are free to express their views. Obviously, Jadakiss spoke at the last summit and we played his video, which is critical of the Bush administration. If you talk to Talib Kweli or Mos Def, they're critical of all the parties."

Kweli, respected as a politically conscious rapper, recently said he doesn't plan to vote and that, while local politics is important, this presidential election is a "sham," with no real difference between the Republican and Democratic candidates.

Jadakiss, while critical of Bush, doesn't stray too far from that opinion. He recently told MTV, "I'm going for Kerry. But it's really not much of a difference, if you ask me," adding that they both went to Yale and are both "filthy rich."

Chavis is aware of some dissension in the hip-hop community but thinks it's largely united. And powerful.

"I think, speaking from a hip-hop perspective, in the hip-hop community, artists are trusted more than politicians. Their views are valued more than people who just show up in their community every four years and ask for a vote."

The next question becomes: To what extent does an artist or musician have sway with the public, and will the cumulative effect of musicians campaigning against Bush have any impact?

Alice Cooper, a Republican who golfs with U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., recently told the Canadian Press, "If you are listening to a rock star in order to get your information on who to vote for, you are a bigger moron than they are. Why are we rock stars? Because we're morons."

"Besides," he continued, "when I read the list of people who are supporting Kerry, if I wasn't already a Bush supporter, I would have immediately switched. Linda Ronstadt? Don Henley? Geez, that's a good reason right there to vote for Bush."

He may be on to something there, but singer-songwriter Dan Bern takes the opposite stance. Bern recently played protest rallies at the Republican National Convention, leading a sing-along of "Bush Must Be Defeated," a song on his new EP. He now is out with Ani DiFranco on the Vote Dammit tour.

"When all else goes out the window, people still listen to music and they still look at pictures and so on," Bern says.

"There are certain things that can be best and maybe only communicated through these forms. You can recite statistics all day long, but sometimes it takes a song to bring it to a human level."