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Out of curiosity, what did Johnny Depp say?
As 33girl said, it's largely a question of audience. If Courtney Love says something criticizing the war, it is going to have a lot less of a negative impact than if the Dixie Chicks do, due to the typical mindset of their respective fans. As an artist, you do have to keep that in mind if financial stablity is in any way a goal of yours.
I do think that the fans have every right to stage a boycott if they want to, but I think that boycott should be limited to not buying CDs of the band in question, turning off the radio when their songs come on, etc. -- but it should not extend to "censorship," or going through a third party to boycott the music. I think they have every right to boycotting the band if they don't want to hear it, and convincing like-minded people to do the same, but I don't think they should be allowed to affect other people who don't feel the same way they do. Because then you are only a few steps away from consumer pressure to get Jethro Tull CDs banned from CD stores, or things like that. And that leads to a media environment where everyone is afraid to say anything controversial for fear that it will affect their sales -- and that's not what music, or television or film or writing or art or any of that should be about.
I don't know. I think it's a slippery slope . . . but I think there is a big difference between trying to control what you listen to (or watch or read) and trying to control what everyone listens to (or watches or reads).
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