Beyond visual strategies, the Dixie Chicks utilized strategies of film to reach wider audiences. Philips explains that CMT benefitted from musicians like the Dixie Chicks, stating, “The willingness of the stars to work with us and trust us to find an audience for them is very beneficial for CMT…” (Larson, 2002). The Dixie Chicks were open to the idea of venturing into new avenues of the entertainment industry to help broaden CMT’s audience reach. “Ready to Run” is a soundtrack to Runaway Bride, a 1999 film that follows the story of a bride leaving her groom at the alter (IMDb). Both benefitting from the partnership, the film incorporates “Ready to Run” to enhance the meaning of the movie, while the song’s music video utilizes the exposure of the film (beyond typical country music audiences) to help gain success amongst new audiences (“Dixie Chicks…”). This relationship helped “Ready to Run” reach number one on the soundtrack charts during its first week and contributed to the overall success of the song (Pollack).
Runaway Bride Movie Clip via Movieclips on YouTube
After its initial exposure in the movie, CMT allocated much of its airtime to “Ready to Run,” making it the most-aired video on CMT during the week of September 26, 1999 (“Video Monitor,” 1999). By infiltrating a song that was already familiar to outside audiences, CMT’s hope was that people would flip through channels, hear the song playing on CMT, and engage with the channel. Likewise, after hearing the song in Runaway Bride, CMT anticipated that viewers would tune in to the channel to see the video (at this time, there was no YouTube!). Therefore, they aimed to play it as much as possible to capture attention if viewers were to tune in for this reason.