Trying to leave the ghetto?

The Dixie Chicks "don’t feel part of the country scene any longer," and "now consider ourselves part of the big Rock ‘n’ Roll family." I didn’t know it worked that way. Are they going to stop recording country music? Will anyone care? I admire them for their willingness to speak their minds, and I don’t even hate their stuff, but I had somehow imagined that you couldn’t just declare yourself a rock act.