I thought about being nicer in the title of the article, but it is simply the truth. MTV tried to re-invent the awards show this year and managed to make it worse.
The VMAs were moved to Las Vegas this year to try to add some new flavor to the beleaguered show. The idea was to have bands hosting parties in different rooms at the Palms. The show would cut between the main stage where presentations were made and the party rooms. Fall Out Boy, Kanye West, Foofighters and others performed from the parties. That was the best part of the show. Let’s get back to how it all began.
The show opened with a valium induced performance from a spaced out Britney. She was almost into her performance if you can call it that. She lip synched her new song, very poorly I might add, to an audience that looked stunned and embarrassed. Whether that embarrassment was for Britney or themselves I do not know.
Next, Sarah Silverman took the stage to welcome an underwhelmed crowd. I like Sarah, but the last couple of shows she has done haven’t been great. Her jokes received very little laughter or applause. Why? The jokes were bad.
There weren’t many complete performances on the show. I guess that is because people have such short attention spans or um, something else. This wasn’t surprising to me as the network itself chooses to really only play music during its reality programming.
Justin Timberlake won 4 awards and looked pretty bombed by the time he accepted his first about 20 minutes into the show. He cancelled a few shows this week citing doctor’s orders for throat problems and perhaps a slight hangover.
Rock bands actually performed, others pretended. Pretending should’ve ended when American Bandstand did. They have wireless everything now and pitch shifters that will work on just about anyone these days.
Please people do you own thing, perfect your craft, make good music and stay away from MTV. If you do R & B or Hip Hop you may have to participate, but remember that they don’t care about you, they care about the advertising they are selling. AND 99% of their programming doesn’t have anything directly to do with music. The network should have to change its name because of false advertisement. Timberlake said twice that MTV should play more videos.
There has never been a better opportunity to do you thing independently. Go do it a reach people in a natural way.
Hey MTV, could you please try to make it just a little bit better next year?