The Video Music Awards used to be a really big deal for me when I was in middle and high school. They were basically, a less stuffy and more irreverent version of more established/mainstream shows like the Grammys or American Music Awards. For some reason, I just don't have a lot of the enthusiasm to want to prepare to watch them in recent years. Maybe part of the problem is that I'm getting older and have other affairs to attend to.
First and foremost, what's killing the buzz for the VMAs if you ask me, is MTV's deemphasis on music videos. It's simple logic that it's a bit hard to want to follow the nominees if MTV is spending most of their energy on a yearly basis airing vapid reality shows like "The Hills". And no, the clip show that is "TRL" or airing the videos in late night/early morning time slots (I don't know if they still do that today, since I haven't really paid close attention to MTV recently) doesn't really count.
Another thing that has been affecting the VMAs has been them tinkering with the format. The VMAs used to be held on the first Thursday in September. It was a three hour (minimum) show held at either the Gibson Amphitheater in Los Angeles or Radio City Music Hall in New York City. Why for the past two years or so, has the buildings that held the VMAs been so small?
MTV would get a popular and entertaining comedian to host (e.g. Dan Aykroyd, Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall, Dana Carvey, Roseanne Barr, Dennis Miller, Chris Rock, Ben Stiller, Jack Black, etc.). When I heard that Russell Brand was going to host, the first thing that went in my mind was "Who the hell is Russell Brand!?" I haven't seen "Forgetting Sarah Marshall", and not being from the UK, I obviously wasn't familiar to his brand of humor. MTV would also routinely pair up seemingly mismatched people to present like RuPaul and Milton Berle, Tony Bennett and the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Martha Stewart and Busta Rhymes, etc.
Now, everything is so slickly produced to the point in which that feeling of live, spontaneous energy seems to be severely lacking. The worst period of this was them airing the VMAs at a slower frame rate (circa 2002-2003) to give a more "cinematic" presentation.
I also find it kind of hypocritical of MTV to still want to give us the impression that they're edgy with the VMAs all the while, having teenybopper acts like the Jonas Brothers, Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift, the cast of "High School Musical", just to name a few in the building. You know you're in deep trouble when Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera are seemingly at this point, the "elder states people" for MTV.
The awards themselves don't have much credibility anymore. I seems like it's becoming of an obvious popularity contest (how else can you explain the Pussycat Dolls winning). Is there anything more contrived than having Britney Spears win three awards (when prior to all of this, she never won a Video Music Awards), including "Video of the Year"? And of course, this conveniently happens one year after her infamous performance at the VMAs.
23 Hours of Non Music Television
Topic: When Did the MTV VMAs Become Irrelevant (Read 4170 times)
