Music awards shows are a circus
Jason Persse/Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic
Kanye West performs at The Museum of Modern Art’s annual Party in the Garden benefit, New York City, May 10, 2011.
September 1, 2015
Kanye West doesn’t understand award shows and neither do I.
The controversial rapper mentioned in his speech (among other things) during the Michael Jackson Vanguard Award, that the MTV Music Video Awards were reaching for ratings. West didn’t understand award shows. And yet, MTV posted the entire transcript of his speech — in which they refer to the speech as “incredible”on their website. Why would they praise being called out? Why would they support his claims by plastering the speech on their own website? And furthermore, wasn’t this awards show supposed to be about awards?
Unfortunately, very little coverage was conducted regarding the actual award categories themselves and why certain artists were given awards. This is a trend amongst music award shows that gets worse each year. With each new live-broadcast music award show, there is more controversy and entertainment than there are actual presenting of awards. Google “MTV VMA’s 2015” and there probably won’t be a single link directing towards the awards. Instead you’ll find, “What did Miley Cyrus Wear?”, “Justin Bieber cries Onstage” “Nicki Minaj Calls Out Miley Cyrus,” and so on.
The title for a New York Times review of the event says it all: “Celebrity Feuds, Miley Cyrus, and Also Some Music.” It seems that music award shows are just publicity stunts for ratings. If all of these artists that create controversy, such as Brittany kissing Madonna and Miley Cyrus twerking with her tongue hanging out, then why would they choose an esteemed and professionally regarded event to do so, versus utilizing their shows on tour? The answer is because music award shows aren’t about awards. Not to mention that Video Music Awards hardly ever acknowledge Music Video Directors.
According to Entertainment Weekly, the ratings for the 2015 MTV VMAs hit a record low for an award show, but generated 21.4 million tweets, most of which were about Kanye’s 12-minute rant involving his confession to smoking something before showing up to the event. This is what awarding musicians and their teams has succumbed to: artists getting on stage to say that they don’t get it and “yes, I rolled up a little something. I knocked the edge off!”
Talking about the ludicrous, stage-managed celebrity shenanigans is one thing. Criticizing artists and pushing to change music awards into being about music like they’re supposed to be, is another thing. Hopefully, Kanye’s ridiculous speech can generate a new attitude for the future of music awards, one that actually involves shows making sense.
