The 2008 MTV Popularity Awards

Last night, I caught bits and pieces of the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards, and I must say, it's become just a shadow of what it used to be. Now I will say I did enjoy that MTV allowed the little known Russell Brand to host and that there was a performance from Kanye West that as usual, was stunning, but everything else seems weak compared to what the VMA's used to be. Most award shows are actually about the awards. Sure there may be performances in between awards at the Grammy's, but the real meat of the show is the awards. MTV has unfortunately flipped that around and made the show about having some awe-inducing performance or situation that people will talk about the next day, most likely involving Britney Spears. 

 

What really is sad, is that back in the days of Kurt Loder, the VMA's used to actually be about excellence in the creation of music videos. Only ten years ago, the awards acknowledged videos that were epic, videos that told stories and were actually able to make the music quite possibly better. Just as a glimpse here were some of the award nominees ten years ago:

Puff Daddy and the Family's "It's All About the Benjamins (Rock Remix)", Radiohead's "Karma Police", Fiona Apple's "Criminal", The Prodigy's "Smack My Bitch Up", Foo Fighter's "Everlong", Aphex Twin's "Come To Daddy", Wyclef Jean's "Gone Till November", Madonna's "Ray of Light" and The Verve's "Bittersweet Symphony". Watch any of these videos and you'll see why videos aren't what they used to be. Each one of these nominees could easily be considered classics and could beat any of the nominees of this years' award show. 

 

This year, best video nominations went to Chris Brown, Jonas Brothers, Pussycat Dolls, Britney Spears and The Ting Tings. With the exception of The Ting Ting's "Shut Up and Let Me Go", which is adamantly ripping off The White Stripes' "Seven Nation Army" video, none of these videos really has any artistic merit. I mean really, Pussycat Dolls? Some of the best videos of the year were given smaller awards, but were done of the air, such as Erykah Badu's fantastic video for "Honey", Death Cab For Cutie's "I Will Possess Your Heart" and Weezer's "Pork and Beans", with surprisingly no nominations at all for the Kanye West video "Flashing Lights", which could be considered the best of the year. 

 

The VMA's used to at least try to give awards to the best videos of the year. I mean, just a few years ago, Johnny Cash was even up for best video with his heartbreaking video for "Hurt". But lately, the show has just become a joke. Last year, awards weren't even given for individual videos, but rather to just an artist. Two years ago, there were awards for best video game soundtrack and ringtone of the year. The fact that MTV is still trying to pass the VMA's as a viable award show is disappointing when they aren't able to even give awards to the actual best, or even give them nominations. MTV should quit their ruse and just do what it obviously wants to do: have a bunch of shocking performances, have an audience that doesn't laugh at the jokes given by the host, and have a good artist or two sing their new songs. Please leave the awards to the professionals.