I’m a bit late on this post, given that the VMAs were a week ago, but I need to talk about this. I love the entertainment industry. I love it so much that I got a master’s in Entertainment Business so I could work in the industry. I do not, however, love where the industry is headed. I’m not worried about the drop in album sales, pirating, or even the explicitly violent or sexual content. I’m worried that our society has become more interested in celebrity gossip than the actual art being produced.
Celebrities have always pulled outrageous stunts at the MTV Video Music Awards. There was Howard Stern’s Fartman appearance in 1992, that time in 1999 when Diana Ross felt up Lil’ Kim , and they will never let us forget the infamous Kanye West - Taylor Swift debacle of 2009. So, needless to say, the VMAs always get people talking, and not just about music. Usually, even if I don’t watch the VMAs, I can tell you about the crazy antics as well as the amazing performances, and who awards. This year, however, I can only tell you about the crazy antics.
I completely forgot that it was VMA night until I got on Facebook and saw everyone talking about Miley Cyrus, the “feud” between her and Nicki Minaj, and Kanye West’s Presidential campaign announcement. I still don’t really know who performed at the award show, nor who won which awards. I can guess that Taylor Swift won video of the year, since she and Kanye West were apparently on stage together at some point. Who the f*** cares? Obviously a lot of people do, because that’s all anyone seemed to talk about. At what point did we stop caring about the music? Probably around the same time MTV stopped playing music videos and filled their roster with crappy reality TV. Am I the only one who is tired of hearing about Miley getting in a fight with Nicki, who got in a fight with Taylor, who got in a fight with Katy? Can y’all just shut up, make pop music, and move on?
I’m not asking for everything to be artistic and deep and meaningful. I love catchy, senseless pop music as much as the next guy (that’s not entirely true, I’m quite picky about my pop music, but for argument’s sake…). I am just asking you, my fellow music fans, to stop buying into this celebrity gossip crap. I want my MTV back. Sure, throwing in the occasional celebrity feud or nip slip will get people talking, and that's fine, but can the main focus just be the music? I don’t believe that my generation has changed so much in just a few short years that we really can’t go back to what we were doing before. I think Vevo proved that people still want to watch music videos, and I don’t think I have ever heard anyone say that people don’t want to see a live performance. I want to be able to watch an award show and be entertained. I want to be able to check my Yahoo email (yes, I still have Yahoo) without seeing the top news headline read, “Justin Bieber cries on stage.” We have too many major problems in the world to be worrying about Justin Bieber getting a little emotional.
