I enjoyed the show.
The MTV Video Music Awards used to be one of my favorite entertainment events of the year. If you mention any of the premier moments or performances from a mid-90s to mid-2000s show, I'll be able to recall it in full detail. Plus, I'll probably remember exactly where I was when I watched it for the first time. Lately, though, as MTV has gotten away from playing music videos and has, instead, focused their efforts on promoting their stable of reality TV shows, the VMAs have suffered considerably.**
**(note: MTV assumed that the ratings for the VMAs were in decline because of the quality of the show. In reality (pun intended), the ratings went down because nobody who likes music videos watches MTV anymore. Rather than being bombarded with lame reality shows and promos for lame reality shows, people like myself have chosen to stay away from MTV and go to YouTube to watch videos. The core fan base for MTV these days is teenage to twenty-something females who like "The Hills", "Laguna Beach", and the rest. Those particular fans aren't concerned with the entertainment value of Jay-Z's video for "D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)", they're concerned with Heidi and Spencer's breakup or whatever it is that happens on those shows. Thus, the old school video-watching fans don't watch MTV anymore, and the people who do watch MTV don't care about the music videos the network plays. That's a bad combination for a music video award show. Just saying.)
In order to attract viewers back to the show, MTV got desperate. They went hostless in 2007 and moved the show to a casino/hotel in Las Vegas. Last year, they went to a Hollywood studio and put on a broadcast that seemed like a cheap imitation of a stage show being played out in front of a disinterested audience. Seriously, if I had to look at a low point for the VMAs, last year's show is definitely it. Britney Spears won a bunch of awards for a video nobody saw, there were no remarkable performances (regardless of what Kanye West would tell you about his show-closing rendition of "Love Lockdown"), and the atmosphere was pathetic.
Somebody must've figured something out, because they got things right this year. Gone were the weird locales, and the show was moved back "home" to Radio City Music Hall in New York City. MTV is synonymous with NYC, so they need to have the show at Radio City Music Hall or Metropolitan Opera House every single year. No exceptions. Last year's show lacked star power, so MTV made sure that Beyonce, Jay-Z, Kanye West, Eminem, Taylor Swift, Pink, Lady Gaga, and a host of other musicians that had big years were in attendance. I can't tell you how much this affects the perception of a show's legitimacy. It just does. Finally, MTV nailed several key performances. We got a few more moments in the goody bag of VMA episodes; something that had been sorely lacking in recent years.
This tribue to Michael Jackson was phenomenal. If you don't like it, I don't want to talk to you anymore.
I'm not a Taylor Swift fan by any stretch of the imagination, but her performance on the subway was a very cool idea.
Everybody knows I'm a huge Jay-Z fan, but bringing him out with fellow New Yorker Alicia Keys to close the show with "Empire State of Mind" was simply terrific.
Those are the types of moments and performances that restore the luster to the VMAs and make it a must-see event. Hopefully, MTV has learned from their mistakes and will make shows like this time and time again in the future. If so, I'll gladly spend a late summer evening watching the show.
Which, sadly, is something I couldn't have said for the past few years.
~~ Lank
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