My Thoughts on the 2008 VMAs

Sunday night’s MTV video award show was the absolute lamest, tasteless and boring installment in what was once an event worth watching. On what was the 25^th anniversary, the current MTV staff that put this year’s show on should have been fired by now. They just spat on the face of MTV’s legacy of a once great network that actually showed videos it gives awards for.

Now I am not sure if I am going to say anything new that hasn’t been said already, as the blogoshere is running rampant with VMA related content. If the VMAs did one thing for me, was gave me a reason to rant about MTV again. I was bored and uncomfortable all at once. Where do I start?

• Travis Barker drumming live to different hit songs of different genres with performers like Lupe Fiasco and LL Cool J. The sad part is that these side performances were better than the actual featured performances. It was a cool concept and I am sure the live audience dug it as they needed some entertainment.

• Kid Rock. He exudes what rock and the VMAs used to be about when the VMAs were worth watching. He put on a good high energy show as always, but the crowd was already so bored from everything before him that they weren’t in the mood to really feel him. Still, Kid Rock was good. Not spectacular or memorable, but good.

• Having Lil’ Wayne perform. Read that again. I am not talking about Weezy’s performance, but having him on as a performer is what MTV got right

Now this list couldn’t be long enough, but I will chime in on things that bugged me the most. What They Got Wrong:

• Katy Perry is not a good performer. She is a Christian rock girl gone Pussy Cat Doll in the name of “making it”. She has an alright voice and is “marketable” cute, but I smell one hit wonder. DJ AM could have been replaced by anyone, but I guess dating Nicole Ritchie was justification enough for him to perform along side Barker. I found out later they are friends and have a mixtape together. That explains that.

• Too many bad or boring performances. There were a couple of gems, but overall I was more bored than the audience seemed to be. While Rhiana’s performance of “Disturbia” had the elements of a good performance (costumes, dancers, make up, choreography, etc) it was painful to watch. She didn’t sound that good and off key at times. I happen to think she is overrated and worked on heavily in the studio, but she was worse Sunday night. The talented people who made “Thriller” should be pissed off at that terrible knock off. It was obvious that is what they were going for.

• There was also Lil’ Wayne’s performance. Great song. Great M.C. Mediocore performance. I could have done without seeing his chones. He held his crotch the whole time and needed a shirt. T-Pain does nothing for me either. I just can’t get excited about an over exposed performer (using that term loosely) who using voice effects all the time. That might as well be anyone else doing his part. Not impressed.

• The Pussycat Dolls were great performers, but I just don’t like their music. They look good, they are good dancers but it seemed that they don’t sound good live. Mediocore again. I don’t expect much more from a studio, corporate music label manufactured, project. I am sure it worked in Vegas, but something gets lost in this version.

• Britney Spears won three awards. Three? Are you kidding me? I smell conspiracy. I sense a voter scandal. Let’s face it people, MTV needs Britney Spears to be relevant again. During her height in the early part of the decade, MTV and specifically TRL, were at its height. Magazines and even bloggers need something Spears related to talk about. She has been somewhat low key lately and pages in tabloid staffs are having to work harder for content. She does look better physically and said all the things in her acceptance speech her PR coach told her to say. Still, I am sure there were better videos that were more deserving.

• Russell Brand, the host of this year’s VMAs, was unbearably awful. He was the worst part of the evening. He did absolutely nothing for the show. He tanked. He bombed. He was not funny or entertaining. Bloggers and social media users are all over this topic and seem to share my same sentiment. Spare me your political feelings, regardless of your party. Plus, it is not polite to bash a country’s president, no matter how much they may deserve it, as an accented national of another country. Brand did so in the name of humor, but he missed it completely. The tacky and personal attack on the promise rings or abstinence jewelry was uncalled for. No one was attacking Brand. Plus, he attacked teenagers….kids. He is an adult and they did nothing deserving of being made fun of that way. So the Jonas Brothers don’t want to have sex. Big deal. Who cares? Now I am no fan of theirs by any means, but leave them alone. They are just kids. Jordan Sparks let her feelings be known on Brand’s abstinence attack in an interview. She didn’t much care for it to say the least. I bet her publicist is excited about that clip as I am sure she sold more albums to middle America conservatives….if they were watching at all by that point. I am sure they turned off the television or changed the channel during Brand’s “Vote For Obama” plea. O'Riley must have had a field day with that one

I could go on for days about how much I hated this year’s VMAs. I mean, what was up with the location? A studio warehouse for a setting? No major Latino acts? No hard rock or punk despite its popularity with the MTV2 audience? The VMAs are dead to me. I will watch again next year because I am sure I will want to blog about that. I just stopped being excited about it. I may be too old for this show now, but I know I am still cool. Check out the list of winners online. Just to show I am not a bad sport, check out the performance I did like, even though I have seen better from this group. It is none other than Paramore, performing “Misery Business”. I dig the hot yellow pants.