Ego Ramble: Are The MTV VMAs Relevant?

The most nominated artists…for the least irrelevant awards ceremony ever?

This past week, MTV announced the nominations for 2013 MTV Video Music Awards.

And no one really cared. Or at least, I didn’t.

The truth of the matter is, I’m pretty sure I’ve only seen three or four of this year’s nominated videos. That includes Justin Timberlake’s “Mirrors” and Drake’s “Started From The Bottom”, neither which I terribly enjoyed. The rest of them completely slipped through the cracks for me. And then there’s that hot disastrous mess that is Miley Cyrus’s “We Can’t Stop”, but that’s for another post.

This is a particularly surprising admission, considering how much I live for pop music, and pop music videos.

However, since the demise of music videos on TV and the ultimately confusing and irritating advent of VEVO, I haven’t really had the desire to watch music videos, unless they are from people I know will make them truly excellent (i.e. Lady Gaga). MTV has all but said they no longer care about music videos, preferring to air reality shows that exploit and devalue my generation (again, another post for later).

I also feel like the quality of music videos has dropped off significantly. Best case, they are decent and somewhat interesting before you forget about them. Worst case, they are either outrageously awful (once again, Miley) or plain boring. Or oddly misogynistic (see Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” and multi-nominated JT’s “Tunnel Vision”).

So with all of this in mind, I have to wonder whether there is a point to the VMAs anymore, kind of like there isn’t much of a point to the Daytime Emmys. Both awards ceremonies seem superfluous, honoring media that are either dying or falling into one hell of a rut.

All this said, I will be watching because I am 85% sure Gaga will be attending and performing her new single from ARTPOP. But that’s only 10 minutes of a three show? What else am I going to do for that time? Nap? Play Candy Crush?

Do we need the VMAs anymore? Vote in the poll and leave a comment!

– B

Related articles

• Miley Cyrus Ratchets Up 3 2013 MTV VMA Nominations For ‘We Can’t Stop’! (GIFS) (buzzworthy.mtv.com)
• Justin Timberlake nabs 6 MTV VMA noms (music-mix.ew.com)
• Do We Still Need the VMAs? (persephonemagazine.com)
• The Nominations For The 2013 MTV Video Music Awards Have Been Announced (pinkisthenewblog.com)