The MTV Video Music Awards were on last night and the world looked on with annoyed indifference. When the VMAs first aired in 1984 they were a celebration of a new medium: the music video. Music videos were a new and exciting format, which made stars, like Michael Jackson, into superstars and permanently cemented one-hit-wonders into the national conscious. The VMAs were an immediate success, due in part to the shocking moments, but mainly because the subject of the awards, music videos, had a platform. People watching the show were emotionally invested in the nominees because they had actually seen all the videos, as MTV would constantly play them. These days, other than on YouTube, I don’t even know where I could watch a music video if I wanted to.
Here were the nominees for Video of the Year:
30 Seconds to Mars – “Kings and Queens”
B.o.B. (featuring Hayley Williams) – “Airplanes”
Eminem – “Not Afraid”
Florence + the Machine – “Dog Days Are Over”
Lady Gaga – “Bad Romance”
Lady Gaga (featuring Beyoncé) – “Telephone”
I have seen one of those videos and that’s because I watched it on YouTube. These days there is no set platform for music videos. When the VMAs first began, they were a celebration of a medium that MTV popularized; there had been music videos before MTV, but MTV legitimized them as an entertainment format. Now it seems, that as MTV has moved away from showing music videos, they have illegitimated the format, taking away its only viable platform. At this point it seems like MTV should stop the VMAs and begin airing an awards show for over-tanned ethnic stereotypes, teenage mothers and vapid reality stars.
There’s a good chance that this is simply a grumpy old man moment but it’s at least a justifiable one. MTV started out as Music Television and now it’s nothing more than a reality TV network with a long history. In that way, MTV is a lot like the new Cleveland Browns: a crappy organization with a storied history it doesn’t deserve.
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