Justin Timberlake, Beyonce, Fall Out Boy win at MTV awards

faithLB 

Sep 10, 2007

BRING BACK THE MTV VIDEO MUSIC AWARDS!

Has MTV taken the Video out of the MTV Video Music Awards? Have they tried to do with Video Music Awards what they have done with the MTV Movie Awards? With eccentric first time categories such as Monster Single of the Year, have they taken what makes the MTV Movie Awards unique and have added that to this year’s VMA’s? While this works well for the MTV Movie Awards, it doesn’t quite work for the MTV Video Music Awards.

Missing categories this year, such as Best Rock Video, Best Hip-Hop Video and so on, celebrated the best videos per category for the year. It shone a spotlight on the groundbreaking videos for the past year, highlighted artists who were pushing the visual envelope. All that’s really left to celebrate the art of video are the only Video Awards still existing i.e. Video of the Year, Best Director and Best Editing. With fewer categories also come fewer videos being highlighted. Newer categories don’t celebrate the video but perchance the hype.

From the time nominations were released to the Awards themselves I was left wanting. MTV has already taken the music video out of MTV, now they take the Video out of the MTV Video Music Awards. Clearly the plot has been lost. The videos are no longer the forefront; the hype of what is so-hot-right-now has taken center stage. This plot was slowly being lost over the years but this year it seemed to be thrown out the window. Justin Timberlake is right, bring videos back to MTV.

Last year’s VMA’s was one for the books. All the awards were voted for by the fans, which took the old VMA formula and provided more input from the viewers. As a result it was a no holds barred affair ensuing an opportunity for the underdog to rule. It was a fresh twist on the awards and it worked. This year however left a lot unsatisfied.

While previous years’ awards had more categories, another element missed this year were the many performances. This year we saw mostly snippets of party performances in different areas of the Palms Hotel in Las Vegas, where the show was hosted. While the performers were impressive, the visual allure was missing. Missed were the performances in their entirety, with the over the top stage designs, the lights and the action. A handful of the performances were aired in full and the rest were like scenes from a wild party.

Surprise performances helped MTV’s cause a little bit, but didn’t quite fill the void. Surprise performances and collaborations were perhaps all that really made the show worth watching this year. Ne-Yo performing with Gym Class Heroes and Fall Out Boy, Cee-Lo and Foo Fighters were amongst those collaborations. Britney Spears’s big come back performance had perhaps the most hype but also wasn’t quite enough either to make the show very memorable. But this was surely the first step in her comeback and she will have a lot more to offer later sooner than we imagine. And the closer was definitely the showstopper this year as it had the visual elements the rest of the performances lacked, plus they were among the hottest songs of the year being performed collectively.

Perhaps MTV has their reasons. Perhaps it’s a budget thing. Perhaps it’s an attempt to be innovative. Whatever it is it just didn’t seem to work. Perhaps we were just meant to enjoy the music and party like we too were in Vegas. Perhaps we will have to wait until after the votes are in for the best performances and the edited viewers’ choice edition is aired. Perhaps then some needs will be fulfilled. Perhaps those are too many perhapses, but we can only assume can’t we?

Don’t get me wrong, I am not entirely dissatisfied with this year’s show. There were some great performances. And Justin Timberlake and Fall Out Boy were among the winners which wasn’t bad at all considering the fact that they had some great videos this year. This was for Best Male and Best Group though, not for Male Video or Group Video, which leads me back to the argument with which I began… This is the Video Music Awards we are talking about. But I will assume they won for their videos. I can also celebrate with the fact that Gym Class Heroes won the Best New Artist Award (as I voted for them). This was the only award voted for the viewers, and, well, I guess the viewers know best. They are the ones watching after all.

Maybe change isn’t that bad and I should embrace it, but why take the video out of the Video Music Awards? Because it has really just become the MTV Music Awards it seems. And where’s the fun in that? Or is that where the funny new category names come in? I just wish they’d focus on the videos. I was looking forward to seeing videos such as 30 Seconds To Mars “From Yesterday” and The Used “The Bird and the Worm” being nominated as well, but alas. Videos weren’t being celebrated this year it seems. I look forward to the show each year and I hope that will never change. I can only hope this was an experiment or a Vegas thing… Let’s hope they leave what happened in Vegas, really stays in Vegas.