24 year old in search of year long award show
The 2019 Video Music Awards came and went last night, with many ‘moon men’ being handed out, crazy outfits, and an array of videos trying to outdo the next. As all this unfolded, one question kept coming to me; “Why is there this amazing night where artists of all genres gather together to display amazing visuals to accompany their songs, but aired on a network that hardly plays music?”.
My friend and I watched the VMA’s the right way. We imprinted our butts on the couch, grabbed plenty of snacks, and judged everyone on the red carpet, while live tweeting the whole show because no one asked us.
Excuse me Sebastian Maniscalo I’m not gonna let you finish because Taylor Swift opened up the VMAs, and that’s the tea. Taylor Swift is back and in her element. Hot off the press with her new album, she brings the pastel heat to the VMAs stage.
Although Lizzo lost ‘Best New Artist’ to Billie Eilish she made sure no one forgot her performance. She’s 100% that bitch who will bring the entire house down and build up everyone’s self esteem with her message of self love and empowerment. It makes me so happy that kids growing up have Lizzo to listen to, continually give talks about loving yourself in the middle of her performances. That is a message that no one should tire of hearing, and isn’t said enough from artists.
I’m not sure who owed who a favor, but the host for the night clearly wanted to be there and no one else shared the sentiment. Sebastian Maniscalo hosted this year’s VMAs or rather the audience smiled and nodded silently as Maniscalo attempted every dad joke in the book. There is such a huge overlap between the music and comedian community that typically a comedian as a host is a safe bet every day of the week. But Maniscalo’s monologue served as the quietest 5 minutes of the entire show. Zero jokes landed. I got the sense Maniscalo hadn’t turned on the radio, maybe ever, and was just pushed onto stage moments before the broadcast began.
Aside from the outlier of a host, this year’s VMAs were everything I want out of them. The red carpet showcased outfits I enjoyed judging that my body would never adorn. My friend and I reminisced on who was in the VMAs when we were in highschool.
Though at the end, I was left feeling empty inside. A video music whole was in my heart. I knew that I would not be able to experience this again for another year. That is unacceptable. The award show aired on MTV. A network literally called ‘music television’. Yet the VMAs are the one night of the year where MTV lives up to its name. I realize we live in an age of streaming and youtube. But it baffles me that a channel such as MTV has the potential to do so much insane things with music and doesn’t.
If you want to watch Jersey Shore, Teen Mom, or Ex on the Beach, MTV is the channel for you. If you are looking for a one stop shop for music videos, don’t flip to this channel for another year.
Artists today don’t even have MTV as a stop for releasing a major video. The videos usually just got straight to Youtube.
I constantly think of the chorus from Bowling for Soup’s hit ‘1985’ (which ironically came out in 2004). “Since Bruce Springsteen, Madonna/Way before Nirvana/There was U2 and Blondie/And music still on M-T-V”. I want music to still be on MTV. I was born in 1995. My biggest frustration is that I missed out on the MTV era of the 1980s.
MTV if you’re reading this, I love watching the VMAs and I want to watch music on your channel all the time. Until then, my clicker will surf over your channel for another 364 days, just in time for the 2020 VMAs.