The MTV Video Music Awards 2013

This was the first time that I had actually sat down and tuned in to an award show in a few years. When I stopped watching it, the industry wasn’t in such a dire position as far as lacking musicality goes. I got more busy with life and my own career and simply fell off the viewer band wagon. Other things grabbed my attention more and I had grown tired of witnessing the outlandish theatrics over the years. It just got old. I literally heard about this year’s MTV Video Music Awards airing this week and I though, “What the hell, why don’t I see what I have been missing”?  This year’s show was held at the new Brooklyn Barclay Center vs. the usual Radio City Music Hall.

Miley Cyrus

Lady Gaga opened the show looking possessed….. I’m OVER IT. I couldn’t keep up with the song, she changed clothes and hair in front of the audience numerous times. By the time she was done, all I could think is: Who is that? Her performance started off with her fully clothed in some sort of weird white contraption and she ended it in her bra and panties…. I guess that’s entertainment, huh.

The talk of the night was Miley Cyrus. She performed early in the show. I still don’t know what to make of the fukkery that I witnessed. There is nothing wrong with a female child-star coming into her own and exploring her femininity and sexuality in her adult life. Isn’t that what everyone is supposed to do in their 20’s? However, she is doing just a little to much. Her whole act was beyond trailer trash. During her performance last night, she showed us just how much rhythm she doesn’t have. She literally almost raped Robin Thicke in front of everyone, and practically gyrated nude on stage. She opened up with her song: “We Can’t stop”. At first she had on a playful looking body suite. Then she had dancers and a swarm of teddy bears taking over the stage. She was out of breathe the whole time and tone def. She would have been better off lip singing. If Beyonce can do it, so can Miley. Somehow, 2 Chainz and Kendrick Lamar both perform near the end of this horrific “performance”. I just didn’t get it and judging from the audience facial expressions while she performed, they didn’t get it neither. I am embarrassed for her. The world understands that you are no longer the sweet little girl that played Hannah Montanna. We are honestly just trying to figure out who you are now. What in theee hell was that?

Watching Miley’s performance made me feel like we are on the verge of watching another Lindsay Lohan/Amanda Bines meltdown before the storm. It’s like she just left Disney and completely slutted out to the 10th power, ugh.

Audience reaction to performance.

Kanye West performed for every bit of 120 minutes. Really, it was more like a jam session with the music and autone. The man literally didn’t say anything. I felt a weird clash of relief and pisstivity when he exited the stage. Ye needs to stick to producing music, that’s it. It wasn’t until I posted a status about his performance on Facebook that I gained a different way of looking at it. Kanye was a student of music way before he was a rapper. I think we can all agree with that. However, he didn’t do nothing major by just looping the same lyrics over and over again on a dark stage and hiding his vocals behind autotune. I was very disappointed.

Justin Timberlake

The Highlight of the night was Justin Timberlake’s performance.  He was actually being honored with the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award. He killed it for all of 15 minutes. Since he was being honored, he performed a medley of all of his hit songs throughout the years. He literally turned the awards into a concert. He also brought his brothers from NSYNC on stage with him for a 30 second reunion. I like the idea of it but it turned out the be kind of wack. Come on, 30 seconds was all you could give JT? His performance was high energy and his voice sound great. Unlike a lot of artists, his voice and breathing was able to keep up with the energy of his performance. One thing that Justin did do that I found to be honorable was that he did pay homage to his former groupmates by saying:

“Half of the moonmen that I’ve won, I won with these guys.”

Newcomer Macklemore was another artist who won a few moonmen at the awards. He also got to perform as well. His performance was good, it was just visually boring. Bringing Jennifer Hudson out at the very end was a nice touch. Bruno Mars gave a very intense and passionate performance. He didn’t run all over the stage but he WORKED the stage.There wasn’t a dull moment and his voice was in perfect pitch the whole entire time. If you weren’t a Bruno Mars fan before the VMA’s, his performance of “Gorilla” very well indeed made you one.

The closing of an award show is always major. This year, Katy Perry was given the task of rocking out end of the show. I am not a fan of Katy Perry, lets make that known now but I can’t hate on her closing performance. It was very eventful and having the Brooklyn Bridge as her backdrop was pretty dope. She actually used her stage props and incorporated them in her act. I found this very refreshing unlike some artist (Mariah Carey) who will literally have the crew  build a “baby Germany”  on stage just for her to perform in the center stiff as a board only moving her lips and neck. One drawback is that she lip sung the hell out of her performance. Oh well, it is Katy Perry…

Watching this show made me feel confused and disgusted at the same time. There were only like two good performances that were really worth watching. This year’s VMA’s  made me realize that we as consumers need to evaluate what art is and what does it mean to be an artist in 2013. This year’s VMA’s sukked monkey bawls ROYALLY. I can say that with ease and confidence.Oh yea, and Jimmy Fallon was an okay host…