The MTV VMA's: Disappointing On All Levels

I don’t know what I was really expecting to see at this year’s Video Music Awards, but whatever it was and whatever actually happened were certainly two entirely different animals. I guess all the hype about Britney’s comeback, the fact that it was the 25th anniversary of the show, and all of the past award show’s antics kind of had me hoping I would be blown away, but really, I wasn’t. First of all, whoever the hell this Russel Brand guy is that hosted the show this year, sucked. The London-based comic, I thought, was entirely unfunny, in fact was entirely a major tool, and completely rude and offensive in most of his half-witted remarks, especially in his attack against the Jonas brothers’ vow to save their virginity until after marriage. There’s a time and place to joke about sex and relationships, but in this day and age when another teen mom emerges every other day, I found it to be quite unnecessary and incredibly irritating: And, I think the audience and the Jonas troupe shared my discontent. American Idol winner Jordan Sparks even made it a point to address the vulgarity during her time on stage as a presenter, which I applaud, because it needed to be said.
Moving on, I thought that there would be some big to-do at the beginning of the show with Ms. Spears as the opening commentator. However, her entire “performance” was really kind of dull, in my opinion. They call this a comeback? Sure, she won a bunch of awards and handled herself with grace and poise, but I still just think that after all she’s been through in the public eye and after last year’s disastrous performance, that she needed to do a little more than just show up and look pretty to win my vote back. I was really disappointed.
Keeping in line with my massive amount of bones to pick regarding the 2008 VMAs, the whole red carpet pre-show was a pill also. The only person that really had their game on, was MTV veteran announcer, Sway. As he hovered above the Paramount Pictures property in a helicopter keeping the audience at home informed on the who’s who in the limo line, he made phone calls to some of the stars as they patiently waited to make their appearance on the red carpet. I didn’t see every interview, but I did catch him talking to Katie Perry and the Plain White T’s, coaxing both of them to pop out of the limo a bit and prove that they actually were on the phone with him. Other than that, I think Kim Stolz was a bit shaky and nervous, and just not up to snuff for the whole event, and I think Taylor Swift, cute as she is, seemed a little timid as well as she manned the designated fashion central area of the carpet, interviewing her musical peers and asking of course, “Who are you wearing?” And so while we’re on the subject of fashion, I really wasn’t impressed with anyone’s outfit at this year’s Video Music Awards, either. I mean, come on, this is a time to really let your personality shine and to do something outrageous, but I felt like a lot of people played it either too safe, or went a bit too overboard. Sure, there were a select few that I think got it right, i.e. The Hills star Lauren Conrad always looks classy, I think, Christina Aguilera debuted a new, edgy look, far different from the ‘20s glam vibe that she’s been sporting as of late, and Miley Cyrus looked sophisticated and well-put-together, which is more than I can say for who she arrived with, Katie Perry. The “I Kissed A Girl” songstress showed up in a thrift store ensemble that she boasted was put together on her own, something I would have much rather blamed on a stoned stylist. If she was attending a Halloween party, I would say that she looked adorable, but for the VMAs, though a risqué and liberal venue for fashion, Perry’s look just didn’t fly with me.
The entire show wasn’t completely horrible, however. I did think that it was kind of cool that some performers like Pink and the Jonas brothers staged their performances on the back lots of the Paramount Pictures grounds. Although, I don’t know how exciting that could have been for the attendees who were presumably stuck watching on a big screen inside the theatre. Either way, though, it was something different and for that I give the show credit. I thought Christina Aguilera and Rihanna gave good performances inside, but that’s really all I caught of the show because to be honest, I was so disinterested in what was going on that I shut off the TV and went to sleep around 11:00 p.m. I did, however, manage to catch the most annoying band of all time, Tokio Hotel, take home the award for Best New Artist. That pretty much did it for me.