Well, it’s that time of year again. The Mtv Video Music Awards has a history of explosive, shocking moments. Scene stealers like Madonna’s half naked roll around the stage performance of “Like A Virgin”, Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley’s terrifying lip lock, and the Madonna/Britney/Christina smooch are the norm at this award show. But, mention the Video Music Awards to someone who isn’t all too familiar with these commonplace occurrences, and the first response you’ll probably get is, “Isn’t that the one where that Kanye West ruined the night for that sweet little girl Taylor Swift?”
Ah, yes. Kanye West and Taylor Swift. Who’s going to forget that? Taylor had just won for Best Female Video and was just saying how it was a dream comes true, when all of a sudden; Kanye West is standing next to her. Before anyone could react, the mic was in his hand and he ranted, “Yo, Tay, I’m really happy for you, and I’m a let you finish but Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time. One of the best videos of all time!”
At that moment, you could hear the collective gasp rush across the theater and reverberate through every home in America. What followed was a PR’s worst nightmare. West was almost immediately reprimanded by every person who had a camera or microphone on them. Even the President was quoted as calling Kanye a “jackass”. As the media rushed to coddle Taylor Swift, to softly pet her head and whisper that everything would be okay, Kanye withdrew from the spotlight and went into a yearlong, self-imposed exile.
So, a year later the VMAs are back, and with both Swift and West scheduled to appear, what were we to expect? Meh.
It was a very tame evening compared to past shows. Host Chelsea Handler seemed to struggle with jokes that were a little tired and lacked some of the sting that the previous year’s host Russell Brand had been able to deliver. The live performances left much to be desired as well. Not for lack of entertainment, as most of the performances were staged with spectacle in mind. It just seems, these days, lip syncing is the norm and, even more depressing, accepted. A few exceptions did help to keep my interest. Eminem’s medley of “Not Afraid” and “Love the Way You Lie” proved the MC was back to reclaim his position among hip hop’s elite. The Bruno Mars, B.O.B., Paramore collage of performances showed genres could blend and produce some entertaining results.
Unfortunately, offerings by Justin Beiber and Usher proved that the choreography was more important than the actual singing. Gym Class Heroes’ Travie McCoy singing his hit “Billionaire” was cut short to pimp Chevrolet as N.E.R.D. and Ciara performed a song surrounded by the vehicles. Linkin Park’s latest offering sounded tired and uninteresting, like the guys have run out of ideas since Meteora. The winners of the awards weren’t a surprise either. Lady Gaga cleaned house with a record breaking 13 nominations and 8 wins. During the acceptance of the Video of the Year award, she announced the title to her upcoming album, Born This Way, and went on to sing a few bars from the title track.
Now, let’s address the elephant in the room. Taylor Swift tiptoed around no one. Her performance started with a television broadcasting the infamous moment of last year’s show in black and white. The audience was dead silent. The television ended the clip with the image of Swift standing on stage looking stunned after Kanye finished his rant. Then her song began with her strumming a guitar, soon joined by a band. “Innocent” is clearly written about West. She sang the lyrics “Who you are is not what you did… 32 and still growing up now… Every one of us has messed up too. I hope you remember today is never too late to be brand new…” looking directly into the camera. She knew she had been wronged and she could have easily come out with a song blasting the shocking moment of the previous year, but the performance was one for the high road. She’s clearly moving on and forgiving the rapper.
So, how would Kanye close the show? He wasn’t about to let himself get off so easily. In one of his first public appearances since last year’s debacle, he performed the song “Runaway”, blasting his own behavior, rapping “I always find something wrong, you been putting up with my shit for just too long…. Let’s have a toast for the douchebags, let’s have a toast for the assholes… Baby, I got a plan, run away from me as fast as you can.” The beats and music samples were classic Kanye, as was the performance. As the final words were sung through Auto Tune, the audience erupted, chanting his name as he walked off stage.
Ah, the VMAs. The only place where you can single handedly burn your career to the ground one year , and the next, rise from its smoldering ashes to stage a comeback. Now, what to look forward to next year?
