29th Aug 2003
Yeah, but Tatu does it better
Ok, so my wife and I were watching the MTV Video Music Awards last night, and found ourselves rolling our eyes a lot. Some of this can be attributed to age and profound wisdom, but it’s more accurate to say that we are just being goofy.
In the 80’s, I watched MTV because it was fun, fresh, new, and crazysexycool. In the 00’s, I watch the awards out of a sense of nostalgia, and to see if I can spot any highlights whatsoever in the current crop of so-called “talent”. Coldplay is one of the notable buoys rising over the vast sea of musical vapidity.
About the Britney/Madonna kiss: nice to see that Britney has the guts to do something that would have been daring 15 years ago. Maybe some suburban mommies will freak out and get together a good ‘ol church parking lot Britney CD-burning party. They’ll make the 3 block trek from their McMansions in their Ford Excursions, bottles of charcoal lighter fluid at the ready. Now that the 10 commandments have been scooted in Cracker Courthouse Central, they have a new cause that’s been gift-wrapped for them. An open-mouth shiny bow flashing on their living room screens.
The effective kiss of the year was Tatu on the MTV Movie awards, surrounded by schoolgirls doing the same. Engineered, no doubt, by their psychologist/promoter with a knack for pressing buttons. If Madonna was out to copy that, she simply wasn’t paying attention. Nice to see that she’s in such great shape, though.
The saving grace of the VMAs was seeing Coldplay give a performance which actually had some depth and emotion. Nostalgia alert: l’d take Janet Jackson over Beyonce, Nirvana or Pearl Jam (with or without Neal Young) over Metallica, and Rage Against The Machine over some of the no-talent rappers that are stinking up the stage these days. Would have settled for the Foo Fighters or Queens of The Stone Age (just to see Dave Grohl do something) I miss Kurt Cobain - would have been interesting to see how he would have grown into his 30’s. Would he have sold out and guested with the chihuahua on Taco Bell ads?
Geez, I would have even settled for Courtney Love, circa 1997, planting her fishnet leg on a monitor, screaming her heart out (like I saw her do in her SF Fillmore days).
At least Mary J. Blige has that thing I call “presence”.
It may be that I am not paying enough attention, but it’s time for the musical pendulum to start swinging away from all of the commercial posturing crap and fake emotion. Bring back the Monkees :-)
p.s. updated: “nostalgia for what used to be” to simply “nostalgia”.
p.p.s. (March 29, 2004) Somehow I wiped out the original post - kudos to Google for having a cached version!
