The VMAs was last week, I missed them myself but I don't think I missed any all that important. The days when they were a big deal, when music videos alone were a big deal seem lost in time. Indeed, MTV itself has disappeared. And, as New York Times writer Jon Caramanica noted recently, nobody replaced it. They couldn't. The internet killed the video star. It stopped mattering in a 24 hour party people pop climate of reality and show biz commingling. There is no more video culture because pop stars lives are themselves music videos.
This year the big stars were Rihanna, Chris Brown, Drake and One Direction. Wow, that's pretty much nothing much. Maybe there are no big stars left, nobody big enough to move this show into relevance. Perhaps if they got Springsteen and Madonna to duet… ? No, wait, that would be the Grammys….
Wait a second, when did that happen? When did the Grammys become the VMAs and the VMAs become the Grammys. I went the Grammys when it played MSG a coupla decades ago and it was a drag compared to the VMAs. AT the VMAs all the action was in the lobby where rock stars and civilians got drunk together, at the Grammys all the action was backstage. Kinda depressing, right?
The VMAs are worse today. They are kinda like Coney Island on a wet Sunday afternoon in late October. Everything looks the way it used to but the paint is faded and the rides are slower and no one is around. Where is Michael Jackson kissing Lisa Marie when you need him? Where is Madonna rolling about the stage in a wedding dress. Where is Fartman? Nowadays the VMAs is overshadowed by Fashion Week, Hell, they are overshadowed by Honey Bo Boo.
The celebrity has never been more celebrated but, oddly, never held cheaper, the dumbing down of America goes from Jimmy Stewart to Tom Hanks to nothing at all. Who is the great American actor in 2012? Bradley Cooper?Please don't let it be Bradley Cooper… From Bob Dylan to Bruce Springsteen to…. Jay-Z? Can it be?MTV is dead, videos are dead, the VMAs are dead.