This weekend I tuned into the Much Music Video Awards, and I have to say energy-wise, the show was actually better that it has been in the last few years. It was basically a like having a condensed outdoor music festival with some awards sprinkled in. Everything was going so well until Miley Cyrus botched the throw to Drake’s performance. Up until that moment, Miley had gone up a point or two in my books, but the attitude she had in that throw on the roof put her back down.
A few observations I had while watching the show:
1. Music is definitely in a “pop” phase in the music cycle. There’s pattern in the music world where every decade cycles from a pop influence and migrates to rock and maybe something completely different and back again. Judging by the performances having ZERO modern rock acts or anything heavy, we’re basically in this decade’s version of the boy band/girl band era of the late 90’s. There’s also a very “edgier Jonas Brothers” type vibe with the Hedleys and Down with Webster type bands. They’re too Top 40 to be Modern Rock, but they play guitars. The problem is they’re all so formulaic. Their images are blatantly fake. There was no rock representation at all. Not even a token Nickelback clone.
2. CTV must have went all out with the budget. The production values and the staging actually looked really good. The fact that the network promo’d the show on basically every station the company owns is likely evidence of how much the put into the show.
3. How obvious was it that Bieber kid dominated the award wins? I still don’t really understand his appeal. He’s a 16 year-old short kid that is just now having is voice crack. And now he’s talking all in that “from the hood” way which is beyond ridiculous when you realize where he’s actually from.
4. I was surprising to hear very little lip syncing and auto-tune from any of the performances. Hearing that the likes of Miley Cyrus, Ke$ha, and Katy Perry can somewhat perform live on key was interesting
Speaking of Katy Perry… how bizarre is her new video? ‘California Gurls’ is definitely a pop song that is a hit mainly because it has a simple chorus that’s repeated so much it gets stuck in your head even if you hate it, but after watching the video you really have to wonder what the hell was Snoop Dogg thinking when he agreed to collaborate with Katy? Seriously, when one of the rhymes you include in the rap interlude of a top 40 pop song is “no weenies” you really should think long and hard about what you’re doing to your old street cred. Then when you’re shooting a music video where you’re dressed in some in some candyland get up, it doesn’t help matters. Another part of the video that bothered me was showing Katy Perry lying basically nude. As much as I’m all for that kind of eye-candy on my screen, it made no sense in the context of the music video. Most of the video is of people full clothed in some candy type world, then bam, there’s Katy Perry lying naked for no f**king reason other than to make guys look at her.
Some of you might be asking, why am I yammering about Top 40? While my main preference leans more towards rock, I still flip to top 40 stations and I like to keep up with what a wide variety of people are listening to. I’d never pay to see many pop artists, but if there’s a free ticket, I’d consider going.
