As much as I bash on MTV for not really doing their part in showing music videos as much as they want to show the Hills or some other teen drama bullshit, they still somehow manage to justify their continued existence by pretending to show a majority of music videos by handing out yearly awards in their yearly award show, the MTV Music Video Awards. This is a magical process where by supposedly people who watch MTV get to vote for nominees and someone wins. But since MTV barely shows videos, I don’t know how people even know what they’re voting for. Anyways, I’m going to show videos that won, and why I think it was bullshit or deserved.
Best Video with a Message – Lady Gaga ‘Born this way’
Is this even a legitimate category to hand out an award to? Anyways, that aside, the video is a bit meh. The intro had some interesting concepts and it has a good production value, but I quickly found myself trying to place what sci-fi movie or era that this was ripped straight from. And worse yet, the main meat of the video hardly relates to intro. I guess there’s a message, but when you have a history like mine, it’s a bit lost.
Other nominees:
- Eminem (featuring Rihanna) — “Love the Way You Lie”
- Katy Perry — “Firework”
- Pink — “Fuckin’ Perfect”
- Rise Against — “Make It Stop (September’s Children)”
- Taylor Swift — “Mean”
Best Cinematography in a Video – Adele ‘Rolling in the Deep’
This video also won for Best Art Direction and Best Editing. It’s another mixed bag. Imagery and song don’t exactly mesh to make something together and flow. Instead it was opted for how much pretentious performance art can we stuff into 5 minutes. So yeah, 5 artists just got immortalized in an Adele music video for life, the only good art being shown was the room full of water glasses and the only good moment being when the drum bass started and they all vibrated. That was very cool. Looking beyond that, there’s really nothing else worth mentioning.
Other nominees:
- 30 Seconds to Mars — “Hurricane” (Directors of Photography: Benoît Debie, Jared Leto, Rob Witt and Daniel Carberry)
- Beyoncé — “Run the World (Girls)” (Director of Photography: Jeffrey Kimball)
- Eminem (featuring Rihanna) — “Love the Way You Lie” (Director of Photography: Christopher Probst)
- Katy Perry — “Teenage Dream” (Director of Photography: Paul Laufer)
Best Hip-Hop Video – Nicki Minaj ‘Super Bass’
Awesome…. I officially have some blood on my hands with this one. I’m going to stick with my previous comments.
Instead of showing it again, I’m going to pick one of the losers who should have won instead.
As much as I kind of hate Kanye West, but if you’re video can cause seizures and epilepsy in people, poorly steal a word video concept from Justice (DVNO), and have a good beat to your video, then you’re more Hip-Hop than Nicki Minaj. And in all honesty the opening section with the little girl walking the winter streets is the best part, although all the modern cars and the long length did detract from this. Also Hype Williams needs to tone his shit down in videos.
Other nominees:
- Chris Brown (featuring Lil Wayne and Busta Rhymes) — “Look at Me Now”
- Lupe Fiasco — “The Show Goes On”
- Lil Wayne (featuring Cory Gunz) — “6 Foot 7 Foot”
- Kanye West (featuring Rihanna and Kid Cudi) — “All of the Lights”
Best New Artist – Tyler the Creator ‘Yonkers’
Have to give it props to Tyler, he’s found someone to match his creative lyrics and musical style for his music videos. For the first few seconds it seems like it’s some sort of filler spot for like BET or something, but it rolls with it and he pulls some odd shit which just happens to work. A bit dark, but over all this is going back to that late 90s style rap. Hopefully it doesn’t get too out of hand and he manages to push it rather than carry on with it.
Other nominees:
- Big Sean (featuring Chris Brown) — “My Last”
- Foster the People — “Pumped Up Kicks”
- Kreayshawn — “Gucci Gucci”
- Wiz Khalifa — “Black and Yellow”
Best Video of the Year – Katy Perry ‘Fireworks’
And with this, the art of making music videos dies just a little bit more.
Other nominees:
- Adele — “Rolling in the Deep”
- Beastie Boys — “Make Some Noise”
- Bruno Mars — “Grenade”
- Tyler, the Creator — “Yonkers”