whatever makes you break

I’d have to honestly say that the 25th Anniversary MTV Video Music Awards were the best that they’ve put on in memory. In the last decade I’ve been disappointed, partially because the last decade is when MTV stopped being a channel about music videos. And the last decade’s VMA ratings have shown a similar downturn. I always thought is was “funny” that MTV was all up in arms about the VMA’s having ever lower ratings when they show fewer music videos every year. Hello! Show more videos and the VMAs will be reputable again! Reputable is questionable I know, but throw me a bone.

SO – A few months ago when I was told that this year (the 25th anniversary) was going to be held on the Paramount lot here in Hollywood, I was astounded. Why would they go from an arena like Staples to a soundstage??? Was it the end of an era? Yikes! I just couldn’t comprehend the choice.

I was wrong. Really, really wrong. MTV used a soundstage as the mainstage and that looked good. Soundstages are very controllable, that’s why they were invented. But they ventured out from there. The Jonas Brothers performed on an “NYC stoop” which pulled apart to a “street performance” on Paramount’s New York City backlot. That reveal was more creative than most performances that have been on the show previously! Pink used the same back lot, but started in an upstairs apartment, and continued downstairs and outside onto the city streets, up to a stage where she killed it! I won’t digress into a gushing review of the show because there is a point: This show was seriously creative. It managed to combine the best of what we love about music videos (admit it, everybody loves good music videos) with the best of awards shows. If you don’t believe me, check it out yourself, MTV has all the performances online and we all know it’ll be re-run over and over for the next three weeks and the weeks leading up to next year's awards. And we know we’ll watch them then, even though we know better.



© 2008 MD TOTAL all rights reserved.