The VMA’s: Who Should Win, and Who Should Have Been Nominated

The VMA's air August 28 on MTV.

It might seem strange that MTV still airs an annual award show crowning achievement in music videos. Yet somehow, the VMA’s have managed to stay relevant to pop culture. The last couple years have given the world some great award show moments (Kanye’s “I’mma let you finish” in 2009, Lady Gaga’s meat dress in 2010), but if this year’s nominees are any indication, Sunday’s ceremony is set to be less than great.

It’s not MTV’s fault that this year’s crop of music videos is less impressive than in years past. It is their fault that they snubbed the few clips that actually tried something new. As far as the major awards go, it looks like the most popular songs will take home the moonmen.

The frontrunner in the Video of the Year category is Adele’s Rolling in the Deep. The video is fine, but the real reason why Adele has the best shot of winning is that this is clearly the song of the year. Since no other nominees have made a splash with an utterly amazing video that everyone had to watch over and over (see: Single Ladies), the most popular song is probably going to take it.

However, there is one video in the category that was close to being a viral smash. That video is Beastie Boys’ Make Some Noise. This video gained popularity because it has roughly every famous person in it. Just take a look at the cast listEveryone is famous, even the people that aren’t recognizable on sight. That guy in the cafe? Francis Ford Coppola’s son. The Beastie Boys themselves never appear in the video, but I think Elijah Wood, Seth Rogen, and Danny McBride are fine replacements.

Odd Future frontman Tyler, the Creator is this year’s surprise nominee with his minimalistic clip for Yonkers. Tyler sits in the front of a white backdrop, focus slipping in and out, as he partakes in some disgusting actions. In just two and a half minutes, Tyler eats a cockroach, vomits, and breaks into a nosebleed. It’s just the sort of really gross thing– like what happened at Newbury Comics— that make Tyler’s fans love him.

Then there are the other two nominees. Bruno Mars’ Grenade video is just average. He sings in front of a rainy window and drags a piano across the city to serenade the girl he loves. Mr. Mars finds the girl with someone new, so he drags his piano onto the train tracks. As he croons, as train approaches and we cut to black! Both the song and the video are average as far as pop music go, so this one is not a contender.

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And of course we have Katy Perry’s Firework. The first time I watched this video, I had to turn it off because I was laughing so hard. The song is about self esteem, so we see young people in unfortunate situations (kids watch their parents fight, a cancer patient sits in a hospital), and then the magic happens. Around the 45 second mark, Katy’s breasts start to emit fireworks. She shoots explosives out all over the city, and it inspires those kids to do such admirable things as give in to peer pressure, make out with random people on the dance floor, and wander around a hospital ward. At the end, all the youths get together in the city center and have explosives pour out all around. Somehow, the message was lost.

Get More: 2011 VMA, Music, Katy Perry

Though the pool of quality music videos was a bit shallower this year, some key clips were overlooked. Kanye West’s mammoth 34 minute long Runaway was the music video event this past year. Yeezy directed the movie himself, and though the acting wasn’t perfect, the visuals were amazing (high speed gigantic explosions) and the story was surprisingly witty. However, Runaway came out a long time ago. That may be why voters passed it over. Kanye’s All of the Lights video was nominated for a few statues, but it looks like a well made fan video– until Rihanna appears with her shirt on (or not).

However, the best video of the last twelve months wasn’t technically a video at all. The Wilderness Downtown, a multimedia experience set to Arcade Fire’s We Used to Wait was made to showcase the Google Chrome browser. The user types in their childhood address, and using Google Maps, watches a video about a hooded runner meandering through the old streets. Maybe it wasn’t nominated because it doesn’t fit the conventional definition of a “music video,” but The Wilderness Downtown is the future of music videos. For an award show that judges music videos– videos that once represented the breaking edge of technology– the VMA’s should be more aware of the dangers of becoming obsolete.

The Video Music Awards air Sunday, August 28, at 9:00 p.m. on MTV.

About Joel Kahn

Joel is currently a film major at BU. He hails from South Florida, and started at The Quad writing about food. He is now the publisher of The Quad.

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