Okay, we all know that Kanye West was wrong for picking that particular moment for his outburst, but doesn’t he have a point? At most I think his timing was off. The problem I have with the VMA is how the categories are set up, and the obvious (at least to me) paradox it leads to. The awards in question are for the following; Best Female Video and Video of the year. My question is simply this… How can Beyoncé have the best Video of the Year, and not have the best female video of the year. Last time I checked, she was a female. So were left with the question… What do the other awards actually mean? Are they just a sop to the other artists so they won’t feel bad for losing to the best video of the year?
Beyoncé didn’t even win for the best pop video, which went to Britney Spears… This isn’t quite as bad, as I suppose Spears’ video could be considered more “Poppy” than Beyoncé’s but still not be as good. Honestly though, this sort of award division is more appropriate to pure music awards, an audio medium with several distinct genres, rather than video awards, a video being the sum of all the several components that make it up. (Even then the best rock song should not lose to another rock song for best song of the year.)
I’m not going to get into the component awards, like editing or choreography. It is completely viable to lose those awards and still have the best video of the year, if you concede that the whole video is greater than the sum of its parts. That occurs in the Oscars all the time, but unless I’m mistaken, the best foreign language film has never lost the best picture award to another foreign language film (Slumdog Millionaire was an English language film =P.)
So, in the end either Swift’s video is better than Beyoncé’s or it isn’t. If you look at the award for best female video it is, but if you look at best video of the year, it’s not. BTW, Swift’s video was not even nominated for best video of the year. Throw in the fact that Spear’s best pop video, which won over Beyoncé’s was in fact nominated for best video of the year, and things get even more convoluted.
Again, the question becomes, what’s the point of these several, apparently contradictory, awards? I keep getting told that the “PEOPLE” choose the winners. Who chooses the nominees? Because it seems obvious from the voting that either the people who voted are stupid, or the people who choose the nominees are.
Beyoncé didn’t even win for the best pop video, which went to Britney Spears… This isn’t quite as bad, as I suppose Spears’ video could be considered more “Poppy” than Beyoncé’s but still not be as good. Honestly though, this sort of award division is more appropriate to pure music awards, an audio medium with several distinct genres, rather than video awards, a video being the sum of all the several components that make it up. (Even then the best rock song should not lose to another rock song for best song of the year.)
I’m not going to get into the component awards, like editing or choreography. It is completely viable to lose those awards and still have the best video of the year, if you concede that the whole video is greater than the sum of its parts. That occurs in the Oscars all the time, but unless I’m mistaken, the best foreign language film has never lost the best picture award to another foreign language film (Slumdog Millionaire was an English language film =P.)
So, in the end either Swift’s video is better than Beyoncé’s or it isn’t. If you look at the award for best female video it is, but if you look at best video of the year, it’s not. BTW, Swift’s video was not even nominated for best video of the year. Throw in the fact that Spear’s best pop video, which won over Beyoncé’s was in fact nominated for best video of the year, and things get even more convoluted.
Again, the question becomes, what’s the point of these several, apparently contradictory, awards? I keep getting told that the “PEOPLE” choose the winners. Who chooses the nominees? Because it seems obvious from the voting that either the people who voted are stupid, or the people who choose the nominees are.
