MTV Video Music Awards: Might as well call it the Oscars.

 As I write this to you, the VMA's are flashing across the television screen.  If you're confused and thinking "Jillian, What are you talking about?  I thought the VMA's were on this past Sunday?"  then you are correct.  MTV has been airing repeats of this award show for the past week.  This brings me to my exact point of this post.  The media sure is important in our lives and especially in the entertainment industry, but when do we say "enough is enough."?  Its as though we are smothered with media and publicity within the music industry.  By doing this, the mystery and authenticity of the music itself is altered.  I mean I knew that there was going to be something with Kanye and Taylor simply because it was expected. 
    We all know what happened at last years VMA's with Taylor Swift and Kanye West.  If you are part of the rare five people who didn't catch what happened then here ya go.  So yeah we know that Taylor was dissed by Kanye and that was the talk of the town for months.  Then Twitter gets involved and we hear that Kanye is apologizing to Taylor and all the problems he caused. But seriously, the fact that this incident was ALL the media could talk about is nothing short of predictable in the music industry these days.  We didn't hear anything about any good music did we?  From what I can remember we sure didn't.  Let's face it, this years VMAs weren't much different.  All I could hear about was Lady's Gaga's meat outfit and then Justin Biebers cute dance moves.  I get it, when something big happends on television, then of course the media is going to grab it and let us hear about it day after day-but did you ever really think what that tells us about the actual MUSIC in our day?  Not much...

    So this past Sunday we had the VMA's and of course there was all that hype on the Taylor Swift and Kanye contreversy.  There were rumours floating around that Swift and Kayne were to perform a song together, but the two decided to sing thier own songs which shadowed the incident that occurred a year earlier.  Swift did a song called "Innocent" and the performance started with a shot of a television showing the dreaded interuption incident that happened a year ago.  Then we see Swift apparently watching that same televison with an expression of sadness.  Ok,  Taylor I get it-you were hurt by Kanye's outburst but you are recognizing what went down and forgive him and his child-like faults. But come on Taylor, wouldn't it be better if you just got up on that stage and put Kanye in his place by a great performance?  If anything, this performance highlighted the fact that her live vocals aren't very strong.  It is one thing to have a unique voice, but in this performance she sounded weak and lacked stage presense to say the least.

  Then Kanye sang a song that gave a "toast to the douchebags and a**holes"-classy.  Does this make him look strong?  Mmmm, not so much.  Lets take a listen to the way he is actually "singing" the song.  Its shaky and it sounds like a little boy trying to sing in his third grade talent show for god's sake!  Both Swift and West simply look like victims in the situation rather than classic artists.  They are simply actors pretending to be singers. If they were true artists, then they would learn from true artists of the past generation.  Swift is a wonderful girl who writes her own songs, but she could take a lesson from the singer/songwriter Stevie Nicks.  Nicks is and was known for her unique voice.  There were plenty people who had negetive opinions on her voice but it was undeniable that she had an amazing stage presence.  Check out this clip of Nicks' 1976 performance of "Rhiannon" with Fleetwood Mac (check it out especially at mark 4:15 onward).  It leaves me speechless everytime.  Swift has been compared to Stevie Nicks for her songwriting abilities. -(afterall, it is a shock that musicians write thier own songs these days.)  As far as live stage performance, there is no comparison between Nicks and Swift. Take notes Swift....

    All I can say is that technology, whether it be tv, text, twitter, facebook etc is slowly destroying our music industry.  Sure Kayne West is outspoken and rude, but so was the great Warren Zevon. Now the late Zevon  was known for being outspoken, and he didn't give a care whether he offended anyone or not.  You wouldn't catch him apologizing to the little old lady who got killed by that werewolf would you?  Sure Zevon didn't have access to Twitter, but you wouldn't see him trying to apologize for his previous actions if he had the chance.

  Good and classic rock music is supposed to be unrehearsed, natural and unpredictable.  If anything, the VMA's of this year were predictable.  It shows that these entertainers are just that...entertainers.  They love the attention and they love the media.  I mean sure we should have felt bad for Taylor Swift when Kanye West interuppted her acceptence speech at the 2009 VMAs.  It was a sad scene yes, but lets get real.  If anything, Kanye did Swift a favor by his outburst, for it gave Swift even more spotlight than she had before.  So I'll leave you with this final question.  What is it that we love about the music industry?  Do we love the good music or do we love the act?  You decide...