Monday, September 10, 2007

MUSIC: Artists boycotting MTV


Apparently, the juiciest dirt about the VMAs is that nobody liked it. As usual, MTV tried to provoke scandal by booking both Britney Spears and Sarah Silverman for comedic effect, and pairing Kanye West and 50 Cent to present an award. But its overall crappiness is really what stood out. I, personally, enjoyed it more than I have in the past. The impromptu collaborations were iTunes-worthy.

But then there are some people, like Kanye West, who hated the VMAs for another reason. According to his interview on Z100 at 5pm this afternoon, MTV lured him to the European VMAs last year by telling him he would win Video of the Year (which he didn't). Then this year, they lied and said no artist was allowed to perform on a certain stage and that he would again win an award after being nominated for five. But Justin Timberlake not only got to perform on that forbidden stage, he also won two awards and had the honor of closing the show. Even though Kanye shows much love for Justin, he's decided that he will no longer have any more associations with MTV, canceling his appearance on TRL tomorrow.

In earnest, he just wishes his song "Stronger" could get more play so that it inspires others--his ultimate mission as a musician. Justin would seem to be in accordance with this plea, since he demanded MTV show more videos and focus on music instead of reality TV during one of his acceptance speeches. Kanye feels they're just too obsessed with scandal, so much so that they would exploit and humiliate Britney Spears by letting her go on even though they knew she wasn't ready.

Do you think MTV is turning into a TV-tabloid?

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