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Monday, August 25, 2014

MTV Music Video Awards: Best and Worst

Other than you prestigeous Grammy Awards (or Juno Awards In Canada), The MTV Music Video Awards are considered quite an accomplishment in the grand scheme of fans, record labels, and artists.  Many fans look forward to watching their favourite artist (or entertainer) up on stage kicking back in a less stuffy formalities.  I like to think of the MTV Awards as the party cousin of the Grammys.  There's more room for potential conflict, you are still hearing the top 40 tunes you would normally hear, and it seems to just be a more laid back vibe overall to it.

So you are probably wondering why I said potential conflict.  Well, it's not necessarily conflict that arises but more of the highlights of the awards.  The Grammy Awards (I feel) tend to be focused on the nominees and their album highlights.  The MTV Awards seem to be more focused on performances and 'making a splash' if you will.  So when I say conflict, I am referring to the spectacles and outbursts that they are normally sought out for.

So Rolling Stone published an article on August 20th, 2014 with the title "31 Most Outrageous MTV VMAs Moments of All Time" followed by "What's the Best MTV VMAs Performance?" released on August 22nd, 2014.  While looking through both articles, it definitely gave me some throwback moments to when I normally tuned into the program every year.  I remember being 13 years old at the time and looking forward to the advertised performance of Kid Rock.  His collaboration with Run DMC and eventual surprise of Aerosmith was definitely one of the highlights I can remember in my time:



Only 15 years ago, not too bad right?  At least at this point in my life I wasn't being bombarded with horrible black and white suits mixed with skin coloured twerking.  Speaking of antics at the MTV Awards, I feel that Rage Against The Machine takes the icing on the cake for me:



Not because of the level of stupidity or the danger level it posed, but the aftermath that the antic spurred.  According to a few quotes from Tom Morello and Zach De La Rocha, this stunt gave a bad perception of RATM and ultimately lead to the band's break up in 2000.  To me, that was a big issue for a band I grew up listening to since their debut record in 1992.  But prior to that, they had a killer performance of their single "Testify".



So I turn it over to you and ask what your favourite performance/biggest spectacle you've seen on the MTV Video Music Awards?

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