Editor-in-Chief
With the recent passing of the first
ever YouTube Music Awards, many, including myself, are wondering how necessary
music awards shows really are. Music awards shows have always seemed to be less
about the music than they have about the stars that attend, and it is rare that
the artists being awarded have actually done something innovative for music. How
can you compare two pieces of art and declare one is better as if it is a fact?
Business Matters reported that over 75,000 albums were released in 2010, how
can just one of them be “Album of the Year”?
Since its conception, the MTV Video Music Awards have always been more popular
for celebrity stage antics than the awards given. Most of the buzz from this
year’s VMAs was in response to Miley Cyrus’s outrageous performance with pop
singer Robin Thicke and, in 2009, media outlets were more concerned with Kanye
West’s interruption of Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech than the award itself. If
the show relies strictly on celebrity behavior, then what is the goal of the
ceremony to begin with?
Are
music awards shows really about the music or are they about the stars? Electronic
music producer Flying Lotus said, “It seems like the YouTube Music Awards are
pretty much the same as the VMAs. I don't really see the point. If it's
all about hits sure I get it, but let's be fair. YouTube award nominations
clearly don't care about cutting edge/innovation. They had an opportunity
to shine a light on all the artists that they helped to gain notoriety just to
[expletive] on them for uber famous acts." He’s right, whether it be the
VMAs, the Grammys, or the American Music Awards, the same artists are winning
the same prizes every year. At the 2010 VMAs, Lady Gaga won 8 awards in one
night and, in total, she has won 13 awards. Madonna has won 20 awards at the
VMAs over a span of about 15 years. Giving mega celebrities shiny trophies as a
representation of their musical achievement accomplishes nothing and blatantly
disregards hardworking artists who are not as well known as them. The YouTube
Music Awards could have served as a platform for the company to expose many
unknown artists to the public, but instead they chose to essentially recreate
the MTV VMAs.
An article published by Mashable.com explains how, “YouTube chose
its nominees based on musicians' YouTube stats, including video views, likes,
comments and channel subscriptions.” This method of determining winners is
unfair and leaves little room for musical diversity. How different can artists
selected really be if they’re determined based on popularity. Most people are
pop music fans (hence the name “pop music”), and most modern pop music isn’t
all that diverse. Nominees for Artist of the Year included Justin Bieber, PSY, Eminem, Katy Perry, Macklemore
& Ryan Lewis, Nicki Minaj, One Direction, Rihanna, Taylor
Swift,
and Epic Rap Battles of History, of this group only two artists actually got
their start on YouTube. Epic Rap Battles of History isn’t
even a serious artist, every song released by him is a parody, playing on
stereotypes of past and present historical figures. I don’t see how it’s even
remotely fair to include him among the “Artists of the Year” when it’s
blatantly obvious that he had no shot at winning the award. It’s almost insulting
to every other artist nominated to be competing against him.
Even awards shows focusing on more
independent acts have their fair share of flaws. Montreal post rockers Godspeed
You! Black Emperor had a real bone to pick with the Polaris Prize they were
awarded earlier last month, saying in an open letter directed at the awards
show, “Yes, we are grateful, and yes we are humble and we are shy to complain
when we’ve been acknowledged thusly [but] we’ve been plowing our field on the
margins of weird culture for almost 20 years now, and, ‘This scene is pretty
cool but what it really [expletive]
needs is an awards show,’ is not a thought that’s ever crossed our
minds.” The band was most upset by how the awards show, in their opinion, was a
waste of money, claiming, “Organizing
a gala just so musicians can compete against each other for a novelty-sized
check doesn’t serve the cause of righteous music at all,” while adding, “[And] asking the Toyota motor company to
help cover the tab for that gala, during a summer where the melting northern
ice caps are live-streaming on the internet, is [expletive] insane, and comes
across as tone-deaf to the current horrifying malaise.”
It all boils down to the
advertising. Music awards shows are specifically designed to give companies an
opportunity to advertise to a wider audience. By picking the most commercially
successful artists to attend the awards show, companies are pretty much
guaranteed to reach a larger group of people.
Music awards shows are disingenuous and take away
from the creative process. Music shouldn’t be written to win awards and it
shouldn’t be a competition between artists to win the most money or receive the
best award.
Art is subjective; it’s impossible to determine which piece of art deserves
more recognition than another.
