Let’s face it, the MTV Video Music Awards aren’t exactly what you’d call a purveyor of high-quality, artful entertainment. Even compared to fellow mainstream music awards show the Grammys, the VMAs are shallow, gaudy, and (painfully) obviously focus-grouped to appeal to the widest array of people possible. What tends to make the VMAs stand out from other music awards shows, though, is sometime around 2009, they became much less about the music and way more about being as difficult to sit through as self-insert One Direction fanfiction. When you think of the VMAs, you think of the “I’mma let you finish” debacle of 2009, or Lady Gaga’s meat dress in 2010, or the awkward, try-hard twerk-tastrophe of 2013. And so does MTV, because it seemed like all throughout last night, the awards show did everything in its power to remind us of these moments, whether it was brought up verbally, or shown during one of the show’s many psychedelic and mind-bending bumper graphics.
The 2015 Video Music Awards had it all – Miley Cyrus being the first host in three years, Nicki Minaj winning Best Hip-Hop Video for Anaconda, and throwing unconvincingly staged shade at Cyrus during her speech. Snoop Dogg turning into a CGI pig during one of the many bizarre pre-filmed skits throughout the night. Surprisingly stellar performances from Macklemore & Ryan Lewis and justly rising pop star Tori Kelly. Kanye West winning the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award, and, at the very end of a long-winded, stilted, and free association-addled acceptance speech, making the headline-fueling announcement that he’ll be running for president in 2020. Last but not least, Miley capped off the night with a massive, colorful DMT trip of a live performance (which went over surprisingly well, although it did seem pretty obviously, uh, “borrowed” from tUnE-yArDs’ performance aesthetic). Whether or not you have any vested interest in anyone who reared their head Sunday night, it was a sight to behold, for better or for worse.
However, tuning in Sunday night, it was really hard to shake one question that was eating away at the back of my mind…
Where was the EDM?
All throughout the night, all facets of the modern mainstream radio landscape were represented, whether it was straightforward radio pop, R&B, old-fashioned throwback pop, pop rap, hell, even indie rock made an appearance with Walk the Moon performing two songs during the pre-show. But there was a clear lack of EDM, in both the performance side of things and the presented award nominations. The VMAs have never been privy about their distaste for producer-driven electronic music, but this year it just felt downright insulting to any electronic music fan who wanted to see their favorite genre acknowledged in the same breath as pop singers that are more popular than Jesus. They didn’t even have a house artist this year, which, with the exception of Jessie J in 2011, has annually been an electronic musician since 2010, with guys like deadmau5 and Calvin Harris spinning beats at various intervals throughout the night. The closest we got to an electronic music performance was the sloppy, awfully-mixed Twenty One Pilots performance with A$AP Rocky, which didn’t even play to their electronica side, instead opting for a straight-up hip-hop endeavor.
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