The VMAs: Best and Worst Moments (Mostly the Worst)

"The VMA's. One day a year when MTV pretends to still care about music," Maroon 5 singer Adam Levine posted on Twitter.

That was how many felt as they watched the VMAs on Sunday.  Needless to say, the cast of the Jersey Shore were in attendance as if they had some sort of relevance to music. But in the end I suppose the cast has the last laugh -- MTV airs their show all day instead of music videos.

After observing Katy Perry and Nicki Minaj's ridiculous outfits, it seemed as though they were not only competing for a Moonman, but also who could dress more like Lady Gaga. This seems to be the general theme in recent years at all award shows.

To everyone's surprise, Gaga decided to open the show dressed as male alter-ego, Jo Calderone, with a cockamamie five-minute monologue that most people didn't seem to even understand. She redeemed herself with an exceptional performance of "You and I" featuring Queen guitarist Brian May, but as many expected the shtick to end after her performance...It didn't.

Gaga presented Britney Spears with the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard award after an insipid tribute, in which MTV clearly made little effort. Gaga, still in character as Jo Calderone, awkwardly did not leave the microphone at first for Britney to make her speech. When it was finally Britney's turn to speak, her very brief acceptance speech quickly turned into reading the teleprompter to introduce Beyonce. It was at that point Beyonce performed, revealing her baby bump, and just like that everyone forgot about Britney Spears.

One of the few memorable performances was when Adele nailed "Someone Like You." That girl has some raw talent and is living proof there's room for women with actual talent in mainstream music.

Last time I checked, part of a singer's performance required singing. Chris Brown barely made any attempt whatsoever to even lip-sync! Are there really that many simpletons out there that believe that his excellent dancing negates the fact he isn't singing? This is not Dancing With the Stars.

REUTERS

Then there was an actual real, deserving tribute--Russell Brand made a very lovely speech about Amy Winehouse. "When a talent like Amy Winehouse comes along, it effects everybody," he said. "And as a consequence, we are drawn to her." Tony Bennett then showed footage from recording a duet with Amy, which was followed by Bruno Mars' performance of "Valerie."


As expected, the popularity vote kicked in once again at the VMAs as Katy Perry accepted the award for Video of the Year, beating out Lady Gaga, Adele and a few other artists that were clearly more deserving. "I feel like I'm doing something right when I sing this song," Katy said. Well, she's not singing right in tune, that's for sure.

The show ended with quite a pointless performance by Lil Wayne. He began with "How to Love" in an auto-tuned speaking voice--a pathetic attempt at singing. As much as I would have loved to hear Lil Wayne degrade women while simultaneously having his pants fall to the ground, the majority of his second song "John" was silence due to MTV editing out cursing.

As always, the VMAs prove to be currently one of the most insignificant music award shows with no credibility whatsoever.

Also see: VMA Preshow Revolves Around 'Jersey Shore'
Also see:  Tyler The Moron at the VMAs

Here's a full list of all VMA winners:

Video of the Year: Katy Perry - "Firework"
Best Female Video: Lady Gaga - "Born This Way"
Best Male Video: Justin Bieber - "U Smile"
Best Collaboration: Katy Perry featuring Kanye West - "E.T."
Best Hip-Hop Video: Nicki Minaj - "Super Bass"
Best New Artist: Tyler The Creator - "Yonkers"
Best Rock Video: Foo Fighters - "Walk"
Best Pop Video: Britney Spears - "Till the World Ends"
Best Video With A Message: Lady Gaga - "Born This Way"
Best Choreography: Beyoncé - "Run the World (Girls)"
Best Visual Effects: Katy Perry featuring Kanye West - "E.T."
Best Art Direction: Adele - "Rolling in the Deep"
Best Editing: Adele - "Rolling in the Deep"
Best Cinematography: Adele - "Rolling in the Deep"

Beyonce performing "Love On Top"

Adele performing "Someone Like You"

Russell Brand and Tony Bennett pay tribute to Amy Winehouse.

VMA Pre-show Revolves Around 'Jersey Shore'

MTV

The VMA pre-show's main focus this year seemed to desperately revolve around the Jersey Shore cast. Shocking.

Even after the cast's pointless interview and an unnecessary trailer for Season 4 of the Jersey Shore was aired, the camera constantly cut to shots of the cast posing on the black carpet during interviews with actual nominated artists.

Foo Fighters' singer Dave Grohl seemed confused as his interview was awkwardly cut short after one minute, since MTV needed to air some kind of prerecorded Jersey Shore skit. "Yeah! Jersey Shore Package!" Grohl exclaimed sarcastically.

VMA preshow interview with the Foo Fighters.

During the VMAs, Snooki, J-Woww, Deena and Sammi presented Best Female Video with 85-year-old actress Cloris Leachman. Lady Gaga won the award and accepted it as her alter-ego Jo Calderone, completely disregarding them. 

Jersey Shore cast and Cloris Leachman present Best Female Video.

It always seem as though it is The Land of Make Believe where everyone pretends for one day that MTV supports music. In addition, this year everyone also pretended Jersey Shore was actually relevant to music.

MTV felt it was so important for the cast to be in attendance that they were all flown by private jet. According to Vinny, "Being on a private jet is not that bad, except it didn't have Wi-Fi."

When the Jersey Shore cast is considered the most important guests at the VMAs, it's time to throw in the towel.

Also see: VMA Best and Worst Moments (Mostly Worst)
Also see: Tyler The Moron at the VMAs

I Want My MTV [From 30 Years Ago]!

Happy birthday, MTV...or what's left of it, at least. It's hard to believe it's been 30 years since MTV launched and aired its first music video, The Buggles' "Video Killed The Radio Star," completely changing the music world.

Before MTV, there was no such thing as a VJ, music videos or even really a channel just dedicated to music. The station has contributed to the success of many of the biggest acts in music, such as Madonna, Prince, Michael Jackson and Duran Duran.

Michael Jackson's "Thriller"

 Many shows have come and gone on the station, but the most disappointing change came around the early-mid 2000s when MTV dramatically decreased the amount of air time for music videos. For a while, TRL was one of the few music shows left, but the show was was put to rest in 2008. This seemed to be the beginning of the end of MTV as a music channel.

As of 2010, MTV officially no longer stands for "Music Television." And to me, it stands for "Meaningless Television." It's now a great source for making inane, irrelevant morons named "Snooki" famous, while simultaneously contributing to the downfall of society. But have no fear -- If you happen to watch TV at 5 a.m., you may be lucky enough to catch a music video airing.

Snooki - The current face of MTV.

The station still airs the annual VMAs, but I'm not sure if anyone really knows why. MTV is really meaningless to any music artist that has emerged in the past decade, considering the station has chosen to air reality television such as Jersey Shore marathons every day instead of actual music.



"I have no interest in stuff like Jersey Shore," Mark Goodman, one of MTV's original VJs, told RollingStone.com. "I have an 18-year-old daughter and I have watched other shows with her, but it's not for me. I'm 30 years past the demo."

It's depressing that MTV is a completely different channel now, but we can still celebrate what it once was. Maybe when Snooki dies of alcohol poisoning, we can have our MTV back.

The Buggles - "Video Killed the Radio Star"