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.

New Music Videos This Week

Ahh, James Blunt. I always think it's wonderful when an artist can make an irritating song sound pleasantly musical.

James Blunt covering Katy Perry's "California Gurls."


Florence + the Machine recently revealed some new songs from their new album due in November. Spin describes the song "What the Water Gave Me" as "gospel-tinged pop," but I don't know how anyone could ever categorize any song from this band as pop in any way, shape or form--I guess it depends on your definition of "pop." For me, this band's music is way more complicated than any pop song. Listen for yourself.

Florence + the Machine - "What the Water Gave Me"

OK Go released another creative music video for their cover of "The Muppet Show" theme song. It has reached almost half a million views in two days. 

OK Go and The Muppets - "The Muppet Show" theme song

Cheater, Cheater, Pumpkin Eater

Katy Perry

It's official -- Katy Perry has made serious history on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. She is now the first artist to tie Michael Jackson's record of having five No. 1 songs from one album. This has been anticipated for the past week when a remix of "Last Friday Night" was released featuring Missy Elliot.

Michael Jackson's five No. 1 singles from Bad were: "I Just Can't Stop Loving You," "Bad," "The Way You Make Me Feel," "Man In The Mirror" and "Dirty Diana." Katy's No. 1s include songs from Teenage Dream: "California Gurls," "Teenage Dream," "Firework," "E.T." remix featuring Kanye West and currently the "Last Friday Night" remix featuring Missy Eliot.

How amazing, right? This record has been untouched since 1988 until now. Wrong. Try again, Katy.

Back to reality, now. Two out of the five Katy Perry songs that have "reached No. 1" are remixes and are not even on the album. The original songs "E.T." and "Last Friday Night" on Teenage Dream did not reach No. 1. Instead, both songs were released as remixes and Billboard has even added the sales from the original and remixed versions of "Last Friday Night" together to calculate these figures and therefore... cheated.

It appears that this supposed record is nonsensical, just like her songs. Katy Perry will most likely never be on Michael Jackson's level in any way, shape or form. She may hold a record "officially," but theoretically she cheated. And Billboard is her accomplice.

Rebecca Black Banter

YouTube sensation Rebecca Black recently performed a shortened version of her song "Friday" on an episode of NBC's America's Got Talent.

Oh, the irony...having Rebecca Black perform on a talent show. Was the purpose of this to show contestants that there's truly hope for anyone to become famous? 

Warning: The singing is not auto-tuned in this performance.

Rebecca also made a surprise appearance onstage at Katy Perry's sold out Los Angeles show on August 5. The two have been quite chummy ever since she appeared in Katy's "Last Friday Night" video.

Katy began singing an acoustic cover of "Friday," later joined by Rebecca. Thanks for that, Katy. As if it wasn't enough torture listening to one horrible singer on that song.

Katy then strangely introduced the singer as "The infamous Rebecca Black." Infamously bad at singing? Infamously appearing in your crappy video? Do explain what you mean by "infamous," Katy!

 In other Rebecca Black news: She told ABC in a recent interview that she dropped out of school due to constant bullying by her classmates and will continue her education by home schooling.

"When I walk by they'll start singing 'Friday' in a really nasally voice," she said. "Or, you know, they'll be like, 'Oh hey, Rebecca, guess what day it is?'"

Ouch. They really ask her what day it is? Kids can be so cruel!

Girl Power: Female Artists Breaking Records

Adele

Some of the biggest female artists in music are reportedly breaking records for the first time in years.

Adele's 21 is currently No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart for the 12th week in row. Santana was the last artist to reach this point in late 1999 and early 2000. The album 21 has sold 2.9 million albums to date.

Nicki Minaj's "Super Bass" is now the highest-charting Billboard Hot 100 rap song by a female without the aide of another artist. Missy Elliot's "Work It" was the last song to do so in 2002 when it spent 10 weeks at No. 2. Considering every other rap song these days features another artist, I suppose the chances were much higher for Minaj to achieve this.

Speaking of Missy Elliot, Katy Perry's "Last Friday Night" remix featuring Elliot could potentially tie Perry with Michael Jackson for the most Billboard No. 1 singles from one album. Read more about this here.

Katy Perry's "Last Friday Night" Remix Feat. Missy Elliot

Music sites all over are talking about Katy Perry's "Last Friday Night" remix featuring Missy Elliot that leaked today.

Is it because of how great it sounds? No, of course not. The reason is because this single could potentially tie Katy Perry and Michael Jackson for the most Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 singles from one album. Yes, that's right--Katy Perry and Michael Freakin' Jackson could be tied for a musical record.

Are people in America really that stupid? Whoever actually falls for this marketing gimmick needs to have their ears and brain checked. This is the same exact song with a horrible rap intro by Missy Elliot. And isn't this actually considered cheating? Perhaps Lady Gaga should just record seven different variations of "The Edge of Glory" and beat out both Katy and Michael.

I don't care if Tupac rose from his grave to collaborate with Katy Perry on this song. Crap + Crap = Crap.

Pointless Female Pop Acts Dominating Music

Looks like the quality of music today is worse off than I thought.

Rihanna recently told Glamour that Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Beyonce, Kesha and herself are the women that are currently dominating music.

"Women are definitely dominating music right now, and that's because we are competitive beings," Rihanna tells Glamour. "I feel like music hasn't been this exciting in a while."

It's extremely insulting for Rihanna to put herself, Katy Perry and Kesha in the same category of two of the hardest working women in music, Lady Gaga and Beyonce. The three of them are just smoke and mirrors--the more clothing they take off to distract people, the less people will realize they can't sing.

It also sounds to me that Rihanna's implicating some kind of "girl power" statement, which offends me. All three women are solely image-based, and with the help of computers they are able to just get by to be considered "singers." They are all interchangeable and their music is meaningless and insignificant--not to mention they don't even write most of it themselves. I can understand their catchy pop tunes get stuck in our heads, but let's face it, this is the music we should all be downloading illegally.

Remember the days when Madonna, Janet Jackson and Mariah Carrey were dominating music? Oh, the days before auto-tune. Something strange to think about...singers were actually required to sing.

I wonder if Rihanna also thinks she and her female counterparts will actually be around or spoken of in about five years. I think she has a shot as long as Celebrity Rehab and/or Celebrity Fit Club is still airing.

For your entertainment, some of the worst documented singing moments of Rihanna, Katy Perry and Kesha:

Rihanna peforming live on the 2010 AMAs.

Katy Perry performing "California Girls" live on SNL.

Kesha performing live on SNL.

2011 MTV VMA Nominees Announced

Katy Perry

The nominees for the 2011 MTV VMAs were announced last night. Katy Perry, Adele, Kanye West and Bruno Mars received the highest amount of nominations -- a whopping nine for Katy Perry. Eminem, Beyonce, Lady Gaga and Nicki Minaj are all tied with 3 nominations.

MTV, which formerly stands for Music Television, still continues its tradition of giving out awards for the best music videos when the station devotes an hour or so at most in the middle of the night to actually playing these videos. It's a shame Snooki didn't come out with a music video this year.

Vote for your favorite video in each category here.