Cleaning up the mess when the bubble bursts
First off, I really appreciate MTV for airing Taylor Swift’s new music video during the first hour of the VMAs. I, like many Game of Thrones fans, had no intention of watching past 9pm, so it was a gesture of goodwill (or desperation for ratings) that they took care of the marquee event straight away.
It’s easy to blame last night’s banal VMAs on MTV and their production crew. I mean, no offensive twerking? Surely the network has lost its touch. But that would be too easy, and misses the entire point of the VMAs. What makes the MTV Video Music Awards important is not its celebration of music videos (and
Wednesday night, to the surprise of no one, Madonna popped out of the audience to perform with Miley Cyrus at her MTV Unplugged concert. It surprised no one, not because it was spoiled earlier in the week, but because Madonna has made it a habit of late to shoehorn herself into the pop culture conversation, no
