Hey Saaret, you were right about Kanye West acting a fool at the MTV Video Music Awards. I honestly don't know what the hell Kanye was thinking when he let his creepy attraction to Beyoncé get the best of him. As I wrote earlier today, Katy Perry was on point when she said that watching him grab the mic and "school" Taylor Swift on her suckitude was like watching a bully stomp on kittens.
I mean, he is right. "You Belong With Me" is not even up to the standards of epic Disney's bubble-gum sing-a-longs like Kenny Ortega's High School Musical franchise. It's not bad, but it certainly is not prize material.
Where Kanye was totally wrong was on declaring that goddamn "Single Ladies/Put A Ring On It" video by Beyoncé, "the best video of all time". Really Kanye, really? Anything that lends itself for countless parodies, especially by one of the Jonas Brothers, is NOT the best video of the decade.
Sure the tune is catchy. Sure the camel-toe enhancing choreography turned Beyonce's middle into a mesmerizing sort of pendulum. Sure it looks like a Mac ad had gone ghetto fabulous. But the song and the video still both sucked.
Talk to me about Lady Gaga. Then we have reasons to rant.
It is only in the alternate universe of MTV and the Video Movie Awards that you can find the musical prodigy Lady GaGa nominated alongside that guy from Degrassi, Drake, for "Best New Artist of the Year". I mean, really? MTV puts the heir of David Bowie and Grace Jones alongside with the guy whose video was riduculed for featuring the bouncing breasts of an "all-girls" basketball team.
Meanwhile, Paparazzi, the video that should have given Lady Gaga nine consecutive wins (notwithstanding the fact Pokerface was the "safe" bet nominated the most), is a mini-movie referencing Bob Fosse, Cindy Sherman, "Sunset Boulevard", "Psycho", "Citizen Kane", Helmut Lang and even Batman's Harley Quinn via Alice in Wonderland. The high and low culture references on that video are brilliant.
Oh. Did I point out it has Alexander Skarsgård, that sexy mofo from True Blood.
So sticking Drake in the same category as Lady Gaga renders the whole VMA exercise into a marketing travesty and disqualifies the show from having any legitimate pop or cultural relevancy.
Which is to say: Kanye, sober up and shut up. It's only a show.
—LIZA SABATER
Blogdiva extraordinaire. Founder and publisher of culturekitchen.com and DailyGotham.com