A rant pop cultural

I am too old for MTV. There I said it. I did not watch their annual Video Music Awards. Truth be told the only music awards I still enjoy are the British Music Awards. I have a thing for accents, yes, and I prefer my pop, Brit. I have since my university years, so there.

But where was I? Yes, the VMA's. Turns odd that country starlet Taylor Swift won the award for Best Female Video(shouldn't that award go to the filmmaker..??), moments into her acceptance speech Kanye West (remember him?) burst on stage, grabbed the microphone from the young pop star and then said something to the effect that he congratulates Swift for the award, but that Beyonce's video should have won, because it was one of the best videos of all time. He then passed the mic back to the clearly dumbfounded Swift and disappeared back stage. Confused at first, the VMA crowd soon began to boo, then gave Swift a standing ovation. Kanye was not seen for the rest of the night, go figure.

I experienced all this go down not on TV, but pretty much in real time on Twitter. First there were posts saying 'wtf did Kanye just do?' or 'poor Taylor Swift', then quickly the posts turned to 'Kanye is an asshole', 'Kanye is a diva', Pink who was live Twitting from the awards called Kanye 'the biggest piece of shit on earth'. I reTweeted that one myself, I dunno, I think I get chuckles out of the idea of two celebrity egomaniacs in a cat fight. My money is on Pink, she looks like she can take care of herself. WHAM...POW!

It took me a few minutes, yes, I followed the herd, I myself called Kanye a diva. After thinking it over, however, it became obvious to me that this whole thing was staged. This was a publicity stunt. I am not sure what Kanye has on the go, I am not sure if he is promoting a new album right now, or has a new one dropping soon, but it was obvious that he needs folks talking about him. Good or bad, any publicity is good publicity.

Hearken back to the MTV Movie Awards. Oy, MTV again, you wonder why I have outgrown it? Remember when Bruno (Sacha Baron Cohen) descended from the heavens in an angel costume and landed on Eminem's face, teabagging the hotheaded rapper? Eminem stormed off, in disgust, Twitter lit up with how Eminem was a big baby, a diva, unable to take a joke, etc, etc. But wait, it gets better, it turns out that the whole thing was staged... common sense stated that it had to be. The producers of an award show know exactly where everyone is sitting, oh and um movie stars don't just dangle on strings, then land where gravity dictates, this was a carefully crafted stunt. Eminem it turns out was promoting a new record, Sacha Baron Cohen, a movie, ahem, of course, go figure. The whole thing was one of the greatest publicity stunts of all time. Tipped hats all around.

Kanye will apologize in his blog (which has already happened), he will be interviewed by the entertainment press, and even the mainstream press, he will be in all the magazines, hell he might even be vilified for a bit, but in the end, he wins. He his achieved his goal, or his publicist goal, which was to get folks talking. As to whether or not it helps sell records. That I don not know. I never thought he was all that great, but hey, I am old, I am not into the same stuff as the cool kids.

Here is my point, be mad at Kanye, call him a prick, a diva or even an ass, if it makes you fell better, but remember, all he is doing is playing the game. Hate the game not the player.