And so I watch.
I watch these young artists clutch their "moon man" trophies, and I wonder if the moon man as a symbol can mean much to them, can stir the nostalgia it does for those of us who were coming of age in the 80s. (They do know it's from MTV's original launch sequence, right??)
Sadly, my family didn't have cable in the early years of MTV. Thankfully, I had friends who did. Summertime was the best, when there were endless hours available to sit in front of MTV... watching actual music videos! (I won't belabor this point. I think we get it.) But, yeah, that moon man was on the screen a lot, staking his claim between videos of Michael Jackson, The Cars, Pat Benatar, Van Halen, Prince, Madonna. I'm tempted to say something about how we didn't know how good we had it, but I think, on some level, we knew.
Not that our parents were always happy about what we were watching. Musical artists, as they always have, were breaking into new territory and pushing the limits, and as such, my generation developed a pretty high tolerance for the provocative and edgy.
Which brings me back to the VMAs, and a couple opinions about last night's show. Lady Gaga. Yeah, she's odd. And you don't always understand exactly what you're watching when she performs. But that's like a lot of art. You get the sense that, even if you don't "get it," she does.
And then there's Miley Cyrus. Oh Miley. We know you're trying to be all grown up and push boundaries like other great female artists have done. But you come across like the drunkest girl at a frat party. Those of us who grew up in the Madonna era aren't easily shocked, remember? We're not prudes, and we don't mind edgy. But the twerking and the foam finger didn't seem edgy. It just seemed sad. In order to pull off provocative, you have to convince the audience it's coming from a place where you know who you are. We're not convinced you know anything other than that you're not Hannah Montana. You don't need to put that on a neon billboard anymore. But, it's gotta be hard growing up in the spotlight and trying to figure out who you are. I'm sympathetic (probably not the reaction you were going for), but my relief when your performance ended was only matched by my relief that you didn't walk away with a moon man last night.
Oh, and the 'NSYNC reunion was a golden moment, but I can't believe they were just a blip in the JT show. More!!
Huge thanks to Taylor Swift for sparing us the "I can't believe I won" facade this time. I don't say nice things to you enough, TSwift. You looked lovely last night. And so TALL next to Bruno! This made me smile.
One more thing. This photo of Will Smith's family during Miley's performance will become legendary. It's just too good.
[edit: Sadly, we found out later that this Smith family photo was not taken during Miley's performance. oh well, it was fun while we believed it.]
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