If you’re anything like me, you didn’t watch the MTV Video Music Awards. At least, not in its entirety. From beginning to end. All 185 minutes, filled with celebrities, music videos and Kendrick Lamar (he netted 6 awards on 8 nominations).
What you probably did was check in on it periodically. Every half hour or so, you’d look over at the television screen, or change the channel to check on who won what, or if that performance you really wanted to see had started or not. Some of these performances include collaborations between some of the most popular artists today. That’s what brings me to my point: why, on this sweet blue sphere we call Earth, did Ed Sheeran perform with Lil Uzi Vert?
Over the past several years, award shows like the Grammy’s and the VMA’s have put together unlikely pairings of artists. Some have been good, like when Usher performed with Stevie Wonder, or Beyonce with husband Jay Z. Others like Chicago and Robin Thicke are questionable.
I suppose MTV thought that because there are so many artists and so little time, and that Ed Sheeran had performed acoustic versions of hip-hop songs before, this pairing wouldn’t be so bad. After all, that’s what award shows do. You can’t fit every song in, so you squeeze them together and make it work. But perhaps we shouldn’t be doing that all.
Don’t get me wrong, I think Ed Sheeran is one of the most talented performers of our generation, and I bump to a few Lil Uzi Vert songs. But hearing them together is like french fries and mayonnaise; what are you even doing?
The ratings for this year’s VMA’s are some of the lowest they’ve ever been, and part of me wonders if it is because of executive-ordered collaborations like these. Pretty soon, we might see Susan Boyle perform with Cardi B. Let’s all agree that should never happen.
I’ll tune in to these shows if it means I only have to hear Lorde, and not Lorde featuring Lil’ Pump, or whichever SoundCloud rapper will be famous next month.
My dad always told me less is more, and I think that applies to the VMA’s and award shows all together. It’s better to hear eight artists perform their music how it was meant to be, instead of hearing 16 artists perform eight headache-inducing dumpster fires.
