Latest by mediajunk: @CapnCalamity: What's even weirder? MTV2 used to play music videos too! Now, it's a refuge for Beavis, Butthead, Jackass, Rob, Big, Ryan, Fitty, etc. Strictly He-Man-Woman-Haters-Club, apparently...
In this crowd, you'd think the great Sifl & Olly could get a little more »
Sure, many people with access to the Internet might agree that this year's Video Music Awards were among the worst ever. But it looks like whoever is sitting in a cubicle arbitrarily making up television ratings (or, possibly, the scientific data collection method that actually determines these things) disagrees. This year, ratings were up, up, up!
More »
Last night at the Video Music Awards, American Idol winner Jordin Sparks veered from the script to defend herself against the incessant mocking of the Jonas Brothers' vows of chastity by host Russell Brand. "I just have one thing to say about promise rings. It's not bad to wear a promise ring, because not everybody—guy or girl—wants to be a slut," she said as an amused John Legend looked on. Sparks is a promise ring wearer herself; she chatted up her no-sex stance in the weeks after winning Idol, and she toiled in the Christian-pop scene before singing in front of Randy, Paula, Simon, and America. But is her dissent, and the somewhat positive reaction it's been getting in the VMA afterglow, a harbinger of a less sexed-up world of pop music? And was it only a matter of time?
More »
Latest by elvissinatra: @revmatty: And don't forget about all the copies that will sell when one of these bastions of purity ends up actually impregnating someone/getting pregnant. Countdown until the inevitable JoBro shotgun wedding... more »
Surely I'm not the only person who thought that the O-Zone-inspired "Live Your Life" was T.I.'s attempt to put one over on the Internet and leak a fake single that pushed the right memetic buttons, and that the recently house-incarcerated rapper would premiere his real new single at the VMAs last night. Alas, not only did that not happen, T.I. and his duet partner Rihanna didn't even channel Gary Brolsma in their choreography. And lo, the Diggboys, they did cry into the milk of their Cheerios. [MTV]
Latest by Chris Molanphy: Say what you want, I like "Live Your Life" a damn sight better than T.I.'s "official" current single, which is lame. Rihanna's little voice was made to sing that hook. more »
I was sad that Courtney Love didn't show up to the Video Music Awards' red carpet as promised, because I would have loved to hear her take on some of the "luminaries" in attendance (cough cough, Joe Francis, cough cough). But at least her just-blogged excuse note for the evening makes (relative) sense: "theyre not the "VMAS" and they never will be again - i had ZERO desire to watch let alone go and thats one of my very favourite people ive ever known or had the honour of being friends and fiends with hosting it so i feel horribly rude that my desire not to watch assholes with chastity rings- oh for fucks sake ive had some great conversations but not ONE has ever ended in an Orgasm, y'all need some pussy and some cock and shut the hell up.." Now see, wouldn't she have proven a great foil to Jordin Sparks? More after the jump!
More »
Latest by cheesebubble: Wow. Her way with words leaves me speechless. I wonder what she puts in her coffee every morning. Now that I know she enjoys crafting, I hope to hell she gets her own shop going at [Etsy.com] more »
From time to time, we like to round up the all-important, all-summarizing last sentences of the biggest new-music reviews. After the jump, we look at other publications' reactions to last night's Video Music Awards, the "meh"-ness of which we are still trying to process.More »
Oh HI! It's dickdogfood. I welcome you to Idolator's liveblog of the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards. Now before I became a quasi-anonymous commentator legend, I was known as Michael Daddino. (I still am, in certain obscure circles.) Once, during that long-gone era, I watched 24 hours of MTV and wrote about it on the internet in real-time; thus the concept of the liveblog was forged in the smithy of my soul. And today I return to my old stomping grounds, all Proverbs 26:11-style, to point and laugh at...well, what's it going to be today, kiddies? What's it gonna be? Contrite Britney? Egotasmic Kanye? The JoBros making their inevitable Fleet Foxes move? Nickleodeon crossovers? Candidate cameos? Overrehearsed spontaneity? Underwhelming medleys? Regrettable covers? A smidge of actual entertainment? Yes, we are likely to get them all: the stars will it so. The handwringing and the laughter begin after the jump.
More »
Sure, in the long run, "which artists had to take moonmen home from tonight's Video Music Awards ceremony" is probably a meaningless statistic on the level of, say, "almost-no-hitters in Mets history," but admit it, you want to know if Paramore beat out Fall Out Boy or if both of them got robbed by Linkin Park I MEAN COME ON YOU GUYS—uh, I mean, full list of winners after the jump.
More »
Since MTV's Video Music Awards-related Twitter feed has lain dormant for the past seven months, I've decided to pick up the slack—and get you all ready for our liveblog, which starts at 8 p.m. ET— by updating Idolator's account on the microblogging service with notes from the red carpet. Whether or not AT&T's network will look kindly on this experiment in liver-the-liveblogging is up in the air, but hey, that's part of the fun of "experimentation," right? [Twitter]
We have about 52ish hours until Britney Spears trades on her recent notoriety to open the 25th-anniversary installment of MTV's Video Music Awards, and like last year, you are all invited to watch with Idolator as we break down the goings-on—and, maybe, break down—in real time. So do come back at 8 p.m. ET for the pregame show and the live broadcast, which starts at 9! Sadly, I will not be handling live-blogging duties as a) I was only given a red-carpet pass, and not access to watch the broadcast being simulcast; and b) even if I did high-tail it back to my hotel room really really fast, the damn thing doesn't air on the West Coast until 9 p.m. PT. But I've handed over the task to someone who's more than capable: Our own Dickdogfood, who pioneered the art of the MTV liveblog all the way back in 2001, which is like forever ago in Internet time.
More »
Latest by Rob Murphy: @DocStrange: Word, on every single...word. I think that might be MTV trying to reclaim the mantle of being "hip" and "ironic". more »
Those of you who have been following the run-up to Sunday's Video Music Awards as closely as I not only have my sympathies, you have confirmation of your suspicions: Britney Spears, she of last year's botched show opener and this year's elephantine teaser ads, will once again appear in the telecast-opening bit, although everyone involved is going to really great pains to say that this won't be a performance, but rather a chance for her to "say hi to [her] fans" (her words) and supply the telecast with yet another "opening not to be missed" (MTV's words) in a year when the noxious "starpower" of Katy Perry and Nicole Scherzinger just isn't cutting it as far as mainstream turn-the-dial appeal goes (my words). I swear, if this whole thing is a ruse for her to show up and make out with Perry without saying anything else, I just give up.
For better or worse, no one covers the innumerable amount of awards given to producers of cultural product than the Los Angeles Times, and this weekend, two of their bloggers made their predictions for Video Of The Year award at this Sunday's MTV Video Music Awards. However, some sort of gas must have been leaking into the Times' cubicle farm that day, since both of them picked the Pussycat Dolls' scaffolding-happy clip for "When I Grow Up" to pick up the top prize.
More »
Latest by ITMS: I have this terrible feeling that they're going to win too! I've also been considering going to Bally's to get FIT...or at least dance with feather boas in the yoga room to "When I Grow Up". more »
The kids from High School Musical, the continually overrated Scarlett Johansson, and the guy who played McLovin' have been added to the Video Music Awards' lineup of presenters. In addition, "famous" knob-twiddler DJ AM and TMZ staple Travis Barker will do that thing where Barker plays a drum part along with a popular song; they'll be accompanying the likes of the Ting Tings, T-Pain, and Katy Perry. I guess one year is the precise amount of time for something to develop from "somewhat amusing YouTube sensation" to "co-opted by the NFL" to "appropriate fodder for the Video Music Awards." [antiMUSIC]
Latest by 2ironic4u: Man....get Christian Slater to host again with Poison forgetting to play the right song. At least that would make for some good anonymous commenting the next day. more »
The technical categories for this year's Video Music Awards—Best Choreography, Best Direction, Best Editing, Best Special Effects, Best Cinematography, and Best Art Direction—were announced today, and the big winner, inexplicably, is the Pussycat Dolls' "When I Grow Up," which received nods for Choreography, Direction, Cinematography, and Art Direction. Why five minutes of dayglo-framed midriffs and Nicole Scherzinger making stupid faces set to some of the most grating beats to come out of Darkchild's studio laboratory is worthy of not just attention, but accolades, is an utter mystery to me. Perhaps someone on the nominating committee was a big fan of "Cold Hearted," and appreciates the Dolls—and director Joseph Kahn's—efforts to bring back "sexy" synchronized dancing on scaffolding? [Full list of nominees]
Both Britney Spears' people and MTV's publicity department want you to know that, despite her appearance in ads for the awards show and the promise of a "surprise" that night, the maybe-rising-again pop star will not be performing on the Sept. 7 telecast, at least according to a statement her manager Larry Rudolph gave to Ryan Seacrest yesterday. Whether or not this is all part of a dis-dis-disinformation campaign crafted for the purpose of item-hungry entertainment reporters to have something to chew on in this cursed final week of August or the truth is anyone's guess at this point—maybe we're all supposed to analyze, Nixon tapes-style, the fact that Rudolph used the word "perform" instead of "appear" in his statement to Seacrest? [Reuters]
Seat-filling site 1iota.com is looking for Jonas Brothers fans to stuff the audience ranks for the boys' Video Music Awards performance, and as if seeing their favorite Jersey-raised brothers isn't enough of a carrot for these kids, the site hints that people selected to be in the audience will get to see what the site is billing as a "Top-Secret Finale." (Caps theirs.) But which performer could actually shock the Red Bull-and-IM-frazzled children of today into being, well, surprised? Poll after the jump.
More »
Idolator
No, really! Kanye West, who you may remember as the guy who got all upset in 2006 about Justice beating him out for one of MTV Europe's video-related awards and then freaked out in 2007 when he didn't win anything at the Vegas edition of the VMAs, only to come back this year to both ceremonies with new singles in tow, apparently went off on a tirade about the integrity of MTV's various trophy-doling extravaganzas during a UK preview of 808s and Heartbreak earlier this week. The words that will shake your faith in fake awards ceremonies that are set up mainly for the purpose of propping up a lie that music is still important to a culture that thinks Heidi Montag is worth airtime after the jump.
More »
Since MTV's 
