Given that now MTV is basically a musical parody of itself and a reality tv tycoon, theres no possible way to understand the nominations for the main categories in the VMAs (Though, this year was kinda accurate), so a way to really know whats going on in the decaying video industry is to check out the technical awards (those you dont see on tv), which constitute a pretty good thermometer of whats going on with the real best videos of "xxxx"year...
An easy example?
In 2008 Britney Spears "won" Video of the Year for the short of her single "Pieace of Me". That year, the award for Best Direction in a Video went to Erykah Badu and Mr. Roboto, for the video "Honey" of Badu herself. Watch both (or the whole list of VotY nominees for that matter) and get back to me.
This years nominees are:
Bartholomew Cummings
"Kings and Queens"
Performed by 30 Seconds to Mars
This video carries an amazing production for cinematography, which amazingly wasnt considered by MTV, however, the concept behind the video is pretty good itself. As I said yesterday, its no "The Kill" or "From Yesterday", but it is an amazing effort. For those of you wondering, Bart Cummings is in fact the name of the character in Dr. Zeuss' story, and is the alias used by Jared Leto to direct his videos.
Rich Lee
"Not Afraid"
Performed by Eminem
Also a Video of the Year nominee, this is probably Eminem's best effort to date, video wise. Proably along with "Stan" his best two videos, period. Save for some of my comments of yesterday, I don't really see this video winning this year, but probably would any other year, and its all due to the competitors.
Hype Williams
"Empire State of Mind"
Performed by Jay-Z and Alicia Keys
Its like I cannot understand why this wasn't nominated for Video of the Year, however, the other efforts where probably superior in other aspects I probably dont know, and MTV does. This is in fact the song of last fall, which I personally sang all the way into my vacations and back. Also incredible cinematography, but due to the contender bellow, wont get considered as it should have in any otehr year. Hype is probably THE director within the hip-hop industry and this nominee (as well as many others) goes to show that.
Francis Lawrence
"Bad Romance"
Performed by Lady Gaga
Francis is the chosen one to join Dayton/Farris, Romanek, Fincher and Jonze in the line of 31 directors whose job was praised by the industry for their creations. And its all Lady Gaga's fault. He has be nominated before, but the Year of Gaga will be his crowning moment. And this is probably Lady Gaga's only sure-shot for the night, because she's not nominated here with Telephone, and a strong vote is probably expected. Lets see how things go sunday.
Dave Mayers
"Funhouse"
Performed by P!nk
After an amazing year, Pink's efforts have been recognized once again and this time for her video for the single "Funhouse", which is probably not exactly her best, but pretty up high. Not a good year to be nominated, but the use of the camera and of his resources gave Mayers a nomination among greats, and for now, thats all he's gonna have to settle on for.
On sunday, we'll see.
Ehl.
