I Want My MTV...Back

Like most folks who read celebrity blogs and rags, I was eagerly waiting for tonight's comeback performance by Britney Spears at the MTV Video Music Awards. I predicted a spectacular trainwreck and Brit did not let me down. She even paved the way for us less-than-perfect body types to prance around without fear in our sparkly underwear.

(Or perhaps not...)

While most of America will be talking about that performance for weeks to come, what had me most perplexed is what has become of MTV. I grew up as a child of MTV, back when video was still killing radio stars. Nowadays, seeing a video on MTV is miraculous enough, but after watching the VMA's, it is clear that MTV doesn't even know what music is anymore.

The VMA's were held in Vegas this year and appeared to be edited by a schizophrenic. When did the viewers of MTV all develop ADD? The show jumped from a main stage at the Palms, and went to private parties at suites at the Palms with different artists headlining those separate parties - Fall Out Boy, Foo Fighters, Kayne West, and Justin Timberlake with Timbaland. No one seemed to know where to direct their attention, especially the at-home viewers.

Most annoying, the entire ceremony seemed like one promotional opportunity for The Palms, not to mention Rhapsody, who kept hawking live performances by artists and urging you to download their music. MTV even created an award called "The Quadruple Threat" award - a category that honors musicians not only for their singing and acting abilities, but for things like their clothing lines and social activism.

After about an hour, I just turned it off. My head hurt. It made watching The Blair Witch Project seem like childs play.

These VMA's made me long for the days where musicians of different genres would come to one stage and perform. Back in my day, there was no separation of music - from sugary pop from Madonna, to rock anthems by Bon Jovi, the VMA's brought artists of all different walks together. Those VMA's were about the music and not promotional opportunities.

MTV used the VMA's to hawk shows that have nothing to do with music all night - The Real World, The Hills, and their soon-to-broadcast bisexual dating show, "A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila," starring the aforementioned MySpace celebrity-for-no-reason.

Maybe I'm getting too old, but is it wrong to just want to hear music?

I want my old MTV back.