So awards season has started again. I guess it really began with the MTV music awards a couple of weeks ago. However, if you can name me one winner from past years you’re better than me. In fact music awards ceremonies are more about some controversial moment than who actually won. In past years we’ve seen Rose McGowan’s awesome see through dress when she accompanied then boyfriend Marilyn Manson down the red carpet (1998) and we had Diana Ross feeling up Lil’ Kim on stage (1999). In 2000 the bass player for Rage Against The Machine, upset at Limp Bizkit winning best Rock Video, climbed a prop on the stage and sat in protest. His award for such public defiance was spending the night in jail. Michael Jackson accepted the nonexistent award for ‘Artist of the Millennium’ when Britney Spears invited him on stage to celebrate his birthday and Eminem was booed off stage for threatening to hit Moby (2002), but then got his own back two years later when he mooned the audience (2004).
1994 was the year of the staged Michael Jackson/Lisa Marie Presley kiss where MJ declared “and they said it wouldn’t last”…and it didn’t – they divorced not long after. There was the Britney/Madonna/Christina kiss (2003), the R Kelly bizarre one man hip-hopera performance (2005), Lil’ Kim wearing a prison jumpsuit on stage just after her release from a one year prison sentence (2006) and Britney’s half-arsed performance that had people questioning her comeback (2007).
Which brings us to Kanye. Jackass. We all reeled in shock and horror but in fact Kanye was not the first to interrupt an award presentation. Last year some guy took the award off Jennifer Lopez which was meant for Panic At The Disco and ranted about MTV not picking up his show. Winner. In fact Kanye did the same thing last year at the Europe MTV awards when his song didn’t win best video, jumping up on stage and complaining that his video cost a million dollars and had Pamela Anderson in it. Apparently he likes to try out his material on the road before showing it to a local audience. It also shows where the man’s head is at when he believes that dropping Pam Anderson’s name is considered a positive. Tommy Lee put Pammy in a video too and that didn’t win him any awards.
So you can see why I don’t consider awards season to have officially started until the Emmys. Obviously it seems that most TV networks share my view considering the coverage the Emmys gets. The “live on the red carpet” specials could be seen on a multitude of channels, all with their increasingly cheesy red carpet hosts ever at the ready to ask inane questions and then throw to some supposed fashion expert who critiques what the celeb in question is wearing. If you are really hard up for entertainment you can actually watch a celeb interviewed on one channel, then change channel to see them interviewed again further up the red carpet, and then again … and again. You can actually plot the bell curve of their growing irritation (especially when Los Angeles throws on a blistering 90 degree day) from following their progress by flicking channels – from being excited to be there, mildly over it, completely annoyed, and back to excited because they can see the finish line and can get inside.
That same bell curve can actually be applied to you the viewer. Because awards season will not end until the Oscars early next year. In between there will be a multitude of back patting events where I’m sure we will be subjected to more cringe worthy interviews, cringe worthy dresses, cringe worthy show openings, cringe worthy awards presentations and cringe worthy acceptance speeches. But if you’re like me then you love it anyway, because it’s the crap moments that make the great moments ever more special. Let’s face it, if it wasn’t for Kanye we wouldn’t even remember that Taylor Swift won, and we wouldn’t have had that great moment when Beyonce ushered her back on stage later on. But let’s try to remember the end result and not the douchebag that got us there.
So buckle up people. Awards season is well and truly under way.
Here’s hoping you all back a winner. If not, feel free to storm the stage.
