Was it Kanye being Kanye, or was his outburst something more? At least the shocker this year was related to music. The MTV Video Music Awards are always willfully c..

Was it Kanye being Kanye, or was his outburst something more? At least the shocker this year was related to music. The MTV Video Music Awards are always willfully chaotic, keeping alive the myth of pop as the provenance of rebels by placing a bunch of moderately edgy celebrities within a festive environment and fueling the mood with sexy performances, off-color jokes and "incidents" that are often staged, but good for a thousand Twitter tweets. One of these mostly bogus controversies usually goes a bit deeper, hinting at real issues of identity, status, personal power and self-expression -- the sticky stuff from which pop music is, in fact, made. When Kanye West jumped up during Taylor Swift's acceptance speech for best female video Sunday night, put his hand over her microphone and declared that Beyoncé's losing "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" clip was "one of the best videos of all time," he did a stupid thing. He seemed like a bully inexplicably targeting an honors student, and he further damaged his rather unstable reputation without managing to make his point clear. A couple hours later, Beyoncé received the Moonman trophy that MTV's execs had designated for her -- every superstar gets one, apparently, in this predetermined coronation of pop's latest prom court of ingenues and enduring hotties. Ever the lady, she ceded her thank-you time to Swift, who emerged seemingly quite prepared for the moment and gave a totally inconsequential speech. (She was really grateful to her video director and her fans.) It was a nice gesture of female solidarity in the face of West's boorish and, yes, macho move.
Category: Entertainment
Tags: kanye west kanye west taylor swift kanye west vma 2009 kanye west news kanye west vmas
Uploaded: October 07, 2009