Thoughts About The 2026 VMAs From An Old Guy

I had no intention of writing a blog post about this year’s MTV Video Music Awards. As an AARP member, I’m not part of the award show’s target demographic, and I didn’t plan on even watching it. And then I did. The show was hosted by Snoop Dogg, and the first musical performance was by Madonna (more on that momentarily). The evening featured Nirvana receiving the Video Vanguard Award. There were tributes to Dolly Parton and George Michael, and appearances by Chuck D, Emma Bunton (Baby Spice), and Rachel Dratch. Wait, look at all of those names. I AM THE TARGET DEMOGRAPHIC! They're talking about me!

Think about it. Do teens and people in their 20s watch MTV? And if they do, it’s certainly not for music videos since the station doesn’t play them anymore. Awards for music videos are for people in their 40s or older. Sure, there are enough younger performers and presenters to interest people under 40, but the phrase VMAs means more to us older folks. So despite several moments where I caught myself thinking “what the heck is this,” I still watched the show. I mean, I watched some of the Pitt-Stanford women’s volleyball match first and then the VMAs, but that’s the joy in being able to record shows. On to the notes!

* The opening number was odd. There were people writhing on stage with a video of Madonna talking behind what could have been a glass shower door. Then the camera cut to Madonna sitting on top of a piano with someone playing the piano turned away from the camera/audience. That someone was Sabrina Carpenter. Dancers soon appeared, and my favorite part was this clear scene of Madonna not even attempting to lip-sync.

Madonna then took a table ride around the stage ending in a bathroom setting singing with Charli XCX. And if this sounds confusing and unbelievable, it was. Oh, and Julia Garner and Debi Mazar and Seth Rogan all appeared too along with dozens of dancers because why not. If you really want to watch it, the video below shows the Madonna/Sabrina portion while this short shows the beginning of Charli XCX and Madonna.

* Madonna ended up winning three awards including Artist of the Year. In 2026. Not 1986, 2026. Did she not win VMAs earlier in her career, and these were essentially lifetime achievement awards?

* Sienna Spiro won the Best New Artist award. Fun fact: Spiro was the only nominee to perform at the show and may have been the only nominee present. Between this and Madonna’s three wins, I’m starting to think that maybe the award voting is flawed at best or perhaps even rigged. I mean, no accountants were mentioned or introduced during the telecast. 

* I don’t remember where I saw this online, but someone wrote that Nirvana's Krist Novoselic looks like Dr. Phil. Now I can't get this image out of my head.

* Lisa won the award for Best Pop. Not Best Pop song, just Best Pop. Apparently, she will now appear with Snap and Crackle on Rice Krispies cereal boxes. 

(If I had any talent as a blogger, I would have photoshopped Lisa in place of Pop in the picture above.)

* While Lisa also performed, there was a missed opportunity to have a Lisa / Lisa Lisa collaboration. 

* Taylor Swift won video of the year and received the first Artist Director award, which seems like something made up to make sure she attended. Disappointing that her husband wasn’t there to support her. Oh, apparently he had to work in Miami and couldn’t make it to Los Angeles in time. But did he even try? 

I really liked the performances by Kacey Musgraves honoring Dolly, Shaboozey, and the George Michael tribute.

I think I'm officially done with the VMAs. Unless next year they feature Billy Joel, Debbie Gibson, Mariah Carey, Oasis, Pearl Jam, U2, and a tribute to Prince!

Nirvana photo by Kevin Winter-Getty Images.

An MTV Station Showing Music Videos

There was a free preview of several television stations last week including HDNET Movies, Sony Movies, and the Smithsonian Channel. There really wasn't anything on any of these channels worth watching or recording, but I decided to check out the station MTV Live. This station had a novel concept. It showed music videos.

For those of you under 25 (who am I kidding? No one under 25 is reading this!), MTV, short for Music Television, launched in 1981 and played music videos. The station added other shows over the years and pretty much abandoned showing videos. VH1, or Video Hits 1, emerged a few years after MTV and still played videos after MTV stopped, but they also chose other programming over videos. (RIP VH1's Top 20 Video Countdown). So I was excited to see a station showing music videos again.

Over about 30 minutes or so, I saw videos by Taylor Swift, several K-Pop bands, and other bands/artists I've never heard of. There was a new video by Limp Bizkit that wasn't terrible. Please don't consider that last sentence an endorsement. There was also this cool looking video by Julian Lennon, WHO is ROLLING like STONES as the son of a famous British musician. (See what I did there?)

I checked out the station the next night and saw some of the same videos again. And commercials. I quickly realized that MTV made the right decision not airing music videos anymore. While I still think there is value to a video countdown show, few people are going to sit and watch random videos with commercials breaks as long as YouTube is around. Or just about anything else airing or streaming.

2018 MTV VMAs

I watched the 2018 MTV VMAs on Monday, apparently to prove that I am old and not in touch with current popular music. If you're not interested in this topic, I suggest you scroll down to the end for an amazing video which I think was the highlight of the night. Here are the people in attendance who are older than me:

Jennifer Lopez
Madonna
Aerosmith
Some (but not all) members of Backstreet Boys
Ariana Grande's mom and grandmother
Camila Cabello's mom
Ken Jeong

That's it. In case you're wondering, I'm two months older than Alex Rodriguez. Other reasons how this award show made me feel old:

1. Apparently it's fine to say "sh!t" on MTV now. (It's not okay to say it on Sean's Ramblings though.)

2. When did face tattoos become such a big thing? When Mike Tyson got one years ago, it was major news.

For example, pictured above is Post Malone, who I assume chose his stage name as a tribute to the former Utah Jazz power forward. Someone also really could have showed him how to move the microphone up. Besides the awards he won, it was also a big night for him as he got to perform with the guy from the Skittles commercial.

Camila Cabello won a few VMAs including video of the year and artist of the year, so you would think that Tiffany Haddish would be able to pronounce her name correctly.

If you don't show up to the awards show, you don't get an award. Beyoncé and Jay-Z, Bruno Mars, Ed Sheeran, Childish Gambino: No (major) awards for you!

I'm pro-Ariana Grande. That is all.

At the beginning of the show, Cardi B held one of those award statue moon-man things. Yet, when she won the award for best new artist, she remarked how heavy it was. Does that mean that she held a fake award at the beginning? Is there a conspiracy here?

Finally, this was by far my favorite part of the night.

That is Bebe Rexha dancing backstage. Meanwhile, the guy on the left just wanted to get by to do his job. I love the look on his face.

Photo by Theo Wargo / Getty Images

The Last VJ

When MTV debuted nearly 35 years ago, the video jockeys, or VJs, became nearly as famous as the musicians they presented. Folks like Martha Quinn, Alan Hunter, Mark Goodman, Nina Blackwood, Pauly Shore, Downtown Julie Brown, Kennedy, Bill Bellamy and Carson Daly became stars. Of course, MTV and later VH1 became more about reality shows and less about music, so VJs began to go extinct. However, one VJ remained. Jim Shearer started at MTV in 2002 and served as the host of VHI's Top 20 Video Countdown for the past 5 or 6 years. Jim is great. He's funny, does an excellent job interviewing guests and simply seems like a guy that would be cool to hang out with. And yes I may be biased because Jim is also from Western Pennsylvania and agreed to do an interview with me here on Sean's Ramblings.

Inexplicably, VH1 decided not to renew Jim's contract for 2015. The Top 20 countdown is currently having guest hosts (Gavin DeGraw last week and Andy Grammer this week). I'm sure they are both swell people (plus DeGraw attended Ithaca College; I'll have to share my story about him sometime), but they are no Jim Shearer.

Fortunately, we can still see Jim. He started Gimme 5 with Mike Adam, and as usual, Jim is great. Again, I may be biased but Jim's top five are much better than Mike's picks.

You can check out their first two episodes below and follow Gimme 5 and Jim on Twitter.

Top Pop Songs of 2014



Best Rap Feature in a Pop Song



While I'm not sure he's looking for work, someone needs to hire Jim immediately!

I Want My MTV

Although I don’t update the “What I’m Reading” section of my blog very often, I continue to read books regularly. I’m currently reading I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution by Craig Marks and Rob Tannenbaum. While the history of creating and starting MTV is interesting (who knew that Michael Nesmith of the Monkees “fueled the origins of MTV?”), I truly enjoy reading the behind the scenes descriptions of making the videos. Here are a few portions of the book I feel like sharing (along with the videos):

Daryl Hall: People loved to spend my money. This is a good story: Somebody decided the “Maneater” video wouldn’t be complete unless we had an actual panther, a man-eating animal, in the video. It appeared for a second and a half in the video and probably cost $10,000. This South American black panther was wired to the floor so it wouldn’t attack everybody. Of course, it got loose in this gigantic studio in LA and went in the rafters, fifty feet up. Nobody could get it down. That’s when I left the building.



The panther got at least 10 seconds of air time!

Jazz Summers (Wham!'s manager): Wham!’s “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” is a bit camp. Two young boys dancing around in shorts. I thought it was tacky, and said so. I tried to talk them out of it, but my management partner, Simon Napier-Bell, was more camp than a row of tents. He thought it was lovely. And MTV really got behind it.

Debbie Gibson: Being a gay-boy magnet even at fourteen, I was in love with George Michael. I'd come home from school and turn on MTV - and there was "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go.



I'm confused. Is Debbie attracted to gay boys or are gay boys attracted to her?

Nigel Dick (music-video and film director): Roland Orzabal told me what he envisioned for "Head Over Heels": "I see myself in a library, there's a beautiful girl, we'll grow old together, and there's all this random stuff like a rabbi and a chimp." And I'm rapidly scribbling on a piece of paper: "Chimp. Rabbi."



Is this the only video featuring a rabbi and a chimp?

Bryan Adams: The whole budget for the "Run to You" video went into building a tree. Lightning was supposed to hit the tree, and create a big, long lightning storm. Imagine the shock and horror on set when the [f'n] thing burns in about a minute. We stood there, looking at this tree up in flames. And Steve Barron's (the video's director) going, "Oh. S#!t." This is probably my worst video.



The real problem is that Adams doesn't run at all in the video. The Bangles walked like Egyptians (sort of) walked in their hit. If the song title is "Run to You," you run!

There are a lot more stories I could share particularly about Van Halen, Paula Abdul, and Billy Squire, but this could end up being my longest post!

Please note that this is not a sponsored post. I'm just really enjoying the book.

My Application for The Real World

MTV’s The Real World is holding a casting call at Town Tavern DC this Saturday from 10-5. Although the requirements state that candidates must be between the ages of 20 and 24, I think that I would make the perfect candidate for MTV and The Real World's Casting Directors. Here are my qualifications:

• MTV has had significant success with the Teen Mom series. Therefore, MTV should want to incorporate more young children and their parents in their shows. A guy in his mid-30s with his kid (that’s me) and a group of 20-somethings would make fascinating television.

• To my knowledge, The Real World has never featured someone who regularly falls asleep on his couch between 9:30 and 10:00. I could be a trendsetter!

• Forget iPods. I can help return MTV to its roots by playing my Stone Temple Pilots, Dave Matthews Band and Rusted Root cassette tapes for my new roommates. Maybe I’ll bring my mix tapes to the casting call!



• Has The Real World ever featured a cat in the house? Ziggy would be a reality superstar and finally earn his keep.

• Even though I haven’t been to a club in over a decade, having the cameras follow me while I argue with my roommates about not going to the club could cause some drama. Watch an older guy complain that the club is too loud! I can’t wait to see the promos of that!

• Watching me watch Pittsburgh sporting events while Tweeting my thoughts about these events is ratings gold. I could be the new Timmy Beggy minus the getting arrested for open lewdness and losing my job as the Pittsburgh Pirates mascot.

• I could start the first ever fantasy football or baseball league in Real World history. A keeper league might be difficult to organize though so we’ll just use a straight draft.

MTV, I look forward to hearing from you (particularly since I can’t make the casting call due to fatherhood duties. This will just be like an episode of Teen Mom!).

Jersey Shore Cast Available For Adoption

I'll admit it; I don't watch Jersey Shore. For the most part, I've stopped watching MTV entirely. Call me when they put a new version of Remote Control on the air. Anyway, even though I don't watch Jersey Shore, my pop culture sensibilities require that I know about the show. With the new season about to begin, allow me to present some of the cast members courtesy of Fairfax County Animal Services.

J-WOW:



PAULY-D:



SNOO-KITTY (get it for Snookie):



All of these cats and many others are available for adoption at the Fairfax County Animal Shelter.

I hope that The Situation was already adopted since that would be a great name for a cat.

Greatest Hard Rock Songs

I'm shifting the debate about the greatest hard rock songs of all time here from Gilahi's recent post. Within the last year, VH1 presented a countdown of the 100 Greatest Hard Rock Songs with Guns N' Roses' Welcome to the Jungle finishing at #1. Gilahi's opinion is that this is a travesty, though he points out that he is not among VH1's demographic as he fondly remembers the days of Glenn Miller Orchestra (this may be a slight exaggeration). While I don't have the exact list available (I'm sure the list is on Wikipedia or part of a Sporcle quiz), I feel that Welcome to the Jungle certainly deserves consideration and probably falls within the top 20. However, we're wondering if this a generational difference between me and Gilahi? GNR emerged during MTV's hey-day, and WTTJ was everywhere (at least to me) as I was a junior high and high school student at the time.

With that, I'd like to turn the debate over to you. Where would you rank WTTJ among the greatest hard rock songs? Please leave your opinion in the comments section. If you'd like please indicate if you are part of the pre-MTV generation, VH1 generation (meaning that you grew up on MTV but now realize that you're too old for the station), or current MTV generation.