Does last night's VMAs say something about today's society?

[Bio 23,538]

The VMA happened last night and although it wasn't great I believe it was better than what we got in the last few years. The main theme for the night appeared to be social issues. On one side, Katy Perry tried to incorporate those issues in jokes about Trump and how people are handling it but they all fell flat and all we got was shots of audience members feeling awkward with the whole situation.

On the other side, Kendrick made a statement about police brutality, Pink talked about gender conforming issues, Paris Jackson made a shy but direct statement about white supremacists, Alessia Cara sang about self-acceptance, Logic sang about teen suicide and called the media out, etc. I know this is a trend and some people might take advantage of that to sell records but you can't say that's not a great thing having artists talk about these issues on mainstream media. 

But while we have these great messages all people seem to care about is Taylor Swift's and Fifth Harmony's petty drama. Do you think society pretends to care about those issues but only wanna see artists fighting amongst themselves about petty things? Start the drama, stop the music?

 

[Gardevoir 9,812]

What Taylor Swift and 5th harmony drama? I know nothing about it. 

[tomsches 17,365]

yeah, it's kind of like 6-7 years ago when it was cool to sing about self acceptance

[musicnotbling 1,692]

oh, no doubt about it.

of course ppl live for petty drama, it's what makes events like these interesting. but because of that petty drama, messages like this often get looked over. 

[ComeToMama 4,351]

I don't think this has anything to do with society. Not everything in Pop Culture has to be political or moving or for a cause. 

(I'm not saying that's what you're saying, and I'm also not saying it's bad when that happens)

But we enjoy pop culture and more specifically pop music because it's fun and makes us happy. And that's the type of music 5H and Tay displayed last night. Nothing with deep meaning but something we can dance to, work out to, party to, now the lawn to, the list goes on and on. 

Idk if I make any sense but that my 2 cents.

[Lee 62]

Isn't the whole point of Celebs to give us an alternative to talk about other than the pending doom of life lol

[Tomiel25 2,110]

People are aware about those thing's but, is like what CTR say they prefer living in a bubble in the past the world have similar issues like today but nobody like to talk about it just a few people rise their voices, now more people are aware and try to puch the change but the problem is the people that is aware and don't care or even don't wanna be part of the change. Also the celeb drama seem more mainstream to the gp it seems like it make them forget about the problems of the reality for while. I mean the world have a lot of problems but we can living sad all our life so every body found their way to excape to the reality.

[Bio 23,538]

6 minutes ago, ComeToMama said:

I don't think this has anything to do with society. Not everything in Pop Culture has to be political or moving or for a cause. 

(I'm not saying that's what you're saying, and I'm also not saying it's bad when that happens)

But we enjoy pop culture and more specifically pop music because it's fun and makes us happy. And that's the type of music 5H and Tay displayed last night. Nothing with deep meaning but something we can dance to, work out to, party to, now the lawn to, the list goes on and on. 

Idk if I make any sense but that my 2 cents.

I totally agree with what you said about how not everything having to be political. Fun songs are not less valuable than political songs. But I don't think people are talking about 5H and Taylor because they displayed fun songs. They are talking about 5H because they shaded Camila Cabello and about Taylor because of the whole Katy/Kanye drama.

[Panchecco 17,500]

14 minutes ago, Bio said:

Do you think society pretends to care about those issues but only wanna see artists fighting amongst themselves about petty things?

 

the answer is yes.

and that's why letting someone like KP talk about the tragedies in the world as part of her awkward and totally un-funny introduction or segment makes the whole show seem fake and constructed

they should really let the performances "make statements" instead of the presenters... Kendrick, Pink, Login and Alessia's performances and the messages they were sending were beautiful and felt real but the jokes about the world being on fire alongside jokes about fidget spinners almost made those powerful performances look shallow

[androiduser 7,438]

I think it's saying that everyone keeps blaming someone else, everyone's a victim all the time (Gaga is not too far behind this trend either) and nobody is strong enough and taking control of their life

[Drin Lon 7,875]

40 minutes ago, ComeToMama said:

I don't think this has anything to do with society. Not everything in Pop Culture has to be political or moving or for a cause. 

(I'm not saying that's what you're saying, and I'm also not saying it's bad when that happens)

But we enjoy pop culture and more specifically pop music because it's fun and makes us happy. And that's the type of music 5H and Tay displayed last night. Nothing with deep meaning but something we can dance to, work out to, party to, now the lawn to, the list goes on and on. 

Idk if I make any sense but that my 2 cents.

Honestly Taylor's song doesn't make me feel happy, like, why use your platform for... that kind of song. Ok the video is much better it plays around with Taylor's past "scandals" and she doesn't take herself too seriously, but the song is just a big ball of negativity and the title alone makes me feel uneasy tbh.

[KleinGa 18,177]

39 minutes ago, ComeToMama said:

I don't think this has anything to do with society. Not everything in Pop Culture has to be political or moving or for a cause. 

(I'm not saying that's what you're saying, and I'm also not saying it's bad when that happens)

But we enjoy pop culture and more specifically pop music because it's fun and makes us happy. And that's the type of music 5H and Tay displayed last night. Nothing with deep meaning but something we can dance to, work out to, party to, now the lawn to, the list goes on and on. 

Idk if I make any sense but that my 2 cents.

I 100% agree with you. Pop music for me is a break from all the madness. 

29 minutes ago, Bio said:

I totally agree with what you said about how not everything having to be political. Fun songs are not less valuable than political songs. But I don't think people are talking about 5H and Taylor because they displayed fun songs. They are talking about 5H because they shaded Camila Cabello and about Taylor because of the whole Katy/Kanye drama.

sometimes people want to talk about something other than the social issues that get rammed down their throats 24/7. Petty, irrelevant pop drama are things that distract people from what's happening. That doesn't mean that they don't care, it just means that they just want a break. 

[River 112,766]

It was always like this, nothing is new.

The world was always messy but at the end we gave 1 minute more to talk about the feud between Britney and Xtina or who Madonna shaded this week..

[GAGASLAYME 2,415]

I felt like the reason  it was so awkward/no one laughing  was because either Katy or someone had just/or was about to say something  "controversial" 

I'm glad  all of the social issues were put out there its kinda reminiscent of the good times of MTV 

[actsleazy 6,633]

1 hour ago, Emigrante said:

What Taylor Swift and 5th harmony drama? I know nothing about it. 

theyre seperate lol

everyone focusing on Taylor drama/LWYMMD and during the 5th harmony performance it was the 4 girls and then a random 5th girl got thrown off stage or something before the song started