Jingleball

I attended the KDWB Jingleball back in December, which was basically a mish-mash of a bunch of pop artists regularly on the radio right now. Many artists, like Cher Lloyd and Owl City, had short 20 minute sets earlier in the night. Other better-known or respected artists, like Train and Ed Sheeran, had 30 minute-or-so long sets. The headliner (of course) was PSY.

PSY walked out on stage, and admired his audience in awe. PSY demanded that the house lights be turned on so that he could see and take a picture of his audience, followed by a comment that went something like, "Wow. I've never seen such a large gathering of people in one space before." (Something he says at each venue nightly, I'm sure.)

I assumed PSY would perform a few of his lesser-known hits and then finish the night with Gangnam Style. Much to my surprise, he performed Gangnam first. Andy and I looked at each other and said, "Really? Is he done?"

After a moment of hesitation, PSY said, "I've been an artist and performer for a long time, and I have lots of songs that are popular in other countries. But America only knows Gangnam Style, so..." Cue the second performance of Gangnam Style, this time with the house lights on. Then he was done.

Ponder this: PSY was paid who knows how many thousands of dollars to fly stateside and perform the same song in the same venue to the same audience twice. Insanity. Total insanity. How much must he hate that song??

A (Delayed) Response to the VMA's

From Rihanna's creepy opening performance to Nicki Minaj's over-dramatized, most articulate acceptance speech to Taylor Swift's mediocre lip-synching, I'd say this year's VMA's were an excellent flop.

Frankly, I don't care a whole lot about who won and who didn't. The VMA's are a dopey substitute to the Grammy video category, run by bigwigs and preteens, and the nominees / winners usually don't come as too much of a surprise. Nowadays, I can't find anything that stands out between most U.S. pop videos, and I couldn't tell you the difference in some of the categories, or why they exist. e.g. "Best Editing in a Video" ...How can you tell which video has better airbrushing?

Remember when R.E.M., Nirvana, and The Smashing Pumpkins took home VMA awards? Why not them now? Or Tool? Or RHCP? Or even the Foo Fighters? They're still coming up with creative (often-times meaningful) stuff. (Sidenote: Despite the majority of the nominations, I still approve of a few of this year's, like Maroon 5, Jack White, and Adele.)

Maybe I'm biased, but I'd just like to see award shows like this come back around to good music. But sometimes I have to remind myself that this isn't the 90's anymore.

At least most of America found priority in the President's address.

And where the hell was this guy?