Don't Cry for Kanye, Taylor Swift

I didn’t actually watch this year’s MTV’s Video Music Awards. In case you didn’t either and were away from all media sources for the week following the broadcast, here’s what happened.

Taylor Swift, a 19-year-old country singer, won Best Female Video. As she was excitedly accepting her award, she was interrupted by rap star Kanye West. He jumped onto the stage, yanked the microphone out of her hand, and launched into a tirade, saying that Beyoncé, one of the other nominees in the category, had made “one of the best videos of all time.” Taylor was in tears. Beyoncé was sitting in the audience, stunned. When Beyoncé won the Best Video of the Year award later in the evening, she called Taylor Swift onto the stage and donated her air time to her, allowing Taylor to finish her acceptance speech.

So, in the end, Taylor Swift won a video music award, a lot of sympathy, and some invaluable exposure to a lot of people who had no previous knowledge of her (like me). I even checked out her video, "You Belong with Me" which was the age-old Cinderella story- nerdy girl wins cool, popular guy away from his nasty cheerleader girlfriend- but the there was a fresh, young sound to the song itself. Beyoncé won the top award, and demonstrated that she was the epitome of class. The only loser, as I saw it, was Kanye West, who lost the respect of most right-minded people by being an unspeakable cad.

Then one day I came across a video of a baby dancing to Beyonce’s award winning video “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It).” It was Beyoncé and two other women singing and dancing. This was the video Kanye deemed one of the best of all time? Really, Kanye?

Wow. Obviously Kanye hasn’t seen very many videos. Now, I don’t pretend to be an expert on music videos, and obviously rating them is a subjective exercise. However, back in the olden days of videos – the 1980’s- I watched a fair number of them, as I was happy to stay home in the evenings with my baby and MTV. While I stopped watching videos of any kind on a regular basis sometimes in the 90’s, I can tell you that there were some mighty fine videos made back in the 80’s that could best “Single Ladies” any day.

In my opinion, the best videos were those that told a story, preferably one that reIated to the song itself. This is not to say there were not some terrific performance videos, like Van Halen’s joyous and colorful “Jump.” I think the general consensus is that Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” was the best video ever. It was a 15 minute extravaganza that was actually a short campy horror movie. It was spectacular but clearly extraordinary as videos go. My favorite more typical Michael Jackson video was “Beat It” which is kind of like the “West Side Story” of music videos- complete with warring gangs and intricately choreographed dance numbers.

If I had to pick one video that I loved the best, though, it had to be Madonna’s “Like a Prayer.” “Life is a mystery” the song begins, and so was the song itself. I could never decide if the song was about finding religion, or finding a relationship that was so fine that it was actually spiritual, or if it was just saying that sex could be like a religious experience. Maybe it was about all three, or any one of them, depending upon the listener. That’s what made it such a brilliant song. All that, AND it had a beat and you could dance to it.

The “Like a Prayer” video captured that ambiguity perfectly. Madonna, dressed for church in a black slip, escapes the attention of some thugs by going into a church. She is saved by a statue of a saint who comes to life and embraces her. Meanwhile, another woman is raped and murdered by the thugs, and the come-to-life statue finds the victim but is then framed by the police for the crime. Madonna visits him in prison, and –I think- testifies on his behalf- freeing him, perhaps? There is also a choir involved in rescuing Madonna- representing the redemptive power of song, I presume. There is a lot of religious imagery, and they dance. So is it about the power of religion to save us, or about our ability to save each other through love and spirituality and/or sex? Who knows? It was fabulous-that’s what I know!

Naturally, what with the burning crosses, and the stigmata, and the message, it was also a highly controversial video. It was called sacrilegious by some critics, and there were even calls for Madonna to be thrown out of the Church. This probably pleased Madonna, who was never one to shy away from controversy. Heck, Madonna loved controversy- she thrived on it.

Taylor Swift went onto win “Entertainer of the Year” at the Country Music Awards the other night, where she was presumably among friends, and where she was able to complete her acceptance speech uninterrupted. However, country music star Winona Judd complained the next day that it all came too soon to Taylor, and then added some nonsense about her mamma and her having to pay their dues driving from concert to concert in their early days. Taylor is learning a valuable lesson early- no matter how great your success, accomplishments, or recognition, there will always be detractors but you can’t let them get you down. Just ask Madonna.

What's your favorite music video? Comment below.