Tracy K. Lorenz ...

MTV

I made the mistake of tuning in to part of the MTV Music Awards, I still remember when MTV was cool but that ship has sailed.

What became most obvious was if you lack any actual musical talent all you have to do is lip sync, wear an outrageous costume, surround yourself with thirty dancers, and hope to God the pre-recorded tape doesn’t break. I mean, these mokes weren’t even trying.

I realize it’s the point of music to be shocking and all, but it’s also kind of music’s resposibility to be new and cutting edge.  I saw nothing new and nothing cutting edge.  The vast vast vast majority of performers were either gay or cross-dressers which is fine, except David Bowie and Elton John did it thirty-plus years ago and they did it better.

Speaking of which, the entire show seemed to be themed around LGBTQ and gay rights,. If you hopped on stage and were dressed like RuPaul the place went berserk.

Here’s a snapshot of the night:  Some guy who looked like that famous painting of the laughing Jesus got on stage to announce the winner of The Best Video of 2019 (who even knew they made videos anymore). I heard the list and on it was former country star turned not country star Taylor Swift and her pro-LGBTQ song “You Need to Calm Down.” I immediately thought, “She wins.” 

Of course she did win because the video shows a bunch of gay people at a gay wedding in a gay trailer park; surrounding the gay people are white Christians holding signs that say “Adam & Eve not Adam & Steve,” “Get a brain you Morans (sic)” and “Homasekuality (sic)  is a SIN!” because Christians are obviously anti-gay and bad spellers.

When Taylor got on stage to accept the award she gave an impassioned speach about gay rights and how people have the right to express themselves. She was surrounded by cross-dressers, a black guy with pink hair, and various other people who seemed to be expressing themselves just fine. She also never mentioned what rights the LGBTQ community didn’t have.

Is this really still a thing? Didn’t this all play out about a decade ago? No one cares if you’re gay, pink hair is soooo 2015 and cross-dressing goes back to Milton Berle.

And here’s another thing, how about actually playing an instrument?  I watched the show for as long as I could stand it and I saw exactly ONE guitar (Jonas Brothers) but he never actually played it, it just hung around his neck and occasionally he acted like he was going to play it but never did.

So hey, music people, how about coming up with something new, that’s your job, you’re supposed to be cutting edge. Mick Jagger strutted around like a drag queen but at least he could sing, Led Zepelin dressed like wizards but you could look past that idiocy because the music was good. I suggest, or at least I’d like see see, some actual talent, some actual singers and musicians who write and sing their own songs and I’d like to see it ... swiftly.

Printed by permission of the author. Email him at Lorenzat large@aol.com. Get Tracy’s latest book at BarnesandNoble.com or Amazon.com, or  download it from www.fastpencil.com.
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