The MTV Music Video Awards were broadcast live on MTV this past Thursday night. Hosted by Ben Stiller, the award show consisted of live performances intermittently dispersed around the presentation of awards for such superlatives as "Best Rock Video" and "Best Male Video." The tangible awards consisted of small statues of silver colored "moon men" that, to me, are as aestetically pleasing as cow patties.

Preceding the awards show, MTV filmed a "pre-show gala" that consisted of cameos of artists making their grand entrance into an auditorium at Universal Studios in Hollywood. In addition, the Barenaked Ladies did a concert outside of the auditorium, and performed a very creative medley of songs. After singing a hyped-up version of their current hit single "One Week," the band threw down their guitars, picked up their cordless microphones, and began to sing Will Smith's "Gettin' Jiggy wi' it" to music from their backing band. As if this wasn't enough, the Barenaked Ladies then melded this into Brandy and Monica's "That Boy is Mine," Puff Daddy's "It's All About the Benjamines, Baby," the Verve's "Bittersweet Symphony," and finally Madonna's "Ray of Light." It was a riot to hear two thirty-something guys sing "That Boy is Mine" to each other!

After this opening act of sorts, two awards were given to Prodigy preceding the actual beginning of the show: Best Dance Video and Breakthrough Video for the band's controversial video for "Smack My Bitch Up." The scary black guy (as opposed to the equally scary white guy) received the award, while muttering something about how the video helped to break people of their constraining taboos. Give me a break! I think Madonna should have won for "Ray of Light."

Finally, the show began. First of all, let me say that Ben Stiller was a lame host. First of all, he was overshadowed by the entire show. Also, he never told any funny jokes. Basically, he introduced the presenters for various awards, which was entirely in his job description, but the way he did this was uninteresting and plain. Compared to the glitz and glamour of the other celebrities at the show, Stiller appeared as a motionless stick with lips. Despite Stiller's disappointing performance, there were many other memorable parts to the awards show.

First off, Mariah Cary and Whitney Houston together presented the award for Best Male Video while wearing the exact same dress. As a guy, could have cared less about the situation, but female reaction to this stunt was enormous. "How could they have done this!" a friend of mine said.

After this fiasco, Madonna performed on stage. She began by wearing Indian clothing and body art, and then singing a song in Hindi. This was then blended into a stirring rendition of "Ray of Light," complete with Madonna half-naked on stage and Lenny Kravitz playing guitar beside her.

Next, the Backstreet Boys won the "space man" for Best Group Video, and then Wyclif Jean, Mya, Old Dirty Bastard, and Pras sang a medley of songs including "Gone 'till November" and "Ghetto Superstar." Sarah Michelle Geller and Hanson then presented the award for Best New Artist to Natalie Imbruglia.

Hole's following performance of "Celebrity Skin," the title track on their new record, was both reved-up and awesome. Courtney Love played the ultimate rock star, jumping around on stage, playing guitar, and being her raunchy self. After this performance, Aerosmith won the award for Best Video from a Film, and then Green Day won the award for Best Alternative Video for "Time of Our Lives (Good Riddance)." Interestingly enough, this is the first MTV award the band has ever received!

In the last part of the show, Master P. performed "Uggggh (Nananana)," Madonna received the award for Best Female Video for "Ray of Light," the Backstreet Boys performed "Backstreet's Back," Madonna's "Ray of Light" received the Best Director award, and the Beastie Boys performed a medley of two songs from their new album Hello Nasty: "Three MC's and One DJ" and "Intergalactic." They rocked!

The Best Rap Video went to Will Smith for "Gettin' Jiggy wi' it." Then Brandy and Monica performed "That Boy is Mine," and Puff Daddy won the viewer's choice award for "It's All About the Benjamines, Baby." The most interesting part of the show came next when the Beastie Boys won the Video Vanguard award for their relatively long, influential career. Mike D. spoke first, thanking a few people who helped make the Beastie Boys a reality. Then MC Adam Yauch took about three minutes of the viewing public's time to speak out against the United State's bombing of Sudan and Afghanistan. This public statement took me by surprise at first, but considering Yauch's involvement in humanitarian causes like the Tibetan Freedom Concert, I can see why Adam took the opportunity to address a huge segment of our nations population that is under thirty about the missles.

Closing up the show, Dave Matthews performed "Stay," Wyclif Jean won Best R&B Video for "Gone 'till November," Marilyn Manson performed "Dope Show," Aerosmith won Best Rock Video for "Pink," Madonna won Best Video of the Year for "Ray of Light," and the Brian Setzer Orchestra ended the show with a jived out version of his hit single "Jump, Jive, and Wail."

Clearly, Madonna was the big winner at the awards show by winning six "space men." Overall, though, I didn't like this show as much as the ones in previous years. I think this is in part due to Ben Stiller's less than adequate stint as host, and the fact that not as many "unplanned" events occurred (as opposed to the many seemingly unplanned stunts done in previous years).
 
 
 

Dave Bauer
Johns Hopkins University Newsletter, September 17, 1998