I’m a consistent VMA voter because I take my pop culture civic duty seriously. But as I clicked through each of this year’s categories, I found myself rather underwhelmed. Madonna leads the nominations with 13, with Taylor Swift trailing her at 11. This alone gives me pause. Sure, both released albums this cycle, neither without siphoning some of Sabrina Carpenter’s star power to propel its commercial success. But the Eras Tour was the peak of Taylor’s career, and I’d argue it was the peak of the Swiftie monoculture too — so what does it say about the state of music when the biggest night in it is led by two artists whose defining moments are behind them? Most egregiously, MAGA sympathizer Snoop Dogg is hosting this year — a strange choice for an award show that’s intention is to celebrate the talent of today and the future – not the past.
We just came off a run where album after album became a unifying experience, part of the zeitgeist: BRAT, Mutt, Cowboy Carter, Stick Season, GNX, Short n Sweet. But this year, artists’ releases skewed more niche, more targeted toward their existing fans, versus mass appeal. It’s great that artists feel a freedom to explore parts of their sound that may deviate from the mainstream, but, like, how boring…
Let’s take a look specifically at the Best New Artist category, which consists of Bella Kay, CORTIS, Magnus Ferrell, Malcolm Todd, Myles Smith, Sienna Spiro, and Stella Lefty. Now, no shade to these folks, but the only artist here I’m even remotely familiar with is Magnus Ferrell, son of Will Ferrell. His sound is cool and vibes are groovy, but he’s not exactly my idea of a breakout star, the typical criteria for the VMA for this coveted category.
For example, last year’s class gave us Alex Warren, whose “Ordinary,” while not my thing, ascended to and remained at #1 for ten weeks, in addition to sombr, Ella Langley, Lola Young and Gigi Perez. The year before that, Ice Spice won it off a #3, a #4 and a #2 in a single calendar year.Then in 2024, this same category was Chappell Roan, Shaboozey, Teddy Swims, Benson Boone, Gracie Abrams and Tyla. Among them, “Lose Control,” “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” and Benson Boone’s “Beautiful Things” spent a combined 170-plus weeks inside the Hot 100’s top ten. That’s more than three consecutive years of top-ten residency from a single Best New Artist category. “Lose Control” was the best-performing single of 2024 overall and is certified diamond. Chappell Roan’s “Good Luck, Babe!” hit #4 on the Billboard Hot 100, and earned six Grammy nominations including Record and Song of the Year. Gracie Abrams’ “That’s So True” peaked at #6. In stark contrast to the last few years, not one of this year’s nominees has an American top 10.
Even the performance lineup is not exactly VMA-tier. Most are some of the aforementioned folks, who are also nominated across several different categories. But for the award show that gave us Britney’s (and Banana’s) iconic I’m a Slave 4 U performance, Taylor Swift singing You Belong With Me on the subway, and Beyonce’s pregnancy reveal, performances by Raye and Lisa are unlikely to measure up.
Overall, both the “awards” and the “show” parts strike me as lackluster. I’ve been mulling over how to close this piece for a week, because I’m sure there’s something smart to say here about how this represents the state of the country or something but honestly, I just think this is a VMAs problem. Perhaps a MTV problem. Either way, I’m not looking forward to the show tonight, and that’s a bummer.