Much to my surprise the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards (VMA's) took place
on Sunday (25/8/13) at the Barclays Centre in New York City, US.
Although she was only nominated for one award the final leg of Rihanna's
Diamonds World Tour starts shortly and politically she's pretty much
all the US have got at the moment. As a result Rihanna played a large
part in the build up to the ceremony.
Firstly her friend Leandra hosted a pre-VMA's party at a nightclub on
Saturday (24/8/13). The intention here was to push her into the
spotlight in order to pique Chinese interest into Rihanna's core tour
party by creating speculation that Leandra could be the CIA's so-called
agent in the room helping to keep Rihanna in line and on her mission.
Then there was Katy Perry's show closing performance. Katy Perry has of
course been lumbered with being the public face of opposition to Rihanna
and Chris Brown's relationship. Initially the plan was that Katy Perry
would perform her new single "Roar" on top of the Brooklyn Bridge but
the Mayor's office objected forcing Katy Perry to perform under the
bridge instead. "Under the Bridge" is a famous song by the Red Hot Chili
Peppers which is all about heroin addiction - illegal drug use is of
course a big theme of Rihanna's upcoming tour leg.
The main purpose of Rihanna's involvement in the VMA's though was to
demonstrate that the 'community containment' of Chris Brown was working
so there is no need to put in place a formal restraining order
preventing Chris Brown for contacting Rihanna. While Rihanna was in New
York Brown was in Hawaii which is really the furthest point within the
US from New York City. Brown has since been joined in Hawaii with his on
again/off again girlfriend Karruche Tran and Rihanna was rumoured to
have had dinner with her ex-boyfriend Drake on Saturday night. Therefore
the intention was for Rihanna to turn up at the VMA's with Drake
showing that both Rihanna and Chris Brown had moved on from the
relationship. Bizarrely this actually seems like an attempt to reunite
Chris Brown and Rihanna because while I don't think there is much chance
of Drake and Rihanna resuming their relationship forcing them together
in this sort of publicity stunt makes it far less likely that they will.
In the end the speculation about whether Rihanna would turn up with
Drake turned into speculation about whether Rihanna would turn up at
all. Although this added to the drama I think this was a genuine problem
with Rihanna trying to decide whether she actually wanted to go or not.
That's because while these award shows look great on TV when you're
actually there they can be rather tedious with people like Rihanna being
forced to sit there trying to act all natural while someone points a TV
camera at them for the best part of three hours.
Another thing that would have put Rihanna off going to the VMA's was the
fact the ceremony was very much dominated by Miley Cyrus who was
nominated in multiple categories and was performing during the show. You
may remember a while ago I said something along the lines of; "If I was
being arrogant I would say that all the attention I've been giving to
Rihanna has made Miley Cyrus jealous." As such making Miley Cyrus the
Belle of the VMA's ball could well have knocked Rihanna's confidence by
making her worry she could be getting replaced and reminding her that
the grip she thought she holds over me isn't quite as strong and she'd
like.
Also since I made those comments back in the spring Miley Cyrus has gone
on to release a hugely successful single "We Can't Stop." This has
caused quite a bit of controversy for the former child star of "Hannah
Montana" because the song appears to make reference to things like
casual sex and illegal drug use. The video features Miley Cyrus wearing
not very many clothes and engaging in what is known as 'Twerking' which
is a form of sexual explicit dancing common in Hip-Hop and RnB videos
such as the ones frequently put out by Rihanna. Therefore there has been
lots of discussion about whether Miley Cyrus is mimicking Rihanna and
Hip Hop and RnB culture or gently mocking them. Miley Cyrus of course
performed We Can't Stop on the night and stayed on stage dancing around
in her underwear while white RnB star Robin Thicke performed his big
summer hit "Blurred Lines." Obviously due to recent events any talk
about lines being blurred is risky at the moment however with lots of
white being used throughout the performance it was intended to be a
reference to the white lines of cocaine that is a major theme of
Rihanna's upcoming tour leg rather then Obama's red lines. Although I've
not been following it the song Blurred Lines is all about female
heterosexuality which has apparently angered certain feminists (the
homosexual ones) not least because the video features female models
dancing in not very many clothes. This is pretty much par for the course
for Hip Hop and RnB videos but the way it is done in the Blurred Lines
video has led to people suggesting that it is gently mocking Hip Hop and
RnB culture.
Therefore coming at the start of a week of events in the US to mark the
50th anniversary of Martin Luther King's famous March on Washington and
"I Have a Dream" speech the purpose of these two white music stars being
front and centre of the VMA's was to prompt a backlash against them for
daring to suggest that the example set by black music stars such as
Micheal Jackson and Chris Brown isn't quite what Martin Luther King was
aiming for. Fair play to the both of them though because they seem to
have deliberately made sure their critics had plenty of ammunition.
(Originally Posted) 22:50 on 26/8/13.
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