MTV moonmen to go home with stars
Tonight's Video Music Awards highlight the year's best
By JOEL SANDI and
IAN YOUNG
Staff Writers
The
list of alumni reads like no other awards show's: Howard Stern in ass-less
pants, the King of Pop tonguing the King's daughter and throngs of
celebrities not in penguin suits. Tonight, the annual MTV Video Music
Awards will invade homes everywhere with performances by Nine Inch Nails,
Lauryn Hill, Jay-Z, Kid Rock, DMX, Ricky Martin, The Back-street Boys and
TLC, and appearances by just about any artist who has gone platinum within
the past year.
Below are our
picks for who will win and who should win in selected categories. Now go to
Vegas and lay down those bets. If you win all the categories, you just
might make enough to pay a scalper for a pair of front-row tickets for
whatever arena show the Backstreet Boys have undoubtedly sold out.
Viewers'
Choice:
Backstreet Boys
- "I Want It That Way"
Jay-Z (feat. Ja
Rule, Amil-lion) - "Can I Get AŠ"
Korn - "Freak on
a Leash"
Ricky Martin -
"Livin' La Vida Loca"
'n Sync -
"Tearin' Up My Heart"
TLC - "No
Scrubs"
Will win:
Backstreet Boys
The demographics
of the MTV viewer alone will lift this video over the others. Add those
millions of pre-pubescent girls to the fact that this video dominated MTV's
Total Request Live charts for so long, and you've got yourself a
clear winner.
Should
win: Korn
Clearly the most
original video in the bunch and the only one that isn't carried by
choreographed dance routines, Korn's "Freak on a Leash" deserves the award
for the creative use of effects and animation. So what if the video
features a little girl almost getting shot with a security guard's gun?
Best New
Artist in a Video:
Eminem - "My
Name Is"
Kid Rock -
"Bawitdaba"
Jennifer Lopez -
"If You Had My Love"
Orgy - "Blue
Monday"
Will win:
Eminem
The rapper's
novelty, not to mention his hilarious parody of a video, is sure to cement
him as this year's Best New Artist. Admit it: How many of you don't know
who Slim Shady is?
Should
win: Eminem
Video of
the Year:
Backstreet Boys
- "I Want It That Way"
Lauryn Hill -
"Doo Wop (That Thing)"
Korn - "Freak on
a Leash"
Ricky Martin -
"Livin' La Vida Loca"
Will Smith
(feat. Dru Hill, Kool Moe Dee) - "Wild Wild West"
Will win:
Lauryn Hill
"Doo Wop" may be
old, but it is easily the top choice among the offerings - which, though
the video was rather engaging, is still not saying much considering the
weak crop of nominees.
Should
win: Lauryn Hill
Best Male
Video:
Eminem - "My
Name Is"
Lenny Kravitz -
"Fly Away"
Ricky Martin -
"Livin' La Vida Loca"
Will Smith -
"Miami"
Will win:
Ricky Martin
Little more than
a looks-and-popularity contest, this category is more or less ruled by the
young Latin, whose sex appeal is challenged only by Will Smith's - but
Ricky's song was a bigger hit.
Should
win: Eminem
Slim Shady may
be the geekiest of the bunch, but then again, isn't this a video
contest?
Best
Female Video:
Lauryn Hill -
"Doo Wop (That Thing)"
Jennifer Lopez -
"If You Had My Love"
Madonna -
"Beautiful Stranger"
Britney Spears -
"ŠBaby One More Time"
Will win:
Britney Spears
Time works
against urban queen Hill in this one, as peppy-pop princess Britney Spears'
recent major success (and, er, cosmetic enhancements) will bounce her to
victory. With such invigorating choreography that shamelessly highlights
her midsection, how can she lose?
Should
win: Madonna
The mother of
the group has the most energetic video and, with an appearance by and
tie-in with Austin Powers, it's just purely shagadelic, baby.
Best Group
Video:
Backstreet Boys
- "I Want It That Way"
Limp Bizkit -
"Nookie"
'n Sync -
"Tearin' Up My Heart"
Sugar Ray -
"Every Morning"
TLC - "No
Scrubs"
Will win:
Backstreet Boys
The boy band of
the millennium sings to a throng of screaming USC sorority girls in an
airport. Such creativity! Such drama! Re-member, folks, this is a
popularity contest.
Should
win: Sugar Ray
A video without
choreographed dancing or screaming pre-pubescent girls is becoming more and
more scarce these days, and such boldness ought to be rewarded.
Best Dance
Video:
Cher -
"Believe"
Fatboy Slim -
"Praise you"
Jordan Knight -
"Give It To You"
Jennifer Lopez -
"If You Had My Love"
Ricky Martin -
"Livin' La Vida Loca"
Will win:
Ricky Martin
As much as you
love or hate Martin, and as inane as the song may be, Mr. Latin Lover was
able to tear himself away from his vida loca just long enough to make a hot
video with a catchy and danceable groove.
Should
win: Fatboy Slim
Probably one of
the most creative videos in recent years, "Praise You" is one of those few
that can be watched and enjoyed repeatedly, and is one of the few reasons
remaining to oppose MTV's ever-increasing Real World reruns.
Best Rap
Video:
Tupac Shakur -
"Changes"
DMX - "Ruff
Ryder's Anthem"
Jay-Z (feat. Ja
Rule, Amil-lion) - "Can I Get AŠ"
Nas (feat. Puff
Daddy) - "Hate Me Now"
Will win:
Jay-Z
A nation of
Jigga-wannabes can't be wrong.
Should
win: Tupac Shakur
Not simply as a
tribute to this slain legend, but as a true reward for the creativity of
the video's producers and directors, should this award be granted to
"Changes." The TV screen-mosaic scene alone should win some kind of
honor.
Best R&B
Video:
Aaliyah - "Are
You That Somebody?"
Brandy - "Have
You Ever"
Lauryn Hill -
"Doo Wop (That Thing)"
Whitney Houston
- (feat. Faith Evans, Kelly Price) "Heart-break Hotel"
Will win:
Lauryn Hill
Hill's video
soars on both her popularity and the creative genius of the crew that
helped produce this video.
Should
win: Lauryn Hill
Everything else
is mere common song-and-dance fair.
Best Hip
Hop Video:
Beastie Boys -
"Intergalactic"
Busta Rhymes
(feat. Janet Jackson) - "What's It Gonna Be?"
Lauryn Hill -
"Doo Wop (That Thing)"
TLC - "No
Scrubs"
Will win:
Lauryn Hill
Of course it
doesn't make any musical sense whatsoever (or any logical sense, for that
matter) - that's what makes it patently "MTV," and almost a given.
Should
win: Beastie Boys
Comedy,
creativity, longevity and real, proven talent used to be enough to win you
something around here.
Best Rock
Video:
Limp Bizkit -
"Nookie"
Korn - "Freak on
a Leash"
Kid Rock -
"Bawitdaba"
Lenny Kravitz -
"Fly Away"
Offspring -
"Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)"
Will win:
Limp Bizkit
Dominating the
Total Request Live charts for months will be enough to carry this
video over the top. After all, "Nookie" probably had more airtime than all
the other videos combined.
Should
win: Offspring
An original and
stinging video that mocks wannabe white boy poseurs (and makes a national
icon of one at the same time), "Pretty Fly" is a joy to watch, especially
in comparison to the cliché videos of the other nominees.
Best Pop
Video:
Backstreet Boys
- "I Want It That Way"
Jennifer Lopez -
"If You Had My Love"
Ricky Martin -
"Livin' La Vida Loca"
'n Sync -
"Tearin' Up My Heart"
Britney Spears -
"ŠBaby One More Time"
Will win:
'n Sync
The biggest
"battle" of this year's VMAs will be the battle of the boy bands, something
that most of us in the double-digit ages could care less about. In this
category, 'n Sync's more up-tempo dance tune will beat out the Backstreet
Boys' love ballad.
Should
win: Backstreet Boys
In this
category, the Backstreet Boys' more up-tempo dance tune will beat out 'n
Sync's love ballad. Wait, which song are we talking about? They all sound
the sameŠ.
Breakthrough Video:
Busta Rhymes -
"Gimme Some More"
Eels - "Last
Stop This Town"
Eminem (feat.
Dr. Dre) - "Guilty Conscience"
Fatboy Slim -
"Praise You"
Korn - "Freak on
a Leash"
U.N.K.L.E. -
"Rabbit in Your Headlights"
Will win:
Eminem
Ever since Gap
used the stop-motion, rotating camera shot for its TV ads, everyone has
been trying to incorporate it into anything film-related. Before the shot
quickly becomes cliché, why not reward one of its first users in a music
video?
Should
win: U.N.K.L.E.
One of, if not
the only, "artsy" video nominee, U.N.K.L.E. captures the emotion of the
song in a gripping and eerie video that features Radiohead's Thom Yorke in
a killer car. Definitely one of the best videos of the year, U.N.K.L.E.
will likely just have to settle with a Breakthrough Video nomination and
nothing more. Honorable mention also goes to Busta Rhymes' "Gimme Some
More," a hilarious, if not disturbing, video featuring what amounts to
muppets on steroids.
Copyright 1999 by the Daily Trojan. All rights reserved.
This article was published in Vol. 138, No. 07 (Thursday, September 9, 1999), beginning on page 10 and ending on page 11.