Here we got the "iHeartRadio Music Awards 2021" that aired in late May, so still a relatively recent event I'd say overall. As you can see from m yrating, I did not like the watch here at all. Is there anything positive to say? Maybe that they only run for 85 minutes, but sadly this does not include commercials yet and there sure were a lot, so the original broadcast was probably also close to two hours. The director here was Joe DeMaio and he is really experienced when it comes to being in charge of the work behind the camera, also for (music) awards shows. This by far was not the very first of his efforts, so it seems to be a relatively safe statement to say that he is all about quantity and zero about quality. This is ot even his most recent (relatively) big awards show anymore now in the middle of June. The host we have here is Usher. Well, on a positive note I would say that he is more talented than pretty much everybody else who was part of this show. On a negative note, you could say that it is pretty self-explanatory that the song he performed near the end is really the opposite of recent and shows us he has not really had much success for a long time. Maybe not a bad thing looking at everybody who did have success. And he is still a bit of a household name. Same applies to Nelly, who was not a vital part of the show, but still seemed loved by everybody although his successes also happened a long time ago. Back to Usher, I did not like the fur he wore (that even rhymes) at the very start (was it real?) and also not the stuff at the very end when he was throwing around all this money. The epitome of decadence and money over creativity in the current music industry. Also cringeworthy to see those in the front row kinda willing to catch some money, but their status forbid it sort of. The ones further back did not have these problem.
So with Usher's worst moments, you could say that the show began and ended on a really low note. This is also true if we take The Weeknd into account, one of the big winners that night. His music does absolutely nothing for me and really telling that he is one of the defining artists right now apparently. At least in terms of awards recognition. What is just as bad is seeing all these people praise him. But I did like the fact that he actually forgot his award on stage because this shows how much he and everybody else really care about these awards. And not just this one here. Namely not at all. It's all about the money instead, but they keep up the facade that radio, their fans, MTV etc. Mean something to them. Pathetic really. With The Weeknd, I guess his ethnicity and girly voice help him a lot because both fits in really well with the current political mainstream. But he was not the only terrible winner that night. Another prime example of what's wrong with popular music nowaday would be Megan Thee Stallion. Same applies to Dua Lipa. Roddy Ricch I cannot say anything about at all, not familiar. I still think it's sad what Beyoncé has turned into after how creative she was with Destiny's Child. That was real emancipation. What she has been doing for years now, probably over a decade is just soulless mainstream. She has the talent. To a lesser extent you can say the same about Taylor Swift probably. She also received an award here and responded with a brief video message. Apart from that, this awards show had the same problem like many other music awards shows and that is a key issue really. There were so many performances that it did not feel like an awards show anymore. And at the same time, they did not include so, so many awards. Or rushed them in briefly before or after a commercial break by just mentioning the winner. Equally disrespectful to both winners and nominees there. An absolute no-go.
Tough to say what the worst part of the show was. I guess when the biggest award of the night is presented by Machine Gun Kelly, that is fairly self-explanatory as well. Or maybe the worst part was the entire Elton John segment. Not just how he is of course also Lady Gaga's mentor. Kinda sad to see him agree to be a part of this mess and really be so at the very center of it all even. His popularity has clearly risen and some of his songs have also become more famous since his biopic not too long ago. I don't think, however, that he handles his new popularity the way he should. I mean this show here was a travesty. No offense to Lil Nas X, I actually like his famous song with Miley's dad, but I have no clue what he was doing there at all and then they treated him as some kind of soon-to-be icon as well. He has barely had a career. Of course, this praise may also have to do more with his ethnicity and the fact that he came out of the closet a while ago, which may be even tougher for a Black man in his community. That I would agree with. Or probably also not too difficult for a really famous Black man, but rather for one in the ghetto. I'd like to see that. But people are only talking about homosexuals in rural areas and their obstacles. Oh well, back to the show now: Demi Lovato being a key figure in an Elton John career tribute? Yeah right, no words for that really. I mean she tried her best, but in the end she was not better (maybe even worse) than H. E. R. These two were literally impersonating him. It was embarrassing, just like E. J. liking what he saw. Or pretending he liked it. However, if we give Oscars to stuff like that, then we should not be surprised about these people really defining the music industry for years. When they talked about The Weeknd's potential longevity, it really sounded more like a threat to me to be honest.
What is the key then? The key would be to stop watching these shows as long as they feature these highly limited mainstream artists. That is of course not too easy because a vital part of these shows is basically said artists constantly praising each other to a vomit-inducing level really and they seem to use the strategy that you simply say it often enough how amazing and talented everybody there is (of course, they are all each other's best friends as well) until the simple-minded have no other choice than believe it. And sadly there's many of them. You could almost call it exposure to sonic waves and these sonic waves are statement delivering the desired message. I applaud everybody who does not fall for this, who sees quality when it is there and is able to ignore the lack of quality that was so present during this entire show (the lack I mean). There are many genuinely talented artists out there, but these are not the ones defining the charts right now. Not the ones who sell millions of records on a regular basis. That's why everybody should also question what records or digital downloads they are buying. Unfortunately there, the art of make-believe I was just talking about early on in this paragraph has delivered the expected results. The desired results. As for this show, maybe you can also say that it was not really a political event this time, but why would it be. The American election is long over and there are no upcoming Senate elections either. But of course in a more subtle manner subjects like sexual orientation and race issues were also a factor here. Oh yes, I was kinda wrong. There was a huge political issue here, namely the pandemic. We had audiences, but they all wore masks and the artists (or "artists") talked a lot about the pandemic as well from several perspectives. And the way it impacted them. Final words: I kinda thought Chris Martin was more classy as well. That's it now. Huge thumbs-down for this show and I highly recommend to skip it. I hope that they skip the 2022 editions if it turns out as bad as the one in 2021. And previous years. Not that there is any chance for that to happen. They will surely keep going going with the art of make-believe here.
So with Usher's worst moments, you could say that the show began and ended on a really low note. This is also true if we take The Weeknd into account, one of the big winners that night. His music does absolutely nothing for me and really telling that he is one of the defining artists right now apparently. At least in terms of awards recognition. What is just as bad is seeing all these people praise him. But I did like the fact that he actually forgot his award on stage because this shows how much he and everybody else really care about these awards. And not just this one here. Namely not at all. It's all about the money instead, but they keep up the facade that radio, their fans, MTV etc. Mean something to them. Pathetic really. With The Weeknd, I guess his ethnicity and girly voice help him a lot because both fits in really well with the current political mainstream. But he was not the only terrible winner that night. Another prime example of what's wrong with popular music nowaday would be Megan Thee Stallion. Same applies to Dua Lipa. Roddy Ricch I cannot say anything about at all, not familiar. I still think it's sad what Beyoncé has turned into after how creative she was with Destiny's Child. That was real emancipation. What she has been doing for years now, probably over a decade is just soulless mainstream. She has the talent. To a lesser extent you can say the same about Taylor Swift probably. She also received an award here and responded with a brief video message. Apart from that, this awards show had the same problem like many other music awards shows and that is a key issue really. There were so many performances that it did not feel like an awards show anymore. And at the same time, they did not include so, so many awards. Or rushed them in briefly before or after a commercial break by just mentioning the winner. Equally disrespectful to both winners and nominees there. An absolute no-go.
Tough to say what the worst part of the show was. I guess when the biggest award of the night is presented by Machine Gun Kelly, that is fairly self-explanatory as well. Or maybe the worst part was the entire Elton John segment. Not just how he is of course also Lady Gaga's mentor. Kinda sad to see him agree to be a part of this mess and really be so at the very center of it all even. His popularity has clearly risen and some of his songs have also become more famous since his biopic not too long ago. I don't think, however, that he handles his new popularity the way he should. I mean this show here was a travesty. No offense to Lil Nas X, I actually like his famous song with Miley's dad, but I have no clue what he was doing there at all and then they treated him as some kind of soon-to-be icon as well. He has barely had a career. Of course, this praise may also have to do more with his ethnicity and the fact that he came out of the closet a while ago, which may be even tougher for a Black man in his community. That I would agree with. Or probably also not too difficult for a really famous Black man, but rather for one in the ghetto. I'd like to see that. But people are only talking about homosexuals in rural areas and their obstacles. Oh well, back to the show now: Demi Lovato being a key figure in an Elton John career tribute? Yeah right, no words for that really. I mean she tried her best, but in the end she was not better (maybe even worse) than H. E. R. These two were literally impersonating him. It was embarrassing, just like E. J. liking what he saw. Or pretending he liked it. However, if we give Oscars to stuff like that, then we should not be surprised about these people really defining the music industry for years. When they talked about The Weeknd's potential longevity, it really sounded more like a threat to me to be honest.
What is the key then? The key would be to stop watching these shows as long as they feature these highly limited mainstream artists. That is of course not too easy because a vital part of these shows is basically said artists constantly praising each other to a vomit-inducing level really and they seem to use the strategy that you simply say it often enough how amazing and talented everybody there is (of course, they are all each other's best friends as well) until the simple-minded have no other choice than believe it. And sadly there's many of them. You could almost call it exposure to sonic waves and these sonic waves are statement delivering the desired message. I applaud everybody who does not fall for this, who sees quality when it is there and is able to ignore the lack of quality that was so present during this entire show (the lack I mean). There are many genuinely talented artists out there, but these are not the ones defining the charts right now. Not the ones who sell millions of records on a regular basis. That's why everybody should also question what records or digital downloads they are buying. Unfortunately there, the art of make-believe I was just talking about early on in this paragraph has delivered the expected results. The desired results. As for this show, maybe you can also say that it was not really a political event this time, but why would it be. The American election is long over and there are no upcoming Senate elections either. But of course in a more subtle manner subjects like sexual orientation and race issues were also a factor here. Oh yes, I was kinda wrong. There was a huge political issue here, namely the pandemic. We had audiences, but they all wore masks and the artists (or "artists") talked a lot about the pandemic as well from several perspectives. And the way it impacted them. Final words: I kinda thought Chris Martin was more classy as well. That's it now. Huge thumbs-down for this show and I highly recommend to skip it. I hope that they skip the 2022 editions if it turns out as bad as the one in 2021. And previous years. Not that there is any chance for that to happen. They will surely keep going going with the art of make-believe here.
