Last week, MTV Europe announced the nominees for the MTV Europe Music Awards. Since Europe produces high-caliber music, it seems many bands would be in the running for awards; however, the unveiled bands were almost all unoriginal American artists and musicians. MTV Europe has forgotten the most important element in this award show, the European bands.
In British music magazine NME, the headline for the award show said, \Outkast lead the EMA way."" This doesn't seem extremely unusual because Outkast created a phenomenal album. The nominees for Best Album were especially astounding and even laughable. Beyonc??, Black Eyed Peas, Dido, Outkast and Usher are the bands in the running for Best Album. Except for Outkast, these bands, even by American standards, should not be in the running for Best Album, let alone by European music standards. At least MTV Europe put one artist from Europe in the running--Dido-but many other bands are much more credible, talented and deserving of the award than those who were nominated.
This past year Muse created waves in both Europe and the United States, and their entire album achieves what Radiohead attempts. It is completely wonderful and deserving of being named Best Album. But they weren't nominated. Thankfully, they are up for two awards: Best Alternative Act and Best UK and Ireland Act. The latter category also proves to be somewhat odd. Why would MTV Europe create this award category when their focus should already be on European bands? This seems pretty strange seeing as this show should be already geared toward Europe.
The category of Best UK and Ireland Act neglected to award the seemingly unique acts form the area. Instead, MTV Europe nominated three acts who have conformed to American pop music standards: The Streets, Jamelia and Natasha Bedingfield. Why didn't MTV decide to nominate Irish artists such as The Frames or Damien Rice who have produced amazing albums and created a worldwide following? The Streets and Jamelia sound like all the generic American entertainers, whereas Damien Rice offers refreshing music mixing amazing lyrics with guitar and cello.
Perhaps MTV wants to homogenize the entire music scene and pay homage to only the European bands that live up to American pop standards. These standards, however, are bogus, giving awards to artists who are conforming to the tastes in music of people not watching the network.
Another category that is an extreme travesty, is the award for Best Female. Europe has a plethora of wonderful female musicians paving the way for many original and distinctive females to be heard. Bj??rk, who just released an innovative album using all vocals and no instruments, is definitely worthy of a nomination not only as an Icelandic singer, but as an inventive, respected artist. Additionally, PJ Harvey, a musician from the UK who recently released an album, has a respected career as a musician and should be honored for her talent. Regina Spektor, a talented singer and pianist born in the former Soviet Union, is breaking ground and receiving attention worldwide.
These female artists are not only representative of the European music scene, but are talented and popular within their own right. Yet these respected European female musicians receive no attention in this award show most likely because they don't sound like the shallow American pop stars. Once again, MTV neglected to pay homage to these talented European female artists and resorted to nominating conventional entertainers including Britney Spears, Beyonce, Avril Lavigne, Anastacia and Alicia Keys for Best Female. None of them seem extremely deserving of this award; three are nominees in the American MTV Awards.
The nominations for Best Alternative Act remain pretty solid including Franz Ferdinand, Muse, Bj??rk and The Hives. Franz Ferdinand, from the UK, is also up for Best New Act and Best UK and Ireland Act allowing some European influence to be a part of this award show. Even though Franz Ferdinand represents Europe the best according to his numerous nominations, the band should also be included in the running for Best Song and Best Video. Instead, those two award categories are almost exclusively reserved for American or American wannabe artists.
The award for Best New Act is also astounding. The award committee neglected to reserve spots for Junior Senior, Muse and The Darkness. While they include Franz Ferdinand, MTV nominated Jamelia, Keane, Maroon 5 and The Rasmus. These artists are completely unrepresentative of Best New Acts of Europe. Fortunately, The Darkness was nominated for Best Rock, but they are worthy of more nominations such as Best Song. Similarly, The Hives' talent and music style are completely unappreciated according to the lack of nominations they received from this award show.
With Best Group, it is no surprise that, once again, no European bands were nominated even though many are extremely commendable, talented, creative and, most importantly, better than the nominated bands. While common sense dictates that the nomination committee should put a number of European's finest bands on the list, they remain absent from the ballot.
These European nominations prove just how lousy the music industry is and that MTV can dictate who is deserving of awards. While talented and respectable musicians fail to be heard and awarded. The MTV Europe Music Awards fails to promote the amazing European arts scene. This award show proves how political the music industry is, and it illustrates how American pop standards are, unfortunately, the epitome of music standards for the entire world. These awards keep the numerous talented European bands from the recognition they deserve.
Beth Wick is a sophomore majoring in journalism. Contact her at eawick@wisc.edu.
