We experience things in reactions now, rather than head on. As has become the norm, the best way to engage with the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards, which aired on MTV Sunday night from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, was to follow along with the slanderous jokes and instantly-available GIFs of memorable moments on Twitter.
Inside the arena, too, it seemed as if not paying direct attention was the norm, if the cutaway shots during the show of the famous and bored were any indication – One Direction studiously mute during the brief ‘NSync reunion, Drake averting his eyes as Miley Cyrus twerked, Rihanna barely moving her head for anyone.
To be fair to the celebrities trapped inside the Barclays Center, though, there wasn’t much to look at during the VMAs this year, and even less reason to look at it. An award show celebrating music videos that are almost never aired on MTV, it is the final thread connecting the MTV of Snooki and “Teen Mom” to its roots – this was the 30th annual installment of the extravaganza. At this point, it serves largely as an implicit rejoinder to the Grammys, a place where the kids can play safely without fear of Adele stealing their lunch money and Moonman statues.
Source: New York Times