Kiss rocks music awards
COMMENTARY
Eugene Chu

MTV held its 2003 Video Music Awards last Thursday. The show’s opening act was Madonna performing her classic “Like A Virgin,” accompanied by Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and Missy Elliot. Madonna and Missy Elliot wore black outfits, while Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera wore low-cut white wedding gowns as a tribute to Madonna’s original performance. Nobody seemed shocked when they all performed and included some sexual innuendo in their dancing. The real shock came after the group ended their performance and Madonna gave open-mouth kisses to both Spears and Aguilera.

I won’t be facetious about this topic. I admit that I like sexy women and that sex appeal has existed in music long before the music video. The problem is the sex appeal in modern music is like food with too much salt. While a little bit of salt is good, too much of it ruins the taste. One focuses on the salt rather than the original flavor. When I see a music video, I prefer good music and scenery with little sex appeal rather than vice-versa. I expected to see the great musical performances of talented sexy female artists on MTV. Instead, I wondered if I had selected the Spice channel by accident.

Admittedly, Madonna, Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera are sex symbols as well as singers. Despite their sex symbol status, I can remember several instances where they each produced musical hits without excessive sexual overtones. Music videos from Madonna’s late 1990s period with “Frozen”, “Power of Goodbye” and “Ray of Light” reached the top 10 charts without overpowering sex appeal. Britney Spears’ “Crazy” video relied on artistic dance routine rather than sexual dancing in a Catholic schoolgirl outfit. Christina Aguilera relied on simple sentimentality for her “I Turn To You” video before she changed her sexual image for her aptly named “Dirty” video. Even though these ladies have produced some significant hits without over-sexed videos, they still seem to live by the mantra: Sex sells. Despite that mantra’s emphasis in today’s society, upright singer Mandy Moore has succeeded in spite of it.

Mandy Moore has already achieved results similar to Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, her music industry peers. She has produced several musical hits such as “Candy”, “I Wanna Be With You”, and “Crush.” Along with her musical career, she has starred in the movie “A Walk to Remember” and the video game hit “Kingdom Hearts.” In her music videos, she has never used provocative dance moves or girl-on-girl kissing. Instead, she has relied on her wholesome image and musical talent. While one would expect a wholesome image to be a financial and sexual turn-off, Mandy Moore still produces hits and receives a significant amount of entertainment press coverage.

Back in 1984, Madonna performed “Like A Virgin,” for the first-ever MTV Video Music Awards. While the original performance had its sexual elements, it still seemed like a musical presentation. In last Thursday’s performance, it seemed like sex appeal took priority over the music. I enjoyed the scenery and the new voices crooning Madonna’s old hit, but the ‘lesbian lips’ at the end seemed ostentatious rather than entertaining. While the primary purpose of the ceremony is to recognize talented musicians and music videos, this year’s event focused on something else.

Eugene Chu is a senior political science major from Arlington.