Monday, May 23, 2016

The Billboard Music Awards 2016: Pathetic

I watched the Billboard Music Awards last night on television.  I could hardly believe my eyes or ears, that anyone would put such talentless and artless crap on television and call it music.

Britney Spears did a kind of slow walk-through of a dance(?) routine, singing or chanting or making barely audible sounds in any case.  Her routine was very simple and meaningless, like something a child would learn in grade school for an entertain-the-parents play.  Also, the words were stupid, the music awful.  Any teenage garage band could have done better.  The people in the audience clapped listlessly at the end of each number, like "Whatever."  No one seemed impressed.

Justin Bieber was also terrible.  Stupid songs, no tune, no beat, meaningless words, and Bieber's voice was completely blah.  The searing mediocrity of the performances was not hidden by the overuse of lighting effects and pyrotechnics.  One lady sang suspended from a large, burning clock.  Nice, but actual music and talent cannot be replaced with gimmicks.

There was one other singer, a young male who started playing an acoustic guitar, then moved to a room where a simulated downpour could be seen through the windows, where he then switched to piano.  His voice wasn't too bad, but again the song was to barf for.  My wife noted that the song "had no hook," and she was right.

The state of American music is at such a low point, there is opportunity for a new star to arise from the ashes.  Someone who can sing and play and provide a beat that makes one want to move his feet.  If they hurry, they won't have hardly any competition at all.  Somewhere out there is the next Elvis, the next Beatles, the next Michael Jackson.  Let's hope he, she or they show up soon.

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