HOT: VMAs Remove Gender
Did you know that, after years ago turning its back on music videos, MTV still does an “MTV Video Music Awards” program? Presumably to celebrate the music clips you can’t see on MTV anymore (therefore making it basically a commercial for YouTube), the show returns this month with a tiny progressive twist on the longtime trophies it doles out. Previously known as the “Moonman,” the channel will spend absolutely no money to change the VMAs’ already faceless, genderless astronaut trophy to a “Moon Person.” The gesture follows a previously announced and much more substantial move — gender-specific categories like “Best Female Video” have been eliminated.
WARM: Cuts Like a Knife
Not long ago, it seemed like singer/songwriter Ryan Adams had started to mellow out and develop thicker skin when it came to playful jabs or other criticism (fun fact: CityBeat’s music editor is one of many he has blocked on Twitter!). But after apparently reading the New York Rock scene book Meet Me in the Bathroom (for which he was interviewed), Adams pulled a Trump and went on a tweetstorm to roast former pals The Strokes. Passages in the book insinuated that Adams was responsible for getting Strokes guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. hooked on heroin, prodding Adams to tweet, “(Strokes singer) Julian Casablancas: who got you strung out on lasagna tho?” Besides further weight-shaming for Casablancas, the former Mr. Mandy Moore also managed to insult The Killers and Hammond Jr.’s father.
COLD: D-Bag Blames Logic
Star baseball player Bryce Harper seems like the kind of bro who’d listen to Florida Georgia Line or generic EDM to get pumped up for a game. But after getting ejected (again) for bitching about a call to an umpire during a game recently, he told reporters in a post-game interview that it was because he got “a little fired up” listening to “5AM” by rapper Logic. Harper joked that he needs to mix some “Temptations and some of those Jazz bands” into his pregame listening ritual.
Be careful:
This article appears in Aug 2-9, 2017.