Peaceful encounters

The 2000 MTV VMAs

by Matt Ashare

Rage Against the Machine

Hopes were running high on the eve of this year's MTV Video Music Awards extravaganza, which took place a week ago Thursday at New York City's Radio City Music Hall. After the violent incident that marred the Source Awards earlier this year, and taking into account the apparent bad blood between white rapper Eminem and teeny-poppers Britney Spears and 'N Sync (he disses both of them on his platinum-plus sophomore disc The Marshall Mathers LP), all of whom were nominated for several awards (indeed, Eminem was going up against 'N Sync in the, uh, highly coveted "Best Video of the Year" category), one had to consider the tantalizing possibility that sparks might fly. And then there was the presence of Metallica's Lars Ulrich, whose band have been at the forefront of the unpopular battle to disarm Napster -- would some angry hacker try to turn the VMAs into a virtual nightmare for the Danish drummer? Well, probably not, but one could always hope.

In the end, though, the Slim Shady pretty much stuck to the harmless script, Ulrich failed to react when MTV invited one of Napster's founders (decked out in a Metallica T-shirt, no less) up to the podium to present an award, and it was left to Rage Against the Machine to inject the evening's events with a juicy bit of controversy. The activist band's performance went off without a hitch, as singer Zack de la Rocha appeared painfully aware that this was neither the time nor the place for fiery political statements or social protests. He seemed happy enough to just get the damn thing over with. But bassist Tim C. stayed behind for a post-performance antic and wound up in jail for the night. That's right: a bona fide member of Rage Against the Machine was led off in handcuffs from MTV's Video Music Awards ceremony and locked away until the next morning. His crime? Well, he climbed up onto a piece of the stage set while Limp Bizkit were accepting their award and rocked back and forth, apparently in a fruitless attempt to bring it crashing down. After being coaxed down with promises of more Jaeger or something, he clashed with the cops who'd been called, presumably before anyone realized he was a member of one of the bands who'd just performed. I know I didn't recognize him -- it wasn't until the post-awards wrap up that I learned who he was.

In any case, we had someone actually trying to make a statement at the VMAs with something other than an outrageously skimpy evening dress. Just what that statement was remains a mystery, though I'm guessing that the cops had a pretty good laugh when they realized they had a member of Rage Against the Machine in custody.

Other than that, the 2000 MTV VMAs were a complete bust. There was nothing in the way of sparring -- verbal or otherwise -- between Eminem's posse and the teeny-popper contingent. Kurt Loder even got Em to admit in a post-show interview that he doesn't have any "differences" with Britney or 'N Sync, he just doesn't like any of them. And Fred Durst, Limp Bizkit's hard-guy vocalist, built a bridge of sorts between the rap-rock and teeny-pop communities when he joined Christina Aguilera (who's developed an annoying tendency toward Mariah-style over-vocalizing) on stage for a duet that I assume was the "big surprise" she'd promised in a pre-show interview. Hell, George W.'s asides to Dick Cheney are spicier and more confrontational than anything anyone had to say at the VMAs.

So if there's a lesson to be learned from this year's event, it's that Britney and Eminem are really two sides of the same old coin that's kept the pop industry in business since Elvis first captured the imagination of the young and the restless: teen escapism. On the one hand you've got Britney, whose lack of talent (she can't really sing or dance) appeals to the notion that you too can be a star if you just try hard enough and play by the rules. On the other there's Em, who embodies the triumph of the young rebel at its most basic level. Both are fantasies that have an obvious attraction for teenagers, and the illusion of conflict between them is just that -- though it does keep people tuning in to otherwise uneventful events like the VMAs. Because, really, there's only so much you can say about the silly arrest of the bassist from Rage Against the Machine.