Before Sunday night's American Music Awards, the flack Rihanna caught for winning the Icon Award could have easily been dismissed as hearsay–until we actually saw it happen live. Now that the show has passed and we know that there are many more deserving candidates, including some artists who performed along with her on stage that night, the real bashing can rightfully commence.
For starters, how many of the pop princess' accolades highlighted by the AMA during the award show actually mean anything? She was recognized for having 10 million Instagram followers, 33 million Twitter followers and having the most “certified” Vevo videos all-time–does Vevo even know that's a thing?
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Plus, the eight years she's actually been in our lives can't possibly be enough to warrant her beating out say Justin Timberlake whose 17 plus years as a pop star have allowed him to drop multi-platinum records on command. In the case that AMA execs just decided they had to have a female recipient, Britney Spears' umpteenth reinvention in the pop world makes her a bit more qualified than RiRi to receive the honor. After all, she dominated the game and returned to bolster her iconic value as a TV personality responsible for making music's next superstars. Add that to the fact that 6 of spears' 7 albums went No. 1 on the charts and she had her own Vegas show. Britney even takes the cake in the worst boyfriend category (we're lookin' at you, KFed).
And what did it take Janet Jackson before being deemed an icon by a much more credible institution in MTV? Seven No.1 hit singles in four years, the hottest
choreography of a decade, and a lifetime of living in a monolithic shadow.
A real icon would have showed up to the awards on a white horse that was really two people acting as a horse–that really reminded us all of that horse show, Odysseo, we'll never see– and channeling Bianca Jagger in some act of humanitarianism we'll never really understand.
Or instead, AMA's, let's make asses of ourselves and suggest the Icon Award goes to one whose maintained the image of a role model capable of inspiring belting out the lyrics Ne-Yo and The Dream often write for her. As much as we love “Throw it Up” when we're throwing dollars at strip clubs and getting sloppily twerked on Saturday nights, it's not the shit we want our little sisters singing at the Sadie's Hawkins dance. Cause when “Throw it, throw it up… Watch it fall down from the sky” becomes a senior quote, we're all pretty much doomed.
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Speaking of quotes, the comments made by British artist Damien Hirst, who claimed Rihanna's music is helping empower a generation of young women seemed like a stretch. But had she been trying to inspire those 11 million followers to make a civil change through thought-provoking tweets instead of bombarding us with pics of blunts she didn't even roll (blunt rolling skills would have definitely bolstered her case an icon), we wouldn't be writing this right now.
But BadGirlRiri's legacy is still being written and a feature on a “We Are The World”, along with a continued slew of number one hits will solidify her as icon in days ahead; it just didn't feel right last night though.
Overall the American Music Awards displayed how weak pop music is right now with only three people being in a category like Best Soul/R&B and there being no actual competition as to who'd win (JT beat out Miguel and Robin Thicke). They also showed us how atrocious their panel of judges are for not including Drake and Bruno Mars in said category.The AMAs' loses a few more points after realizing Drake won nothing at the award show this time around. On the otherhand Taylor Swift walked away with three awards including 'Artist of the Year' upon having all of one single make it into Billboard's Top 10 this year. And then Nelly performed…(crickets)
Apologies to anyone who missed the Pats-Broncos game last weekend for this debacle of a television program.
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I listen to music. I write about it. I like hot sauce on my chicken.