VMA Nomination Reaction

Hello everyone! In case you haven't heard, the nominations for the MTV Video Music Awards were announced today. Of course, this show is less about the awards and more about the performances, but it's always fun to see what MTV thinks is hip and worthy of a nomination. This year, Drake and Rihanna lead the nominations with five a piece, and defending Video of the Year winner Katy Perry scored four nominations. Lord of the Teen Girls, Justin Bieber, and his protege, Carly Rae Jepsen, were each given a healthy dose of recognition as well. Here's some analysis:

Video of the Year:
Wide Awake - Katy Perry
Somebody That I Used to Know - Gotye feat. Kimbra
We Found Love - Rihanna
Take Care - Drake feat. Rihanna
Bad Girls - MIA

Katy Perry's nomination comes a year after her win for the Firework music video, so can she repeat? Gotye's single had the most chart success out of these nominees, but the simple video may not be enough to warrant a win. Rihanna's dance anthem was a huge success, but the video is very dark and revealing. Can she win for a video that is very sad and personal? Maybe she'll have better luck winning for Drake's video, an elegant work that also was criticized for not being very "hardcore," (of course, I don't think of hardcore when I think of Drake). Finally, I've never seen MIA's video, nor do I have any desire to, but she's up against some huge names, and it'd take a miracle for her to win. I'm predicting a win for Rihanna with "We Found Love."


Best New Artist:
We Are Young - Fun. feat. Janelle Monae
Call Me Maybe - Carly Rae Jepsen
Swim Good - Frank Ocean
What Makes You Beautiful - One Direction
Glad You Came - The Wanted

What a battle! A lot of big songs here. Fun. has a huge hit and the video is really good, so they're definitely in the race. Call Me Maybe, the song of the summer, has a really fun video and this award could cap the beginning of Carly's career. Frank Ocean recently came onto the scene, but he's still a little underground. One Direction, the band that could fart into a microphone and teenage girls would call it "art," stand a great shot at taking the award with a fun video (just to be clear, I like One Direction, and I'm sure even teenage girls would realize farting = great music). Finally, The Wanted, that other British pop band, have a slight chance, but this is a fan-voted category. Teenage girls love One Direction, but Lord Bieber did sign Jepsen and could command his fans for their votes. In the end, I'm thinking 1D is taking home their first VMA.


Best Male Video:
Boyfriend - Justin Bieber
Swim Good - Frank Ocean
Take Care - Drake feat. Rihanna
Turn Up the Music - Chris Brown
Climax - Usher

This one seems like a given. While Frank Ocean has fans, he's still growing as his album only came out a few weeks ago. Drake's video could take the award and the Rihanna feature certainly helps his chances. Girls still love Chris Brown (even though I've never been able to fully forgive him for that mess with Rihanna) and it could garner him a lot of votes. People are more familiar with Scream than Climax, and Usher's popularity amongst youngsters isn't as big as Drake's and Brown's. But it doesn't matter. Lord Bieber has basically got this one in the bag.


Best Female Video:
We Found Love - Rihanna
Part of Me - Katy Perry
Love on Top - Beyonce
Starships - Nicki Minaj
Love You Like a Love Song - Selena Gomez

Although Katy and Rihanna are the only nominees here that also have a Video of the Year nod, it doesn't mean one of them is guaranteed to take this race (remember in 2008 when T. Swift beat Beyonce for a smaller award, but Queen B took the grand prize?). That being said, Perry has a different video nominated here, one I think is still weaker than the video for Wide Awake, but there's a strong female empowerment tone, and that could get her votes. Beyonce's video is vintage and a lot of fun, with great choreography, and if she wins, she could be beckoned back into the spotlight after giving birth. No one may ever understand what the heck is actually happening in Nicki's video, but it's still fun! I actually really liked Selena's video, I thought the color scheme and art direction was really great, but I'm not sure she'll win this. I'm thinking the Barbz will send Nicki Minaj to the stage with a win here.


Best Pop Video:
What Makes You Beautiful - One Direction
We Are Young - Fun. feat. Janelle Monae
We Found Love - Rihanna
Boyfriend - Justin Bieber
Payphone - Maroon 5 feat. Wiz Khalifa

This is the battle to end all battles, the war to end all wars: One Direction vs. Lord Bieber. Sure, the videos for We Are Young and We Found Love are really great, and the video for Payphone is probably the most "epic" out of them all, but when it comes down to it, these are fan-voted awards and Lord Bieber and 1D have the biggest fan bases out there. The question is, whose is more powerful? The winner of this award could answer that question once and for all. And since we're discussing fan bases, let's predict the winner by looking at who has the largest fan base on the biggest social networking site of them all, Twitter. The official One Direction Twitter has 5 million followers, with each member averaging around the same number. Lord Bieber? 25.8 million.


For a full list of categories, visit the official VMA website. You can also cast your ballot there! Want others to know who you're predicting? Comment below!

Evan