Part of me thinks: "Now there's 2 hours of my life I'll never get back".
Watching the mega-extravaganza MMVA's snuggled with my 10-year old son is a significantly different experience than what felt like a million years ago when I was onstage as one of the hosts of the original MMVA's.
Let's be frank here. I am not into the music, the culture or the VJ's that kids today get. MuchMusic isn't for parents - it's pop culture for the teen set.
I get that.
(At least it better be, because the lower third graphics on the show were so small, only a teenager's eyes could read that tiny print)
And yet...
Back in my day, production values were significantly lower, but a crazy passion for Canadian culture was magnificently higher. The MMVA's were created to celebrate our own. Our stage was dinky, our rock show lighting was fine and the camera work was creatively shot by our regular shooters. With a next-to-nothing budget, we pulled together a quirky, homemade mix of your fave Canadian performers, many of them friends from their many visits to Much over the years.
Everyone who worked on the show had a few things in common - a passion for music and pride in Canada. And that combination was what made the MMVA's endearing and culturally important. We didn't need to find big stars from the US to make the show rock. We did it on our own.
The MMVA's last night was a spectacle - a mega concert with the finest of everything for the viewers including the validation of big American stars, but it was missing heart. When US teen starlet host Selena Gomez handed out awards to our Canadian artists, the Biebs aside, she was congratulating strangers. There was no real emotion, no genuine excitement for the winners because she's not one of us. She was just borrowed to bring the glitz.
The over-used buzz word in social media today is "authenticity". As big and brash as the final show was, it lacked heart and passion and an authentic love of the art of Canadian music.
Call me old fashioned, but I'd take a smaller stage with bigger home grown talent any day. That's a show I'd be proud to watch with my son.
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