Anyone who remembers MTV's glory days in the '90s knows that MTV is far from the music television network it used to be. Back in the day, MTV was the sound of a rebellious young generation who used music to send messages to the world. Despite the fact that television today is dominated by reality shows, it still has some significant events like the Video Music Awards, which honored so many great musicians over the years. That is why it's surprising and a bit depressing that the producers of the show would show a lack of respect for Chris Cornell and Chester Bennington, two musicians who were a part of MTV's glory days.
Chris and Chester
In case you're not familiar with these two singers, here's a bit of background on them. Cornell was born in Seattle in 1964 and belonged to the so-called Seattle sound, often referred to as grunge. He first gained recognition with his band Soundgarden, but went on to create musical projects like Temple of the Dog, Audioslave, and other solo projects. Cornell was known for his incredible vocal abilities and was considered by many to be one of the greatest rock singers of all time. He committed suicide on May 18, this year.
Now, you might not like Linkin Park, but to say that the band didn't matter back at the beginning of the century would simply be a lie. When "Hybrid Theory" was released in 2000, Linkin Park was one of the hottest new bands out there.
It carried the new sound of the young generations and addressed common problems of the youth like depression. Chester was a good friend with Chris Cornell and killed himself on Cornell's birthday just a few months after his death.
Video Music Awards Incident
The whole segment paying tribute to Chester and Chris during the VMA this year felt really out of place.
Jared Leto gave a heartfelt speech about the two men, but the crowd wasn't quite cooperating. At one point, he asked the people to stand up and honor these great singers, but they didn't, so he had to ask them again and wait. As a part of the tribute, they showed us Linkin Park's performance at 2010 VMAs, only to cut it off mid-song and go to commercials.
Looking at the crowd, it seemed fairly obvious that these were new fans of new music and that VMAs is no longer a place for honoring great music stars.
Fan Reactions
Numerous fans reacted to MTV's lack of respect for the two singers on various forums and, of course, Reddit. One of the fervent Soundgarden fans stated that his favorite band was always underappreciated by the mainstream audience and that most fans made peace with it long time ago. However, MTV was one of those networks that introduced Soundgarden to many people and helped the band grow, so this poor tribute felt like a betrayal of the good old MTV. Countless fans also felt annoyance with the VMA audience who was so reluctant to even stand up at Jared Leto's request and pay tribute properly.
Others were enraged that Chris Cornell was barely mentioned. All in all, this poorly executed tribute was an insult to a lot of fans out there.
How do you feel about it? Have you watched the VMAs this year?
