The 2014 American Music Awards aired on ABC last night, and if you caught the show, you were treated to some bizarre moments. Selena Gomez's performance of "The Heart Wants What It Wants" made bestie Taylor Swift cry. Fergie returned to the stage with a wardrobe malfunction. And Lorde was just Lorde.
When I say if you saw the awards show last night, I do mean if. Do people actually watch the AMAs? It doesn't have the prestige of the Grammys, which is the highest honor in American music. It doesn't have the crazy reputation of the MTV Video Music Awards, which famously takes the term "anything goes" to a whole new level. It airs right before Thanksgiving when the public only has turkey on the brain anyway. What, then, are the AMAs place among the various music awards shows on TV today?
Unlike the Grammys, the AMAs are less about the quality of the music and more about the current popularity of the artist. You have your typical music awards show categories, such as "Artist of the Year," "Single of the Year," "New Artist of the Year" and winners for specific genres. Here's how the nominees for the awards are determined, according to the AMAs official website:
"American Music Awards nominees are based on key fan interactions as reflected in Billboard Magazine and on Billboard.com, including album and digital singles sales, radio airplay, streaming and social activity. These measurements are tracked by Billboard and its data partners, including Nielsen Entertainment and Next Big Sound."
Votes from fans on Twitter and through the AMAs official website helped determine the winners of some of the categories, including "New Artist of the Year."
The AMAs are also under the purview of Dick Clark Productions, which puts on a whole host of awards shows that don't really matter every year (sorry, not sorry) but that entertain us nonetheless. Other awards shows under this umbrella include the Golden Globe Awards, Billboard Music Awards and Academy of Country Music Awards. Yeah. Now do you get what I mean?
But let's be real here. The AMAs are really just another excuse to see the hottest artists of today perform their latest singles. That's basically the purpose of all music awards shows these days anyway, even the prestigious Grammys. This year's AMAs were chock full of performances, from Swift to One Direction to Iggy Azalea. This has never been more the case than today when every artist wants to be responsible for the moments of the night that go viral or inspire massive amounts of online chatter.
Yes, the AMAs are really more about style than substance, sales more than quality. I don't feel like I can take the awards show too seriously, but that would be kind of missing the point anyway.
