Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon didn’t like the VMAs, suggests MTV “fucked the dog”
When he isn’t busy performing life-affirming concerts or taking thoughtful, sensitive dumps on Milwaukee, Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon likes to kick back and watch the old boob tube. (Wisconsin celebrities: They’re just like us!) And because it was federally mandated that every God-fearing man, woman, and pregnant teen tune in to Sunday’s MTV Video Music Awards, Vernon did his duty and joined the unwashed masses in watching the endless ordeal. (Recap: Lady Gaga dressed like your younger brother; Beyonce got knocked up.) So what did the man behind Bon Iver have to say about the decidedly Bon Iver-less awards show? Spoiler alert: He didn’t like it.
Yesterday on the Bon Iver website, Vernon posted a semi-rambling, semi-coherent rant about the VMAs entitled “Some shit I just gotta say (from last night).” The new jam included winning passages such as this:
Why are we waving around so much? Why do we NEED this shit so bad? Why don’t we just have MUSIC? DO music? soul? I don’t know. I don’t mean to criticize. Anyone. Actually. Except for MTV. You might have had a very large opportunity to be stabilize your self as a global presence of culture and art about 15 years ago and you fucked the dog.
Vernon goes on bemoan MTV’s “absence of spirit, glue, fabric of what makes us a person,” and wraps things up with an intriguing question: “What would Bill Hicks say?” Sadly, we’ll never know what the influential comedian would say, though we suppose you could always ask Denis Leary.
All kidding aside, we sympathize with Vernon, and we understand his disgust. (Why can’t it just be about the music, man?) We also share his longing for a mid-’90s, non-dog-fucking MTV that featured such important artists as Coolio, Alanis Morissette, and Bush. Now there was a “global presence of culture and art” we could all get behind.
