Today (August 18th) marked the reveal for the nominees for MTV's Video Music Awards, a decades-long institution of honoring the best visuals in music. For those of us in the nu world, it's a bitter pill, as for the first time in its existence, there is no Best Rock category. This is a huge blow to the representation that rock of any flavor has in the mainstream, and that's already been dwindling in the Twenties.
Begrudgingly, mgk may have been onto something when he penned the line "rock's not dead long as I'm alive," as his song "fix ur face" with Fred Durst notched a nomination in the Best Alternative category. This marks the only nomination that the nu world can even reach to claim, as the field is largely dominated by pop icons like Sabrina Carpenter and Taylor Swift.
This feels beyond just cycling out old talent for new, but rather a betrayal of what brought MTV their fame in the first place. We can speculate about this being a product of the recent acquisition of CBS Paramount by the Ellisons, or if MTV really has just shrugged off rock and roll altogether, or some combination thereof, but when we're grasping at straws - or shoelaces, as it were with mgk - to find any representation, it's a sad state of affairs.
If this is indeed the curtain call for Best Rock at the VMAs, at least the category got a decent send-off with the all-star tribute to the godfather of heavy metal himself, Ozzy Osbourne.
In any case, the song has landed a nomination, and for a first foray into proper nu metal that got notice from WWE, to the point where they used it as the theme song for this year's SummerSlam, that's no small feat for the Cleveland native and the self-professed redneck fucker from Jacksonville.
For those inclined, voting has opened up here, with the awards ceremony slated for Sunday, September 27th, streaming on Paramount+ and airing on MTV.
