Review: CMT Music Awards

Last night, Country Music Television (CMT) presented its annual awards show from Nashville, TN. This program has evolved over the years into a large-scale production for the cable network. Long before this program became what it is today, the show got its start as the Music City News Country Awards. That show was very much along the lines of the CMA and ACM awards shows of the day.

The CMT Music Awards are still following in the steps of the CMA and ACM shows. It's become a miserable representation of country music. In fact, last night's program was about as country as a concert headlined by Justin Bieber, with special guest, Ludacris. The show had all of the drama (none) as its CMA and ACM counterparts, with the same amount of predictability. To call this a celebration of country music is an insult to country music fans everywhere.

The show had a nice start, opening with its traditional pre-taped c

omedy sketch. This one featured Taylor Swift and Shania Twain in a spoof of the film "Thelma and Louise". Filled with several cameos by the likes of Chord "Glee" Overstreet, Donald Trump and the show's host, Kid Rock. Ater the five-minute skit was done, we were stuck with two and a half hours of off-key performances and the aforementio

ned predictable awards.

Kid Rock started his hosting duties in very awkward fashion, with a scripted segment with Wynonna Judd that culminated in a strange duet. What followed were performances by several of today's so-called "hip" country acts. The only veteran in the house was Toby Keith who did the first performance (not bad).

As the show progressed, Kid Rock got a little bit better. He had several outfit changes and even more drinks to mellow him out. Awards went to all the usual suspects. Lady Antebellum, Sugarland, Justin Bieber. That's right! The teenage pop star took home an award for his video with Rascal Flatts, who appeared on stage for Bieber's acceptance speech, to worship the teen idol. The scene was quite pathetic.

The biggest winners of the night were not even on hand. Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert won Male and Female Video, respectively. Blake pre-taped a speech, while Miranda was a no-show. The most predictable award for Video Of The Year went to Taylor Swift who accepted the award via video from a concert. Normally I would be overly angry at Taylor Swift winning the top award of the night, but this is only CMT, so it doesn't really matter.

Performers included a who's-who of today's country superstars such as Zac Brown Band, Luke Bryan and of course Ludacris. After-all, what's a country music show without a hard-core rapper? I guess Cowboy Troy wasn't available. One of the lone musical highlights from the show was the return of Big & Rich. They performed a song from a backstage set that was made to resemble "Tootsies" bar, and then magically stormed on stage to the rousing applause from a crowd that broke into a flash-mob sequence, dancing along with some hoochi-mama dancers that appeared on stage with Big Kenny and Jon.

Most notably absent this year were stars

like Kenny Chesney, Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley. Maybe they decided to steer clear of this train wreck. Or perhaps the country music establishment decided those three were no longer relevant in "today's new country". The only other let-down for me was that Lady Gaga did not make a special appearance. That's OK, though. The CMA's are only five months away. I'm sure they will be able to book Gaga or Eminem for that show.

I guess it's pretty obvious how I feel about this year's CMT Music Awards. The words "pathetic" and "joke" come to mind, but I don't want to go off on a rant here. As far as awards shows for music videos go, this show made the MTV Video Music Awards show look like the Oscars. Wait a minute. Does CMT even show music videos anymore. Guess they

are more like MTV than I thought.