Kanye Steals Taylor Swift's Spotlight
Was Kanye's Stunt Staged or Was His Message Sincere?
Sep 14, 2009
In September 2009, MTV aired the 2009 Video Music Awards. This seems to be the only music-related thing on MTV nowadays, but that is neither here nor there. The VMAs are always stuffed with controversial moments, and this year was no different.
After winning the coveted "moon man" award for best female video, country singer Taylor Swift came on stage to accept her award. After thanking her fans and telling them how grateful she was for this award, Kanye West came out of nowhere and stole the microphone from Taylor.
A shocked Taylor stood and watched as Kanye said he was happy for Taylor, but also said that Beyonce had "one of the best videos of all time." He then promptly left the stage to boos from the crowd. Here is the video in case you missed it.
Kanye West Is Promoting Himself
Taylor Swift fans may see Kanye's stunt as an attack on Taylor. However, this is nothing more than self-promotion. Kanye has a new album coming out in November and he wants to get any press that he can. Some people may question the way he went about getting in the spotlight, but as they say: "any press is good press."
However, you may be thinking "If Kanye acts like a jerk on national television, won't people be less inclined to buy his album?" The answer to this question is yes...and no.
Kanye no doubt alienated Taylor Swift and country fans. Those people will probably not be buying a Kanye CD anytime soon. He also most likely upset casual Kanye fans. These are the people that may like some of Kanye's music, but may only buy a song or two rather than the whole album. However, his record sales will not suffer as a result of this controversy.
Die-Hard Fans Will Still Buy Album
As stated earlier, Kanye is no stranger to controversial moments. He said "George Bush doesn't care about black people," during a telethon to raise money for Hurricane Katrina victims. And in regards to the grammy nominations in 2005, he said "If I don't win Album of the Year, I'm gonna really have a problem with that," according to MTV.com.
Even after these controversial moments, people still continued to buy Kanye's albums. All Kanye has to do is apologize for his stunts, and the hardcore fans will forgive him and continue to support him. According to the Los Angeles Times, that is just what Kanye did after he interrupted Taylor. He apologized on his blog and all of his fans will no doubt argue that he is truly sorry for what he did.
Whether he is truly sorry or not is a debate for another day. However, what Kanye did was for his own self-promotion and nothing more. People will swear him off claiming to boycott his music. However, history has shown us that people will still buy his albums despite his arrogance and lack of respect for other people.
