Independent Research Project
By: Nikhail Maestas
The
MTV Video Music Awards are an awards show where the cable channel MTV honors
the best music videos of each year. The
winners are chosen by fan votes. The
first show was held in 1984 and has since been an extremely popular event for
younger generations. The show is known
to draw millions of viewers each year.
The underlying social order within the show is well established; whoever
has the microphone has the power. This show
is unique in that there is a constant power shift. There is a general hierarchy of power where
the host is at the top, then the award announcers, the award recipients, the
award losers, and finally last comes the fans.
However, the power is in a constant state of change throughout the show
following whoever has the microphone at the moment. As soon as the host passes the microphone to
the announcers, he is transferring his power to them for that segment of
time. The same power transfer occurs
every time someone new has the microphone.
This is what makes the 2009 VMA’s of particular interest. During this show a dispute arose when Kanye
West stripped Taylor Swift of her power, as an award winner, by taking the
microphone from her in a complete disregard for numerous award show norms and
regulations. This paper will analyze
this key interaction, as well as observe what measures are taken by other
players to ensure that the social order of the awards show is maintained.
The Interaction
The interaction begins with Taylor
Lautner controlling the power as he reads off the nominees for the best female
video of the year. After playing short
video clips of each nominee, with a dramatic pause, he announces that Taylor
Swift is the winner. The cameras zoom in
on Swift as she opens her mouth in surprise and hugs her friends around her
then proceeds to the stage. Latuner
relinquishes his power to Swift the moment she gets on stage by hugging her and
handing over the microphone. She
maintains her surprised and modest appearance as she opens her mouth and closes
it several times hesitating to speak.
She begins her speech with, ‘Thank you so much! (Pausing to allow the
crowd to cheer) I always dreamed about
what it’d be like to win one of these one day but I never dreamed it would
actually happen! I sing country music so thank you so much for giving me a
chance to win a VMA Award I…’ (Appendix A).
In the middle of her sentence she is abruptly interrupted by Kanye West
appearing on stage and grabbing the microphone from her at 2:04.
West
then goes on to state that, ‘Taylor… I’m really happy for you Imma let you
finish. But Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time! (The cheering dies)
Best videos of all time! (The crowd boo’s as Kanye shrugs then hands the
microphone back to Taylor and exits the stage at 2:18)’ (See Appendix A).
During
this interaction at 2:15 the screen flashes to Beyoncé who looks shocked. The power is returned to swift as he hands
back the microphone. The cameras zoom in
on her and the ceiling unaware of where to focus. She stands there awkwardly holding the
microphone, smiling shyly and waves to the audience before the screen flashes
to the next promotional scene and Swift is escorted off stage. Swift is met with very loud applause by
several members of the audience during these moments. This brief interaction creates a very
distinct opposing team of Swift vs. West and generates an unexpected alliance
between Beyoncé and Swift.
Later in the awards show Beyoncé is
awarded the largest award of Video of the Year.
Beyoncé climbs to stage confidently and begins her speech. ‘You know I remember when I won my first VMA
with Destiny’s Child, I was 17 years old.
I remember that being one of the most important moments of my musical
career. (Crowd cheers) Now, I’d like for
Taylor to come out and have her moment’ (See Appendix A). At 1:14 Swift comes
on stage smiling and immediately shares an intimate hug with Beyoncé.
The
crowd cheers wildly and Beyoncé relinquishes her power to Swift by handing her
the microphone. Swift is clearly much more
confident this time and opens her speech with a joke, ‘Maybe we can try this
again… (Crowd cheers and laughs)’ (See Appendix A). She continues on to thank
her fans, her director, record label, little brother, and everyone who has been
her friend or fan. At 1:39 as she
concludes her speech she is smiling and confident and Beyoncé can be seen in
the background of the shot reaffirming her alliance with Swift and saving face
for the malfunctioned social integrity of the awards show.
The crowd cheers and Swift transfers the power back to Beyoncé as
she exits the stage and Beyoncé begins her speech. After the awards show is over a reporter asks
Swift how she feels about Beyoncé at 2:42, ‘Just so classy of her, and
wonderful. So gracious and wonderful to let me say something. She’s a great
person and I really look up to her’ (See Appendix A). Throughout the entirety of this exchange
power is freely relinquished and taken, the social order is disrupted, enemies
and alliances are made, and players take action to maintain and repair the
existing social order of the show.
Theoretical Orientations
The first theoretical orientation
that can be applied to this interaction is Cooley’s looking glass-self. This idea contains two fundamental
assertions. First, self-consciousness
stems from continually monitoring the ideal of self from the view point of
others and second, living in the minds of others gives rise to very powerful
emotions like pride and shame Cooley (1902).
In other words the self reflects and internalizes how one thinks others
judge them. Reitzes (1980) cautions that
while using the looking glass-self model it is important to emphasize the
active role of the individual interpreting the perceived responses of others so
that we can better understand how individuals may control or manipulate the
responses and evaluations of others.
This is significant in analyzing how both Swift and West believe that
others view them. West most notably
rocks the ‘douche-bag’ image. He in fact
embraces the fact by writing songs such as ‘Runaway’ which discusses how much
of an asshole he is as the chorus rings ‘here’s a cheer to the
douchebags.’ He believes that he is
perceived as a jerk, so he then portrays and reinforces this image on
himself. He completely violates all of
the award show norms by going on stage and vocally degrading Swift in front of
millions of viewers. At 2:18 (Appendix
A) he is seen shrugging as the crowd is booing.
He is reinforcing that image that he has created for himself as being a
jerk, and not caring what anyone thinks about that or his actions. Swift on the other hand is perceived by her
fan base as a nice and innocent girl.
Even though she is absolutely confused and humiliated she still attempts
to reinforce this perception as she shyly smiles and waves before being
escorted off stage at 2:22 (Appendix A).
Both players react to the dispute in a way that will still uphold their
preconceived perceptions of what others think of them.
Deference and demeanor can also be
addressed using this brief interaction.
According to Goffman (1967) deference is grounded by a general set of
rules of conduct. Individuals are
impacted directly through these obligations and establish how to conduct themselves
properly and which treatment they should expect in return. Both Swift and West are successful
individuals and should be expected to act respectfully in public situations,
especially awards shows. West
participates in an avoidance ritual by going on stage and stealing the
microphone and saying negative things during an acceptance speech. The expected presentational ritual that he
did not adhere to would have been to sit in the audience and not voice those negative
thoughts publically. This could also potentially
be seen as a case of asymmetrical deference as Swift allowed West to strip her
of her power by taking the microphone.
It can be seen at 2:04 (Appendix A) that she is confused and in awe that
West is on stage with her and perhaps sees him as her superior as he is older
and has been in the music scene for longer.
They both have the demeanor of successful individuals and should be
expected to act respectfully to each other in public. As Swift lost her status in this interaction
by means out of her control, it is not seen as her fault. One way of cooling the loss of role status
for Swift in this interaction was by giving the task to someone with a higher
status, Beyoncé, to give Swift the opportunity to give her speech during the
acceptance for a higher award. This
cooling often occurs when one gives a job to someone of a higher status in an
attempt to ‘cool’ the mark Goffman (1967).
Beyoncé and Swift both maintain an acceptable form of deference and
demeanor, while West does not.
Dramaturgy is shown through this
interaction as West publically behaves in a backstage manner while on the front
stage of national television. These
behaviors are meant to be kept in the backstage, as Swift does as she does not
express her distaste with West on the front stage. According to Goffman (1971) there are two
types of performances those that are sincere and those that are false. In this situation West is a sincere actor as he
genuinely believes what he is saying and the performance that he is giving. Swift is a cynical actor in this sense as she
is visibly upset but still trying to save face by smiling. She later comes on stage for impression
management and acts as though nothing was wrong and even makes a joke of the
before dispute at 1:17 (Appendix A).
Becker (1967) has critiqued Goffman for not analyzing performance in
states of high conflict such as war and he also critiques his research for not
taking a side. However, it is necessary
for this analysis of performance to remain unbiased in order to understand a
lower conflict situation. While
sociological theory that handles large scale conflict is necessary, the
microsociological ideals from Goffman also provide crucial insight into why
humans do what they do.
West creates and unintentionally
shows a wonderful example of a breaching experiment. It is often more useful in analyzing a social
system to view how the subjects respond to disruption rather than a functioning
system Garfinkel (1967). He clearly
disrupts the system and in doing so breaks the moral enforcement of trust with
Swift. She expected him to abide by the
norms of the show and he did not. This
breach of interpretive trust is shown when Swift later releases the song
‘Innocent’ forgiving West for acting childishly. This breach created hostility between
everyone and West which can be seen through the booing and Beyoncé’s reaction
at 2:15 (Appendix A). Beyonce acts in an
attempt to defend the integrity of a cognitive order which she perceives as
threatened by West’s breach. The
underlying social order is disrupted and the recipe knowledge of award show
behavior is completely tossed out by West in this interaction. But it is
fascinating to note how quickly Beyoncé stood up to correct the disruption
within the social system. People often
become uncomfortable when their social systems are breached, as they become
unaware of what behavior is socially acceptable in the moment. Observing the VMA system in chaos makes this
data useful for analysis.
The final theoretical orientation that
will be applied to this data is that of social order and telling the code. There are simple codes of conduct in all
human interaction and these codes are either interpretive or descriptive Wieder
(1974). Swift and West are of the same
approximate social order however, West treated Swift as though he was from a
higher social level. Along with
stripping her of her social level he breaks numerous awards show codes by going
on stage and insulting an award recipient.
These award shows codes are taken seriously and methods of enforcement
are quickly put into place as West received a negative media storm and Beyoncé
publically disagreed with his behavior and later won a larger award completely
negating his whole criticism. The
negative feelings one feels while a code is broken is similar to the negative
feelings one may feel during a breaching experiment, in both instances actions
are taken to restore the system to its normal routine.
Further Applications
In conclusion, this data was useful
for analysis as it showed how easily a normal process can be disrupted if an
individual does not adhere to the societal norms of the given situation. It provides a good window to view how
individuals react when interference occurs.
This particular data is very interesting as it was a very large scale
and public mishap. It is estimated that
there were 8.9 million people who viewed this interaction on youtube (Sysomos,
2010). So the behavior of the
individuals within this interaction may have influenced a large group of
people, which may have in turn created some new norms for how they handle their
smaller scale interactions. In this
instance, a micro interaction may have had a very macro impact on society.
Reference List
Backer,
Howard S. 1967. "Whose Side Are We
On?" Social Problems 14: 239-247.
Barber,
M.D. 2004. The Participating Citizen: A Biography of Alfred Schutz. New York:
SUNY Press.
Cooley, Charles H. 1902. Human Nature and the Social
Order. New York: Scribner’s.
Denzin, Norman
K. 2002. ‘Much Ado About Goffman.’ American
Sociolgist 33.2 pp. 105-117. SocINDEX
with Full Text. Web. 25 Oct. 2012.
Garfinkel,
H. 1967. Studies in Ethnomethodolgy. Engelwood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Handler, R.
2012. ‘What’s Up, Doctor Goffman? Tell Us Where the Action is!’ Journal of the Royal Anthropological
Institute. 18:1. Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Heritage, J. 1984, “The Morality of Cognition.” Garfinkel and
Ethnomethodolgy. Cambridge: Polity Press. Pp. 75-102.
Goffman, E.
1967. ‘On Cooling the Mark Out: Some Aspects of Adaptation to Failure.’
Available at http://www.tau.ac.il/~algazi/mat/Goffman--Cooling.htm
Goffman, E.
1967, “The Nature of Deference and Demeanor.”
Interaction Ritual: Essays on Face-to-Face Behavior. New York:
Pantehon Books. Pp. 47-96.
Goffman, E.
1971. “Performances.” The Presentation of the Self in Everyday Life.
Harmondsworth: Penguin. Pp. 28-82
Wieder,
D. 1974. ‘Telling the Code.’ Pp. 144-172. In Ethhnomethodolgy, edited by Roy
Turner. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Appendix A
Transcript-
2009 MTV Video Music Awards
Hosted
by Russell Brand and contains Taylor Swift, Kanye West, Taylor Lautner, and
Beyoncé
Part
One:
Part
Two:
(TL)
Here are the nominees for Best Female Video of the year:
Beyonce: 'Single Ladies'
Lady Gaga: 'Poker Face'
Taylor Swift: 'You Belong With Me'
Kelly Clarkson: 'My Life Would Suck Without You'
Katy Pery: 'Hot 'N Cold'
Pink: 'So What'
(TL)
And the moonman for Best Female Video goes too… Taylor Swift
(Crowd
cheers, Taylor grabs mouth in surprise, hugs friends, and walks to stage)
(TS)
Thank you so much! (Crowd cheers)
I
always dreamed about what it’d be like to win one of these one day but I never
dreamed it would actually happen! (Crowd cheers)
I
sing country music so thank you so much for giving me a chance to win a VMA
Award I… (Crowd Cheers)
(Screen
flashes to Pink cheering, Kanye West appears on stage and grabs the microphone
from Taylor Swift)
(KW)
Taylor… I’m really happy for you Imma let you finish. But Beyoncé had one of
the best videos of all time! (Cheering dies) Best videos of all time! (Crowd
boo’s)
(Flashes
to shot of Beyoncé while Kanye is saying this and she is mouthing the word
‘what’ with her mouth open and eyes wide)
(KW)
(Shrugs, hands back the microphone to Taylor and walks off stage as crowd
continues to boo)
(TS)
(Awkwardly holds the microphone, as the camera shot flashes to the ceiling, to
Beyoncé’s confused reaction, and to a person in the audience applauding
Taylor)
(TS)
(Smiles shyly and waves to the audience, hesitates for a moment, and then is
guided off stage by workers)
(The
screen flashes to the next promotional movie trailer before Taylor walks off
stage)
(Later
on in the awards show when Beyoncé is awarded the larger award of Video of the
Year)
(B)
You know I remember when I won my first VMA with Destiny’s Child, I was 17
years old. I remember that being one of
the most important moments of my musical career. (Crowd cheers)
(B)
Now, I’d like for Taylor to come out and have her moment. (Crowd cheers)
(Taylor
and Beyoncé hug, smile, and Taylor grabs the microphone)
(TS)
Maybe we can try this again… (Crowd cheers and laughs)
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