Every
September, the MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) present Moonmen to the best music
videos of the year. The Moonman a highly prestigious award, and the show draws
millions of viewers from around the world every year. As the VMAs has such a vast
audience range, the show follows a very tight and polished set of rules to make
sure everything runs smoothly. As the show is live, there are certain obligations and expectations
that the hosts, winners and audience members need to abide by. In the 2009 VMAs, these rules were completely disregarded with Kanye West’s
infamous interruption of Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech. Swift had just won
Best Female Video for “You Belong With Me” when West jumped onstage and
announced that Beyoncé had the best video of all
time. This interaction is interesting as it is a clear breach of etiquette in a
very public context. Also, even though the VMAs are usually fairly scripted,
the extent of the reaction to West’s rudeness suggests that it was not planned.
Analysis of the data shows that several sociological schools can be considered.
The main concept involved is Goffman’s face-work, as West threatens the face of
everyone involved. Other theories that can be used include the power struggle
between West and Swift, ethnomethodology, obligations and expectations, and
dramaturgy.
The incident can be viewed in the following clip:
The
interaction starts with Swift being handed her Moonman. As this was her first
VMA, she was genuinely stoked and had a huge smile on her face. At 8 seconds
she begins her acceptance speech, with a close-up on her face: "Thank you so much! I always dreamed
about what it would be like to maybe win one of these someday, but I never
actually thought it would have happened (Swift keeps looking down at the
Moonman in amazement, almost as if to check that it is really there and this is
really happening to her). I sing country music so thank you so much for giving
me a chance to win a VMA award, I..." but before she could continue West
jumps up on stage and grabs the microphone from West. While this happens, the
cameras quickly flash to Pink cheering on Swift. This is possibly because the
MTV camera editors were not sure exactly what West was going to do. Switching
the focus of the camera still gave them a large amount of power, as West’s
interruption was obviously unplanned.
As West begins to speak at 26 seconds, the
cameras are forced to swap back to the stage. To a very confused Swift, West
states: "Yo Taylor, I'm really happy for you (Swift brushes hair out
of her eyes nervously, and it is plain on her face that she has absolutely no
idea what’s happening), Imma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best
videos of all time (The crowd goes crazy with yells of confusion and general
outrage. The camera goes to a close-up of Beyoncé’s horrified face, who is
looking around in shock and bewilderment, while mouthing something along the
lines of ‘Oh my god Kanye’). One of the best videos of all time!” An evident
booing can be heard from the crowd as West shrugs, hands the microphone back to
Swift, and storms off stage. At this point Swift looks livid, with her mouth
agape. The cameras briefly switch back to Beyoncé, who is still astonished at
what just happened, then does a couple of wide shots showing the rambunctious
crowd and a high-angle shot of Swift from behind (emphasising her vulnerability
in this circumstance), who is just standing there awkwardly trying to decide
what to do.
At 57 seconds, the camera shows a woman standing up for a standard
ovation for Swift. She is cheering Swift on, and trying to offer some support
(which is the general atmosphere of the rest of the audience as well). At 59
seconds, however, MTV cuts to a clip of Tracy Morgan, indicating that Swift’s
time is up. The devastated Swift is escorted off stage without being allowed to
finish her speech.
This next video is a YouTube clip of the same event, later in the
night, when Beyoncé won her award. View from 29 seconds to 1 minute 40 seconds.
Beyoncé begins her acceptance speech to cheering crowd:
“Thank you, wow (close-up on Beyoncé, who has a dazzling smile on her face).
This is amazing!” Pause while audience applauds. Camera shows Lady Gaga, who is
beaming for her friend. Beyoncé continues her speech: “I remember being 17 years old, up for my first MTV
Award with Destiny’s Child, and it was one of the most exciting moments in my
life. So I’d like for Taylor to come out and have her moment (Looks around).
Where are you?” At 51 seconds, the camera does a long shot of the stage, and
shows Swift walking on from backstage. The crowd is cheering as Swift
approaches Beyoncé (to represent this, MTV shows a shot
of Katy Perry clapping very enthusiastically at 1 minute 4 seconds). As a
radiant Swift passes a couple of audience members, she touches hands with them
as they express their excitement for her. By 1 minute 15 seconds, Swift reaches
Beyoncé and gives her a massive hug. Beyoncé then steps away and points to
Swift, indicating that this is her moment to shine. The full focus is back on
Swift as she begins her actual acceptance speech (“Maybe, maybe we could try
this again?”).
The
first sociological concept that can be applied to this interaction is Goffman’s
presentation of self, and in particular, his notion of face-work. As described
by Goffman (2003), face-work is the idea that everything one does is to keep
good face and avoid losing face (where ‘face’ refers to one’s dignity or social
standing). When someone’s face is threatened (i.e. something happens that may
cause them to lose face), they risk a social death. This can involve extreme embarrassment,
loss of status, and in some cases ostracism (Goffman 1967). However, it is
possible for one’s face to be regained, or ‘cooled’, after a social death (Goffman
1952). Face can typically be redeemed by some kind of honourable act that
excuses the event that caused loss of face. This can either be accomplished by
the person who has lost face (which is usually hard because they do not have a
lot of power at that point) or by someone else doing something that justifies
the person’s act and boosts their social status again (known as ‘giving face’) (Goffman
2003).
Face-work
is clearly evident in the whole 2009 VMAs interaction. For starters, West’s
interruption of Swift was a very face-threatening act that made Swift look
powerless, and the fact that she was being compared to Beyoncé
made her look worthless and untalented (which in turn threatens Beyoncé’s face
by suggesting she thinks she is superior to Swift). In doing so, however, West
also lost face dramatically. His act was perceived as rude and intolerable, and
it downgraded his integrity. This is illustrated by the crowd’s booing and
calling out at 40 seconds in the first video. In the second video, Beyoncé forms
a ‘team’ with Swift to give back her face (Goffman 1971). She does this by putting
the spotlight back on Swift and providing her with the moment she was meant to
have when she received her award. This redeems Swift’s dignity and puts her back
in good face, while at the same time saving Beyoncé’s face (by showing that Beyoncé
does not endorse or agree with West’s opinion). It also emphasises how wrong in
face West was, which pushed him into a severe social death. West’s actions resulted
in his removal from the show, and he was highly criticised by various celebrities
(who have social power) for months after the event. Even those who did not have
power were turning to the internet to rage (the “Imma let you finish” meme is
still used today). Consequently, West was forced into a year long hiatus, where
he hid from the press and let the situation cool. In 2010 he made his comeback
with his fifth album My Beautiful Dark
Twisted Fantasy, which somewhat regained his face. Most people now
attribute his actions to his ‘out-there’ persona, however there are still some
people who still see him as wrong in face. This demonstrates the extent to
which a social death can impact on a person’s life.
Another sociological concept that can be utilised in the
interpretation of the data is the idea of power, and why West believed he had
the power to do what he did. The VMAs is a constant exchange of power, where power
is given to whoever has possession of the microphone and is in the spotlight.
In taking Swift’s microphone mid-speech, West rips Swift of her power and pulls
all the attention on himself. As there is no way to politely take the power
back, Swift is left unable to do anything in fear of losing face. It is likely
that West viewed himself as having more power than Swift (possibly because he
had been around for longer, or saw himself as more talented), so granted
himself the power to interrupt her. Since he is used to getting his own way as
a well-known celebrity, he might not have considered the consequences (Furedi
2010). Without the power associated with being a celebrity, West would not have
been allowed to come onstage during Swift’s speech, and it is highly unlikely
he would even attempt it. It is clear that power played a huge part in the
interaction.
Garfinkel’s ethnomethodology and Goffman’s obligations and
expectations can also be used for analysis. Under the principles of
ethnomethodology, everybody follows certain ‘contextualization
cues’ that govern what they are allowed to do in certain circumstances (Heritage
1984). Even though there are no explicit rules to follow, it is common
knowledge that deviance from these rules will cause a social death (Brunet et
al. 2012). Since the VMAs follow a very specific set of rules, there is little
room for West’s interruption. As an award show, the hosts have an obligation to
announce the winner of each award (usually with a witty comment or joke), and
the winner is then expected to come up on stage to accept their award and give
a speech. It is an expectation of the audience to sit back quietly and applauds
the winner, however West breaches this expectation by coming up on stage and
interrupting when it is not his turn. As outlined by Garfinkel’s (1967) ‘breaching
experiments’, people usually do not know how to react to a rule break. The fact
that West was allowed up on stage at all without any move against him
demonstrates this. Everyone sat and watched in shock, but eventually people
began to boo, and it ultimately lead to West’s social death.
Lastly, Goffman’s dramaturgy can be used to shed
some light on what is happening in the interaction. According to Goffman (1971),
life is like a stage that people act on to achieve a desired character. This is
known as their frontstage, which only includes what they want people to see. In
contrast, a person’s backstage is how they really are without being held back
by other peoples’ judgements. On a widely publicised and watched television
show such as the VMAs, it is vital that those being filmed only show their
frontstage. Because of this, a good proportion of those involved in the VMAs
are just putting on a cynical performance, where they are only putting on an
act for the performance rather than showing their sincere selves. With the role
of a celebrity comes the obligation to be perfectly behaved in all social
events publicised by the media (Furedi 2010). By doing this, they earn respect
and can be perceived as one with power. However, West did not act in a
respectful way when he broke the social order in talk (Wieder 1974). He was
talking in a very backstage manner (almost trash talking Swift) that was inappropriate
for the forum of an awards show. As the VMAs are viewed by millions of people
around the world, West’s comments were brought to an extreme frontstage. Media
coverage of the incident afterwards emphasised the frontstage as well, until it
got to the point where just about everyone had heard of what happened even if
they did not watch the VMAs. It is a possibility that West suffered some kind
of role distance though (Starr 1977), where he may have been influenced by his
need to uphold his image as a miscreant and trouble-maker. Regardless of his
intentions, his actions were still unacceptable in the context of a televised
awards show.
In conclusion, the 2009 VMAs present a very
interesting piece of data for analysis as it shows a direct break of the social
norms established. Even though it was a very micro interaction, the fact that
it was so frontstage and made common knowledge around the world meant it had a
macro effect on society. This demonstrates that bringing backstage to the front
can have disastrous effects, especially if face was lost. It simply means that
the social death is extended way out of proportion to what it could have been.
References
Brunet, P, Cowie, R, Donnan, H & Douglas-Cowie,
E 2012, ‘Politeness and social signals’, Cognitive
Processing, vol.13, no.2, pp447-453.
Furedi, F 2010, ‘Celebrity culture’, Society, vol.47, no.6, pp493-497.
Garfinkel, H 1967, Studies
in Ethnomethodolgy, Prentice-Hall, Engelwood Cliffs.
Goffman, E 1952, ‘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’, in Interaction Ritual: Essays on Face-to-Face Behavior,
Pantehon Books, New York, pp47-96.
Goffman, E 1971, ‘Performances’, in The Presentation of the Self in Everyday Life, Penguin,
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Goffman, E 2003, ‘On face-work: an analysis of
ritual elements in social interaction’, Reflections,
vol.4, no.3, pp7-13.
Heritage, J 1984, ‘The morality of cognition’, in Garfinkel and Ethnomethodolgy, Polity
Press, Cambridge, pp75-102.
MTV Video
Music Awards 2009,
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status inconsistency as forms of stressful interaction’, Human Relations, vol.30, no.10, pp949-961.
Wieder, D 1974, ‘Telling
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_DsLWAqncw (last accessed 30 August 2012)
