According to AP, Taylor Swift will receive an inaugural "Artist Director Honors" at tonight's VMAs, a 31st trophy that makes her the most awarded artist in VMA history. The award, announced Monday by CBS and MTV, recognizes artists whose work behind the camera "has expanded the possibilities of music video and advanced the art of visual storytelling."
The record was 30. Tied with Beyonce. Left to its own devices, tonight would have been a tie. So the VMAs invented a new trophy on a Monday, made her the inaugural recipient, and gave her a category nobody else can enter. The trophy was tailored to the winner, and the winner was named at the press conference. This is how an awards show makes history: you hire the tailor.
The press release language is a work of art. "Expanded the possibilities of music video and advanced the art of visual storytelling." That is a fancy way of saying she directs her own videos and they are good, and the show decided that should come with a moon man. The Artist Director Honors is a participation trophy for the director's chair, and the chair is hers.
The rest of the night is just intermission. Billboard says the whole show runs two hours, which is the runtime of one woman's victory lap. Madonna opens the show for the first time in 23 years, Snoop hosts, and Swift premieres a self-directed "Patient Zero" video starring Colin Farrell and Dakota Johnson. The awards show is a red carpet for her content drop, and the trophy is the receipt.
YOUR TURN: If a record can be broken by inventing a new trophy, what is left to compete for?
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