MAMA: the credibility, the controversy and the future
Mnet’s new year-end award ceremony MAMA was no doubt a success. Although the show’s rating clocked in at only just over 3%, today, the entertainment section of every media outlet in Korea was plastered with pictures and stories from this controversy-filled ceremony.
While most of us have learned to focus more on special performances by artists rather than the awards themselves, the awards are still the meat and potato of the ceremony. Star-studded nominee lists, the nervous faces, drum roll getting louder, your heart beating faster, and of course, the winners holding their trophies so dearly while they thank their parents with teary smiles.
So has MAMA’s distribution of major awards been understandable, or using a word that is so highly debatable, fair? Although many of the results produced hot reactions, let’s objectively examine the daesang (main award) winners of MAMA 2009.
Best Song of the Year: I Don’t Care
The honor of the best song of the year went to 2NE1’s I Don’t Care. 2NE1 is a group which can be labeled as super rookies and deserved to win the best new female artist award more than any other groups who were present. However, did I Don’t Care really deserve to win the song of the year?
Going back to the 2007 MKMF, we came across a similar situation as this year’s MAMA – this year, we had 2NE1 as the super rookies, and in 2007, we had world famous Wonder Girls. They had taken the nation by storm with their massive hit single Tell Me, resulting in thousands of Koreans dancing to the song and posting the video online. There was no doubt that Tell Me had become something close to a national syndrome, but the award for the best song of the year went to Big Bang’s Lies and the girls ended up with the Best New Female Artist Award. Why? It has been unheard of to give one of the daesang awards to a rookie group. Even legends like H.O.T. have not achieved such a feat. The only artist who has ever won a main award as a rookie is Seo Taiji. For those who are not so familiar with him, he simply started Kpop.
Now, back to 2NE1. I Don’t Care was no doubt a popular song, but it is hard to say that it was as popular as Tell Me, yet the song somehow managed to push 2NE1 to a level that nobody has managed to reach since the creator of Kpop did. The only explanation that appears to make sense is that I Don’t Care was given the honor only because SNSD’s massive hit Gee was not there to claim the title.
Album of the Year: Heartbreaker
More controversial than any other recipients of the awards, G-Dragon’s Heartbreaker was given the honour of being titled the best album of the year. For reasons that most of our readers are already aware of, Heartbreaker has been under criticism of not only the public and figures in music industry, but also from government officials. It was also found to be inappropriate for younger audiences and was rated R.
It appears that the reason why Heartbreaker received the award was the number of sales; the album sold over 120,000 copies as of late last month, making it one of the best selling albums of the year along with Super Junior’s Sorry Sorry and Seo Taiji’s two albums. If the album of the year award was based solely on the number of sales, then Heartbreaker deserves it. However, one must also take other factors into consideration. Heartbreaker has been received negatively by the public and the critics for plagiarism issues, and giving such an album the honour of being named the best of the year appears to be a little out of line. The problem is that Super Junior and Seo Taiji both did not make an appearance at MAMA, making it impossible to award the title to an album that is both high in sales record and free of negative criticism. Again, SM Entertainment’s boycott plays into the award.
Artist of the Year: 2PM
The Artist of the Year, while not as fiercely contested in public opinion as the other two main awards due to the sympathetic view Koreans hold regarding Jaebeom, is being debated over as well. There is no doubt that 2PM rose to immense fame – or notoriety – this year, but in order to qualify for the artist of the year award, it is implied that the artist must have made some musical achievement during the year. Has 2PM made enough musical progress to be named the artist of the year over many other talented nominees? Or, have they been given the award solely based on either the sympathy the nation feels for their loss or the drama value of them crying for Jaebeom?
Intentionally headline-grabbing award results?
If you have forgotten, MAMA had been claiming that they will have Jaebeom appear at the ceremony. Controversy is what they have been aiming for. While we’re on the topic of drama value, the appearance of three TVXQ members and their acceptance speech for the award of Best Representative of Asia best represents what MAMA aims to do with this ceremony. The three members appeared to accept a seemingly meaningless award, then gave “heartfelt” lines that no news reporter would pass up if they were in their right minds. The appearance of TVXQ members had nothing to do with giving an award to artists that have contributed to the Korean music industry; it was to create more controversy and attract more attention.
As discussed above, the reason behind the credibility of MAMA being under criticism is possibly due to the fact that its uncomfortable relationship with SME stopped SME’s artists from appearing at the ceremony, combined with the ceremony’s focus on more controversial, attention-grabbing content rather than fair and credible distribution of awards.
So what can Mnet do in order to improve MAMA? In my opinion, MAMA should minimize or get rid of the award ceremony format and stick to what it does the best: featuring special performances. Artists have put in lots of time and effort into preparing once-in-a-lifetime stages for the fans and it is unfortunate to see them being buried by controversy and drama surrounding awards. With their credibility down to the ground, perhaps Mnet should just focus on a concert-esque celebration rather than controversial awards that result in debates and boycotts. That way, we might get to see SME artists and trot singers perform in next year’s MAMA.
True, now I am a big fan of 2NE1, but I was really shocked when I heard they won Best Song. “I Don’t Care” is a great song, but compared to “Gee”…. I’m not trying to say they didn’t deserve it, I’m just wondering… If H.O.T. couldn’t bag it in with all of their amazing songs, how can rookies do that?? It’s more than possible and I’m super happy for them but… I would feel so bad for SNSD if it turns out that they deserved that award more. I have to admit that “Gee” is a really great song and it was a huge hit, and still is. Yet, it didn’t manage to rack in that award??
Anyways, I hope this doesn’t gain YG artists any anti’s. It’s not their fault in this area, since they were presented the award and can’t just refuse it since that would be so rude. Hope MAMA changes things next time around
lol i just realized.. the people commenting on this article are 2ne1/bigbang/yg fanatics.. haha.. no wonder
@724: you yourself say you are american. you don’t know crap about just how big certain kpop songs are in their native korea. having just been introduced to the genre in october does not make u get the whole picture.
I’m totally lovin this writer. This is totally what majority of Koreans were thinking when they watched MAMA. LOL. It loses all of its credibility.
Welll…im american(black) and i love kpop.i was just introduced to it in october by some of my friends and TOTALLY love it(it kicks the crappy music we have here’s ass).and i believe that this article was mostly wrong…
First off.
Though Gee is a cool song and very catchy, i think that IDC is better.It is equally catchy,if not more, and the lyrics and composition are both more unique,advanced, and awsome.I also think its lame that you would say that they are only successful because of Big Bang(i <3 them!) and Sandara because their music (accept from lollipop) has nothing to do with Big Bang.I could see if like 1/4 of their songs had BB featured on them, but all of the songs theve come out with dont. and though they are in lollipop they came out with it when they are unknown, and i dont think that watching that video made all those people like them.not everyone likes BB.or even knows who they are.Though Sandara helps, she wasnt very popular n the phillippines(hence her going to korea) so that was just stupid.
Secondly.
I have the G-Dragon CD and it is by far the best cd ive heard EVER(though ive really only heard american and spanish music my whole life) brilliant.I hate Sony for trying to say that he plagirized Right Round(by Flo Rida) when, right round was no where near that brilliant. and the songs sound nothing alike(only a litle bit in the beginning).The Rated-r thing is stupid because i hear worse stuff walking through the hallways at school. and though there were a few things about alcohol in She's Gone they just made the song more powerful and amazing.Im pretty sure that if you went out and bought the CD you would agree on how amazing the songs are.based on the songs' catchiness, lyrics, composition, and the whole thing overall…Based on G-Dragon's talents and the quality of this CD i believe that he really, TRULLY deserved the award.
Lastly.
2PM is amazing.They deserved Artist of The Year.whether you like it or not.Jaebom leaving makes me want to cry, but if he was leaving and they werent as popular, or people didnt like their music, him leaving wouldnt have won them the award.It may have gotten them publicity, but thats all it wouldve done.
Kpop and its artists are kick-ass and i hate the fact that you would base someones right to an award off of something other than their music.thats stupid.and its lame how you believe that the headliners would be a cause for a group's fame, not their own hard work and artistic abilities.
Big Bang Fighting!
2ne1 Fighting!
2PM Fighting!(everyones still waiting on you jae)
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
K, 2pm RULES.
THEY ARE AWESOME!
…
THATS THE BOTTOM LINE.
this article was uncalled for.
No. 713. jhyekyo is right!
“2NE1 popularity and awards wouldn’t be possible without Big Bang and Sandara Park’s fame in the Philippines” So true!
I LOVE 2PM! but i agreed with this article
im totally for 2PM with Best Male Group
but Artist of the Year? molla~
and album sales…
i thot Sorry, Sorry was more than Hearttbreaker
2NE1’s I Dont Care as best song?
even thou im not digging SNSD
but i gotta admit Gee was a big hit
SNSD’s Gee deserve it more
aniwz, MAMA…watch it purely for its perfs…totally NOT for its awards
here come Golden Disk Awards! *excited* for both perfs & awards
@10: “You brought up every single question I had in mind. ”
Fair writing. great work!
@713
As a both a Black Jack and a huge Wonderful, I ask you to stop embarrasing us and making Wonderfuls look bad. Stop insulting 2NE1 because YOU think they suck. Well, their popularity says otherwise. Yes, 2NE1 debuted with Big Bang but if you look at their recently hits, their solos and I Don’t Care, it was all done by themselves. Heck, DBSK, my favorite KPop group even debuted with BoA and Suju debuted with DBSK. It’s called Marketing. Tell Me was a great song and I still love it to this day but I do believe that Lies has better musicality than Tell Me, maybe that’s why it won Song of the Year, but who knows.
@ 713 Hey you! Oh yeah imma big fan of 2ne1. I really hate how some people generalize us dammit! I myself is proud to be a blackjack and I am not even rooting for Bigbang, why? Because i don’t even know them until I saw the lollipop video. It’s pretty insulting for 2ne1 and their fans that most of non-fans are basing 2ne1’s popularity with Bigbang. You could say that they are one of the factors BUT not the main reason of why 2ne1 is popular now. Because if 2ne1 didn’t really live to the expectations, do you think they’ll get this far after Lollipop? Without Bigbang huh??? They were dubbed as female bigbang before but everything’s changed now and you rarely see/hear somebody call them that nowadays. And LOL x2 i’m filipino, yes of course i know Sandara Park not even a fan of here when she was here. I just checked her band which i’ve seen on news out of curiosity. And just wondering how she’s doing in Korea. And guess what, it was CL that got my interest and not even Dara, well, she impressed me with her big changes but that’s just it. Yeah you can also say, Dara is one of the factors of the popularity in the Philippines but a very good reason why KPOP is slowly being recognized by Filipinos, you should be grateful that someone like SANDARA PARK can make a big impact into our hearts and made way for us to be in the KPOP world. And do you everything they have accomplished was just because of Sandara’s popularity in the Philippines?? Ridiculous much! Of course they worked and trained their hardest before they debut. Their songs did very well on charts from Lollipop, Fire, I Don’t Care and not to mention their recent activities such as solos/duets despite doing things without the rest of the members, they still managed to do well in charts and performances. 2ne1 is nothing… yes, NOTHING without their TALENTS! Get that?? Not 2ne1 is nothing without “Bigbang” and “Sandara’s fame” in just one country geez how lame. Everything they have achieved, they got it because they worked hard for it and used their abilities. You were given eyes to see things so don’t act as if you’re blind not to see that these girls really have talent and their personalities are just a plus that’s why many loved them and I AM PROUD TO BE ONE OF THOSE.
Wow this is amusing.
omg too much drama.
delacroix is becoming just as controversial as the MAMA awards. Epic fail. Go write for some SM rant blog and leave the articles for the big kids.
i dont care about the rest but wtf are people talking about…
If I don’t care deserved a song of the year award,
then the wonder girls should have gotten 4 daesangs since their debut !
WTF is mnet thinking-
they just totally just slapped wondergirls in the face.
Tell Me vs Lies.. I don’t care if you’re VIP but admit the fact that Tell Me deserved song of the year for 2007. They couldn’t even get best girl group award because they were just rookies.
Im gonna be honest here, 2NE1 are nothing compared to the Wonder Girls.
It just makes me mad how some people can even say “2NE1 totally deserved that award” but they can’t state the fact that this article about 2NE1 is true. Some people even bashed on how Wonder Girls didn’t deserve their daesangs from last year? Atleast Wonderfuls know how to admit when something isn’t for the Wonder Girls, but that has never happened because they’ve worked hard BY THEMSELVES “WITHOUT LEANING ON JYP’S OTHER ORTISTS.”
If blackjacks can admit this, i’ll give you guys some respect.
“2NE1 popularity and awards wouldn’t be possible without Big Bang and Sandara Park’s fame in the Philippines”
@706: I told myself that I wouldn’t reply to these comments but your comment so full of shit that it’s blew my mind. First, MNet did not “not invite the other 2 members of DBSK”. MNET DID BUT SM REFUSED TO LET HOMIN GO. Get your facts straight. and also, JYP won the BEST ASIAN COMPOSER AWARD. Not the “Best Producer Award”. Does Yang Hyeon Suk compose for their artists? No. Teddy and Kush are the composers for YG. Does Lee SooMan compose for SM artists? NO. Once again, get your facts straight. Actually, did you know that JYP won Best Producer at the Golden Disk Awards (I forgot whether it was last year or the year before)? Which to many people is the most accurate and prestigious Korean music award?
P.S: Don’t get my comment wrong, I love YG and SM. Just needed to prove that JYP indeed has talent as well.
@710 look at the comment of 703.I TOTALLY AGREE WITH IT! judging a song is not by the popularity or the impact you have made with that song and by the way.i think your source for the “album sold the most” is not that quite reliable :>
One point that YG’s fan are making are ” If SM decided not to come, then they didn’t deserve to win.” Since when did attendance affect judgment?
Taking no side, i don’t see a reason why I don’t care won over Gee according to mnet criteria. Gee is the only girl’s album that sold over 120,000(not sure but definitely higher than 2ne1. Gee is #1 in the chart longer in 2ne1. For The voting criteria, gee is #1 with 42% and 2ne1 with 3%!!! The only criteria 2ne1 can beat gee is Mnet’s judges which i think its only 20%.
p.s. the information here might be 100% correct but u can see the whole picture of the biases and controversy. With one questionable award, the rest of award seem to be weightless and questionable. Is it fair??????????
Overall, I can see world war 3 happening soon. (sm fans vs yg fans)
GD’s album sales are crazy good..and everyone is making parody of his heartbreaker..that really proves enough that he deserves it..
And 2pm, u cant deny that Again & Again was GREAT and JAMMING..i like it so much hand i am no 2pm fan.
Now, 2ne1 is another story
..that’s the award i cant seem to agree with. Its a cool and catchy song, but it wasnt even that famous compare to Tell Me and Gee..
allkpop shud stop trashing on big bang and 2ne1, PLEASE. -__-
great objective critic. it’s biased mainily because SM decided to draw out. and also the dbsk thingy
hey,I love this article….and I am TOTALLY AGREE with this article (except 2PM awards,they deserve it even though in my personal opinion SuJu more deserve the award!)Mnet can’t do this,don’t invited any SM Ent artist for performance except three members of TVXQ just for accepted the ‘meaningless’ awards as u said…but,around Asian already know that TVXQ is representive as Asia,so why?just to attract the viewers???…I almost forget that Mnet has a ‘crisis’ with SM Entertainmet, no wonder why JYP got the ‘Best Producer’ award…I though it will be SM Entertainmet becoz of TVXQ,SUJU,HOT,SES,SHINee and many more….but, rather than YG Ent, JYP Ent more deserve it…and one more that u have to ‘looks’, the BEST DANCE award…Kara got it, for the song honey…I think something wrong with that…Kara just move their fingers around their face, and that the BEST DANCE!!!!u should write about this!!!!and u had my support!for the BEST DANCE award,it’s should be SUJU or at least 2PM!!!!
yeah,2NE1 song, I don’t care…hmmm,in my opinion this SONG doesn’t deserve the awards..sorry to 2NE1 fans,but this is my opinion..somebody else more deserve this awards…
I watch MAMA because I thought there would had SUJU,SHINee and 2PM..but what I got it just 2PM..yeah, I want SM Ent Boybands okay??plus 2PM!
lastly, i don’t think they should called this ceremony as ASIAN MUSIC AWARDS!!!!!for the awards,i thinks it’s not ASIAN CHOICES but it more to Mnet Choice!
overall,i kinda waste my time watch MAMA..sorry…
“we might get to see SME artists [...] perform in next year’s MAMA”
as much as i want this to happen, i don’t agree that “Mnet should just focus on a concert-esque celebration”..
i think these awards really mean something for the artists, also for fans.. the one who has to change something is SME.. MAMA’s intention is just to give awards to those who deserve it and SME ruined it all.. SME is too selfish.. it’d be all good if SME didn’t boycott MAMA..
i don’t care if others say i’m biased.. yes, as DBSK fan i am against SME, but i think i’d say the same even if i weren’t a DBSK fan..
haayyy… all i know is I can fully understand how or why 2PM, 2NE1, and GD won the awards.
FIRST,
Best Song of the Year: I Don’t Care
My reasons:
1. I Don’t Care is Massively Popular Enough that even though it was sang by a Rookie group it gave Veteran idols a Great Competition (as in GREAT COMPETITION).
2. I Don’t Care have been remixed in so many different forms by various performers and it still sounded good and loved by fans.
( from Reggae, Rock, Musical, etc. by Acappella group, Ballad singers, etc.)
3. The lyrics of the song is not your typical love song and considerably New to KPOP.
(The fact a song with unconventional lyrics became famous is a Revolutionary Feat itself.)
I would not try to compare IDC to Tell Me or Lies cos those songs are not nominated THIS YEAR
so i wish people would just try to compare IDC to songs released for this year please.
SECOND,
Album of the Year: Heartbreaker
My reasons:
1. It’s popular (EXTREMELY!)
2. Even though I am not a GD fan, i cannot deny that many people knew or at the very least have heard Most of the Songs in His Album.
(from Heartbreaker, Breathe to Hello, 소년이여 (A Boy), etc. in which I cannot say the same thing with other albums.)
Plagiarism issues have not been proven so it would be unfair to discredit GD’s hard work due to mere rumors and speculations.
THIRD,
Artist of the Year: 2PM
My reasons:
1. This year is their Major Breakthrough year in my opinion.
2. I have to acknowledged the fact that even before the Jaebom controversy… they are all over the place this year. ( from music shows to variety shows, etc.)
3. Even without Jaebom right now, they are still very much proving themselves as a strongly popular group.
FOURTH,
Best Representative of Asia : TVXQ
To say that –> ” The appearance of TVXQ members had nothing to do with giving an award to artists that have contributed to the Korean music industry; it was to create more controversy and attract more attention.”
is not only isn’t nice but very degrading towards TVXQ and MNet / MAMA.
this article is just pure suspicion and BIASED OPINION only
(Note: everybody is biased okay so as this Editorial)
and those “words above” were written as if the author actually knows what MNet or MAMA was thinking (aka. can read their minds)… where in reality he or she Does NOT (big Cannot Do)
I don’t really see the need to question the recognition given to TVXQ when these very artists truly contributed and have become good representative of Asia & deserved to be noticed for real.
All in all, I can only hope we could all just be happy for the winners
and stop Destroying Names and Discrediting People WITHOUT STRONG PROOF.
because it is very Disrespectful, Unfair, and a total INSULT.
(towards all the winners, MAMA, & to all the people behind the hard work of it’s enjoyable show)
ooppss.. forgive me for the long post.
thank u for reading.
Kindly respect my personal opinions.
And may God bless everybody. Peace :-)
Can’t edit my previous post. RePosting with CORRECTION.
—————————–
Come on guys. we are better than this right? It is a simple math.
Let’s take for example the case of SONG OF THE YEAR.
2NE1 fans says they the girls deserved it.
SNSD fans declares they should won it instead, for the very reason that it is #1 for 9 weeks?!!!!
Well… i’m not gonna burst some bubbles here but some FYI guys.
In OSCAR. when a movie won Best Picture of the YEAR does it mean that movie was number 1 in the whole wide world? A BIG NO.
hmmm..think think oh… don’t think …but one thing for sure popularity is JUST 1 of MANY factors in winning the Song of the Year.
Here is the result (IMO)
MELODY – 40% (I don’t care) GEE – 35%
LYRICS – 40% (I don’t Care) GEE – 25%
OVER-ALL IMPACT – 20% (I don’t care) GEE 30%
That’s for you. we have a winner!
Congratulations 2NE1 and to all KPOP artists. Do more. Win more. Inspire more.
Come on guys. we are better than this right? It is a simple math.
Let’s take for example the case of SONG OF THE YEAR.
2NE1 fans says they the girls deserved it.
SNSD fans declares they should won it instead, for the very reason that it is #1 for 9 weeks?!!!!
Well… i’m not gonna burst some bubbles here but some FYI guys.
In OSCAR. when a movie won Best Picture of the YEAR does it mean that movie was number 1 in the whole wide world? A BIG NO.
hmmm..think think oh… don’t think …but one thing for sure popularity is JUST 1 of MANY factors in winning the Song of the Year.
Here is the result (IMO)
MELODY – 40% (I don’t care) GEE – 35%
LYRICS – 40% (I don’t Care) GEE – 25%
OVER-ALL IMPACT – 25% (I don’t care) GEE 30%
That’s for you. we have a winner!
Congratulations 2NE1 and to all KPOP artists. Do more. Win more. Inspire more.
2pm deserve it but
Gee > i don’t care
thought gee shoulda won.