Bon Iver's Justin Vernon Rips MTV VMAs for Being About Money, Not Music

Bon Iver frontman Justin Vernon had several slightly acerbic things to say on his website concerning Sunday night's MTV VMA ceremony. After glossing over highlights like the Amy Winehouse Tribute, Adele's general awesomeness and Beyonce's pregnancy, the indie singer queried, "Yes this is awesome as s---, culturally speaking. But can i just ask, the reader, us, we ... as non-rhetorically as possible: don't we seem dumb?"

"Why do we NEED this s--- so bad?" he continued. "Why don't we just have MUSIC? DO music? soul? I don't know. I don't mean to criticize. Anyone. Actually. Except for MTV. You might have had a very large opportunity to be stabilize your self as a global presence of culture and art about 15 years ago and you f---ed the dog."

Vernon then elaborated his views, writing "Its becoming increasingly clear as I think about it more and more, that the dollars, if they ARE apart of why you are doing something... they are apart of why you are doing something. that's f---ed to me. that's the absence of spirit, glue, fabric of what makes us a person."

Sunday's VMAs racked up 12.4 million viewers making it the "most-watched single telecast in MTV's history," according to Entertainment Weekly. Whether MTV screwed the figurative pooch is a definite matter of opinion. While on one hand, at least in recent months, MTV seems to have succeeded in re-establishing itself as a global force in culture, for better or for worse. This is based on ratings, and whether or not Vernon saw them, the network's latest telecast does paint them as a stabilized force in music culture.

What Vernon seems to be rattling against is the quality of that culture. But is culture meant to be a sparkling clean vision of consummate taste? The world certainly wouldn't end if Justin Bieber disappeared tomorrow, right? Either way, Vernon concluded his post by capitulating to the extemporaneous quality of his rant. "Forget what I say," he wrote. "If you even read this, you'll probably say to yourself, who is this ass saying s---? It doesn't matter what i say. it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter."

It certainly begs the important question: What does Jo Calderone think?