Semiotic analysis: Why did Kanye West Interrupt Taylor Swift at the 2009 VMA's?

A Semiotic Analysis: Why did Kanye West Interrupt Taylor Swift at the 2009 VMA's? 
By: Farzan Farnaghi

Time Code + Caption

0:00-0:09: Taylor: I always dreamed about what it would be like to win one of these someday but I never thought it would happen
0:10-0:14: Taylor: I sing country music so thank you for so much for giving me a chance to win a VMA award
0:16-0:31: Kanye: Yo Taylor. I'm really happy for you I'm a let you finish. But Beyonce had one of the best music videos of all time. One of the best videos of all time. 
0:32-0:50: Peoples reactions being shown, clapping, booing

List Description
- Taylor accepts her award for best female video for "You Belong With Me". This is written at the bottom of the screen and at the top it says "MTV Video Music Awards 2009". 
- Taylor is wearing a silver dress with tons of lustre. Fans are cheering. There are people who work for MTV standing behind her. 
- Taylor doesn't move her gaze from the award much, looking directly at it and speaking.  Important to note that Taylor Lautner is standing behind her (presumed to have presented the award) and also important to note that they dated for a couple months in the same year. 
- Other celebrities are seen clapping and cheering for her 
- Kanye comes on stage, everyone seems frozen in shock 
- Kanye turns around and points to Beyonce to give her a moment of recognition 
- Beyonce looks shocked/confused and seems to mouth the words "Oh my God"
- Kanye ends his interruption with a Shoulder Shrug as if to say "It is what it is" and hands Taylor back the mic
- Taylor seems absolutely shocked and can't think of anything to say when she receives the mic
- You see lots of people clapping and booing, some people are giving a standing ovation

List Technical Literacy
- To begin the clip or event, the camera is zoomed in on Taylor's face and the spotlight is on her
- 0:04 camera switches to show her with the people behind her
- 0:12 camera switches to show just her again
- 0:14 camera pans over to fellow artist Pink who is sitting in the audience smiling and clapping
- 0:17 camera switches back to the stage, Kanye is now on stage, the spotlight is shared by the two, no light on the people in the background
-0:23 camera now focuses on Kanye pointing over to Beyonce 
- 0:26 shot shows Beyonce in Shock and mouthing the words "Oh my God", you can see some people in the background look shocked as well 
- 0:30 Shot is once again on the stage, where you can see the fans on the background in disbelief 
-0:33 shot is now of a random part of the stage, potentially camera worker confused as to what to show? 
-0:34 once again Beyonce is shown, still shocked in the crowd, you see her mouth "what" and is looking around 
- 0:37 a new shot is presented from behind Taylor looking out to the audience, this shot seems to be from an audience members perspective and makes her look extremely lonely and isolated on stage. Shot almost magnifies the embarrassment. 
-0:39 camera pans over to Taylor from the front, she is clearly shocked and struggling to know what to say, she awkwardly stands there, the mic now seems like some alien artifact and she has no idea what to do with it 
- 0:42 camera pans over to a large scale view of the crowd looking at Taylor, again this shot seems to dramatize the isolation she is feeling on that stage right now. You can slowly notice crowd members standing up one by one giving a standing ovation. They could either be supporting what Kanye said or attempting to provide moral support to a shocked Taylor. My guess is that they are supporting Kanye's statement. 
-  0:48 Camera pans over to one audience member who is clapping aggressively and stands up sharply to give a standing ovation. People around her seem confused still. 
- Clip ends with a skit starting which seems out of place but must have been thrown on early to keep the show going. 

Research and Context
  • Kanye West
    • Kanye West was seen earlier in the event with an infamous image of him with Hennessy (alcohol) in his hand. He was presumed to be drunk during the infamous interruption. (Mind State)

    • Kanye West lost his mother 2 years prior to this event and had shown how much this death impacted him and his music with the release of "808s and Heartbreaks", which is considered the most influential album of the decade. (Still grieving, identity crisis, moral crisis?)
    • In 2005 (4 years prior) Kanye expressed his issues of systemic racism towards black people in his infamous moment where he goes off-script at a concert for hurricane relief he was hosting,  to say "George Bush doesn't care about black people." (Precedent of being outspoken towards the role of black people in America)
      • Kanye also said this on beforehand: 
        • "I hate the way they portray us in the media. You see a black family, it says, 'They're looting.' You see a white family, it says, 'They're looking for food.' And, you know, it's been five days [waiting for federal help] because most of the people are black. And even for me to complain about it, I would be a hypocrite because I've tried to turn away from the TV because it's too hard to watch. I've even been shopping before even giving a donation, so now I'm calling my business manager right now to see what is the biggest amount I can give, and just to imagine if I was down there, and those are my people down there. So anybody out there that wants to do anything that we can help—with the way America is set up to help the poor, the black people, the less well-off, as slow as possible. I mean, the Red Cross is doing everything they can. We already realize a lot of people that could help are at war right now, fighting another way—and they've given them permission to go down and shoot us!" (Kanye West as cited in A Concert for Hurricane Relief 2005)
    • When Kanye sat back down that night, supposedly fellow artist Pink came over and gave him a talking to. He was ushered out of the building shortly after.  (Constance 2019)
    • Donald Trump called for America to boycott Kanye West, saying, “He couldn’t care less about Beyoncé. It was grandstanding to get attention.” (Constance 2019)
    • President Barack Obama said that “the young lady seemed like a perfectly nice person” while Kanye was “a jackass.” (Constance 2019)
    • “What happened to you as a child?? Did you not get hugged enough??” Kelly Clarkson demanded of Kanye on her blog. (Constance 2019)
    • “F*** U KANYE. IT’S LIKE U STEPPED 0N A KITTEN,” tweeted Katy Perry
    • Kanye said he had smoked weed beforehand (Mind State)
    • He said MTV hyped up the moment for views (Media controlling narrative)
    • Kanye explained later on an Ellen interview that he felt he needed to say something in order to protect "culture" and if he didn't say anything, no one would. (Constance 2019)  (Kanye's perceived role in society) 
  • Taylor Swift
    • Nominated for one award that night "Best Video by a Female Artist" for her video "You Belong with Me" (Constance 2019)
    • Taylor and Beyonce are seen crying together backstage (Constance 2019)
    • Taylor had to perform shortly after this (Constance 2019)
    • Taylor responded with "forgiveness" writing a song TO Kanye rather than ABOUT him. 
  • Beyonce
    • Nominated for the same award as Taylor for her video "Single Ladies", which was known as one of the top songs of the year.  (Constance 2019)
    • Beyonce was also nominated for Video of the Year which she had her chance of winning later in the night. When Taylor won the award, most people thought, Beyonce's moment would come later that night. Beyonce did end up winning Video of the Year that night.  (Constance 2019)
      • Producers asked Beyonce to say something when going up for her award to hand the spotlight back to Taylor (Constance 2019)
        • Beyonce invited Taylor on stage to give her acceptance speech in her place stating, "I'd like to give Taylor her moment (Constance 2019)."

  • The Media is (Racist?) Storyline
    • Narrative: Kanye was a bully and Taylor his victim (What is wrong with this?)
    • Was Taylor Swift being manipulative with her response? And was America’s enduring fascination with the whole thing maybe kind of racist? (Constance 2019)
    • “If only West and Swift wouldn’t have played so perfectly into their roles: the innocent White girl and the supposedly menacing Black man,” (Constance 2019)
    • “Perhaps taking the victim route sells.”  (Constance 2019)
    • In 2016, Kim Kardashian states that Taylor is trying to appear innocent by playing the victim role, and that the turn against Kanye is racist
    • Did this event play out so well for Taylor because of how an aggressive black man challenged a virginal blonde white girl? (Constance 2019)
    • Vice explained the moment as “black excellence thwarted by white mediocrity again” and THAT is why Kanye had to say something. (Systemic Racism)

My Analysis 

To start, without a doubt what a drunk Kanye West did that night is not acceptable, this young artist had just had the biggest moment of her career and it was ruined. However, my analysis into this matter goes a bit deeper than this surface level fact. I believe Kanye's heart was in the right place when he did this, how could a no-name, young, white, artist win an award for a pretty good song when her competition is one of the best artists of all time and one of the best songs of the decade? It comes done to race for me. This is exactly what Kanye was talking about, would the same thing happen if the roles were reversed? The "Bush doesn't care about black people" was the first time the world truly saw the role Kanye FEELS he plays in being a voice for African Americans. He has always had issues with the people in power that seem to give an advantage to white people and keep African Americans disadvantaged. While Beyonce did end up winning the larger award of the night, this infamous event does beg the question of what Black people need to do to succeed in America, and if their best isn't enough, what is? 



References

Anonymous. "Kanye walked the red carpet at the 2009 VMAs with Hennessy in his hand." Getty Images. Retrieved             from https://www.the-sun.com/entertainment/686273/kanye-west-alcoholic-drank-grey-goose-morning-no-                longer/

"A Concert for Hurricane Relief." Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, September 17,                                                                  2020, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Concert_for_Hurricane_Relief

Bedson, Jame. Kanye West Taylor Swift VMA's. Youtube, September 2009, https://www.youtube.com/watch?                      v=aBhnp5bowHo&ab_channel=JamieBedson

Constance. G. “How the Taylor Swift-Kanye West VMAs Scandal Became a Perfect American Morality Tale.” Vox, Vox, 26 Aug. 2019, www.vox.com/culture/2019/8/26/20828559/taylor-swift-kanye-west-2009-mtv-vmas-explained.


Rubier, Jeremy, director. Gui Martinez: A Short Film and Photo Essay. Vimeo, uploaded by Poweredby.tokyo, May                 2017, vimeo.com/channels/staffpicks/216976160.




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