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Sure, celebs like Justin Timberlake, Taylor Swift, and other milk-toast performers won a bunch of super stabby-looking awards, but the real stars of the show were the famous folks who made sure to give their internet fans some love. After all, the AMAs are completely, 100% fan-voted. There is no "Academy" to thank; it's all ground roots fans doing the voting.
All in all, this show really paid homage to the web like never before. Let's take a look at some of the artists who haven't lost sight of how web humor and internet fame have helped their careers.
1. Miley Cyrus Sings With A Giant Cat
After her hair-raising performance at MTV's Video Music Awards, her much-talked-about naked "Wrecking Ball" video, those internet hoaxes, and of course, that tongue thing she won't stop doing, we were expecting something completely crazy from the erstwhile Disney star as she closed the show at the AMAs. Instead, we got a relatively subdued Cyrus singing her heart out on stage while a giant lip synching cat was projected behind her.
Yes, that's right, a giant cat, and everybody knows that the internet loves cats. It's almost like she was talking directly to us, wasn't it? Miley plus kitty cats equals Big Time Internet Love.
Check out her full performance here.
2. Lady Gaga Takes On Fat-Shaming Bloggers
Lady Gaga is no stranger to controversy herself, and the pressure to give a performance that breaks the rules but still makes a point is always on when the Ga hits the stage. This year, Gaga and R. Kelly collaborated to bring us a cheeky JFK and Marilyn Monroe tribute. Things got totally sexy in a PG/made for television kind of way, but the truly shocking part of the act was when Gaga turned the spotlight on the media haters who called her out for gaining about twenty-five pounds last year.
On the screen behind the now-svelte singer, headlines like, "Lady Gaga is Fat" and "Lady Gaga Is Over" blared against a white background, seemingly as a direct response to the many nasty blog posts and Photoshopped images that circulated in late 2012. You go, Lady G!
3. Rihanna Hits Icon Status At The Ripe Old Age of 25
What were you doing when you were twenty-five? Were you being recognized at the American Music Awards as being an "Icon?"
Yeah, me neither, but that's exactly what Rihanna was doing at the 2013 AMAs. One of the main criteria for being considered an icon happened to be Rihanna's massive internet audience, from her thirty million plus Twitter followers, to her "Best-Selling Digital Artist of All Time," status. Hers is truly a career that was forged on the internet, and she doesn't seem inclined to forget that fact any time soon.
It's Official: The Web Rules The World
Little by little, the internet is completely taking over pop culture events like the AMAs, and we couldn't be happier about it.We can't wait to see what kinds of awesome celebrity memes will come out of this event!
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