There is no doubt that MTV is geared toward young adults.
Therefore, I wasn't surprised when I walked into various dorm rooms last Sunday to find students gathered in common areas, in other rooms and in the dormitory basements to watch and socialize about the Video Music Awards.
Despite the remote location of DePauw University, the students here are not immune to the alluring power of MTV.
The channel, which originally stood for music television, has evolved into everything but music.
With its reality shows and other scripted series, MTV is becoming, in my mind, the WB of the 90s, where everything on the network was geared towards teenagers and young adults.
This is far from the original intentions of the network, which was to display music of all types: rock, hip-hop, pop and everything in between.
Although the 24/7 music television is long gone, viewers are guaranteed one night when MTV devotes hours to music and music alone: the annual MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs).
This year, the MTV Video Music Award show featured artists with talent as well as those with only stage charisma. The performers included big names like Adele, Beyonce, Chris Brown, Jay-Z and Kanye West, Lady Gaga and Lil Wayne.
They also showcased one up-and-coming band, Young the Giant.
Although most of these artists are relevant and popular, I still questioned their performances overall.
If one chooses to be a performer or a musical artist, then one must be prepared to put on a show.
The habitually controversial Lady Gaga stayed in drag character the entire night and gave a stomach-churning performance of "You and I" while many were unsure if she was under the influence of alcohol on stage.
The talented songstress and soon-to-be mommy Beyonce gave an astounding performance of her new single "Love on Top" wherein she reintroduced a feel of R&B and displayed her baby bump for the world to see.
Adele, with nothing but a black piano and a microphone, blew everyone away with her voice and lyrics to her new hit "Someone Like You."
Although the VMAs offered great performances from some amazing artists, there were also a few performances that were a bit questionable.
For instance Jay-Z and Kanye West's performance of their single "Otis" from their album was disappointing.
The rapper-turned-singer Lil' Wayne should just stick to rapping after giving a laughable performance of his newly released singles "How to Love" and "John."
His voice was completely and noticeably auto-tuned, no matter how deep the lyrics may be, and the performance was meaningless with no real emotion to back up the lyrics.
After his medley of "How to Love," Lil' Wayne proceeded to take off his shirt, pull his pants down a little too low, grab a guitar and start jumping around.
Despite the two unlikable performances, according to a survey I conducted, 30 out of 50 DePauw students favorably rated this year's Video Music Award performances.
The highlights of the show, according to the majority of respondents, were the tear-jerking performance by Adele and the awe-inspiring performance by Chris Brown, singing, dancing and flying all over the place.
All 50 of the surveyed students said they will be watching the MTV Video Music Awards again next year, and so will I.
— WIlson is a sophomore from Atlanta. opinion@thedepauw.com