Post-VMAs Roundup

Once again (for the 30th year in a row, if you’re counting … ), MTVs annual VMAs delivered some of the most talked about performances of the year. I’m not even going to attempt to add to the noise … although I do have plenty of opinions about Miley’s performance in particular and the show in general. Instead I thought I’d share just a few of the things I’ve read online about the biggest music story of the week:

• The Culture Behind the Music: What Millions of Teens Gleaned from MTV’s 2013 VMAs by Jonathan McKee and David R. Smith
• A youth pastor’s response to Miley Cyrus and Robin Thicke by Greg Klimovitz
• The 2013 VMAs Review from blogger and student pastor Josh Evans
• Oh Miley … A youth ministry response written by Helene Foust on the Indiana Conference of the United Methodist Church’s blog
• How I Plan on Dealing with the Miley Issue in My Youth Ministry by Paul Turner

And if all the talking, tweeting, posting and such makes you want to throw your hands up in despair, read this:

• Miley does not define 20-year olds (or: Six people you should know) by blogger Crystal Kirgiss

Once again I’ve been reminded that “culture” is going to happen; we can’t stop it and we can’t shut it out. Our role as youth leaders (and for many of us as parents too) is to stay aware of what is happening in the world around us, to be willing and ready to talk about it, and to always point students back towards the Truth.

We just happened to have re:tuned articles already written for both of the songs by Robin Thicke and Miley Cyrus for the brand new YLO93 shipping this week. I wanted to share them with you here. If you’re looking for a way to start the conversation, maybe these can help:

• re:tuned for We Can’t Stop by Miley Cyrus from YLO93 written by Doug Ranck talks about choices and why we need to make the right ones.
• re:tuned for Blurred Lines by Robin Thicke from YLO93 written by Kirk Moore … the teaching point is “The line between what is good and what is not isn’t always easy to see.”

How are you talking to your students about Miley’s performance and the VMAs?