Croco--er, Chris Brown Tears

So the blogosphere's been abuzz with reactions to Chris Brown's breakdown during his performance of Michael Jackson's "Man in the Mirror" at the BET Awards this past Sunday. I could give two sh*ts about any televised awards show (I think they are rigged and boring), much less one on BET, but I figured since I wrote an earlier post about enjoying Brown's music again I should weigh in.

Like I said, I didn't watch the BET Awards--in addition to the above reasons for not watching, True Blood was on--and actual footage of Chris Brown crying during the performance is being removed from various sites as violations of BET copyright From what I've read, while performing "Man in the Mirror" Brown breaks down in tears. Straightforward enough. The "controversy" comes from his reasons for doing so: were his tears for the loss of Jackson, his musical idol, or himself?

Frankly, I think people are reading far too much into this. "Man in the Mirror" is an emotional song, especially to be performed by a talented guy with a troubled past (who does THAT sound like?) paying homage to one of his fallen idols in a public arena. People are saying he faked the tears to garner sympathy for himself, since he's had trouble bouncing back professionally after hitting Rihanna.

Ok...

After seeing his apology video on Larry King Live (the one with the infamous bowtie), I don't think he or his handlers are smart enough to do something like that. Also, Brown is a terrible actor. Even if his tears were staged, the sheer awkwardness of breaking down like that in front of a stadium of thousands and a television audience of millions more just sounds like bad marketing to me. After the network's terrible attempt at an MJ tribute at last year's awards and BET having Chris Brown, of all performers, sing "Man in the Mirror" this year, of course this mess is gonna seem fake and insincere. As you can see, such a ploy---if it is one--just serves to further divide the audience into either Chris Brown Supporters or Chris Brown Haters; I've yet to read anything that implies someone's opinion of Brown has changed for the better because of his emotional performance on BET.

To me, this whole ordeal sounds like an attempt from BET to 1. Redeem themselves for last year's MJ tribute, and 2. add some controversy to drum up ratings for the network. I can't say for sure whether or not Chris Brown's tears were genuine, but it doesn't seem far-fetched to me for someone with his public reputation to break down during a song like that.