Source: AP

Every award show we know there are going to be some hits, some misses, and some WTF were they thinkings when it comes to red carpet fashion (that was our nice way of saying bold in the headline). This year’s 2013 Billboard Music Awards were no different. Check out the best and the most interesting outfits we saw.

WENN

I think we can all agree that when it comes to black women and the music industry, there are probably less than a handful that get their fair shine and respect without people acting as though they’re wannabes or trying to steal someone’s shine. While a Beyoncé, or Rihanna can have their stans and all their notoriety without people hounding stories about them with shade, other talented singers get treated like the busted stepchildren from the moment their name is mentioned, for instance, a Ciara, an Ashanti, and a Keri Hilson.

Hilson has been the butt of many jokes and spitfire negative comments over the last few years, even when she’s just doing her. And it seems that she’s finally found herself at the end of her rope with the haters, and decided to lash back at them on her Twitter page. Per the usual, read from the BOTTOM on up.

Hilson is most likely coming for the stans of other singers who she has had some diva moments with since she’s stepped out of the shadows of being a songwriter and into the spotlight as a singer. There was the remix to “Turnin’ Me On” that people thought was a shot at Ciara and Bey, and the whole Juicy Mag drama at the 2011 Soul Train Music Awards, as well as a slight diss to the music of pop singer Ke$ha (aye, but that girl’s music is a mess though). All in all, it hasn’t given Hilson the cleanest reputation in the industry, and she’s been low key pegged as a drama queen. But why people attack her at every turn for everything? No real explanation for that. But sadly, this is the new part of being a celebrity nowadays and how things go with the expansion of social media and everybody jumping big and bad behind their laptops and computer monitors. But it’s refreshing to see celebs check people from time to time, and do so not on a negative level, because some folks know they need and deserve it.

Source: worldaccordingtomonte.com

Twitter is the devil. 140 characters certainly makes one think so. The age of social media has exposed celebrities as being undeserving of the pedestals they’ve built their images upon. You can learn a lot about a person in just one tweet and these days, even that’s just too much information.

There used to be a time when stars held a certain aura about them. It was a mystique that added to their presence and was fascinating because fans always wanted to know more. That time has come and gone. In its place is an era where Ke$ha tweets a picture of herself peeing in the streets. Chris Brown posted a picture of himself taking a dump. Rihanna recently uploaded a pics of herself making it rain at a strip club. Don’t even get me started on all the ugly tirades these people go on their Twitter beefs about the most obscure things. Very little has been left to the imagination.

Celebrities have become stunt queens chronicling every last minute of their lives. Their every indulgence has become public consumption. Even their good intentions are an exercise in vanity. The Digital Death Campaign a few years ago had celebrities lying in coffins and declaring themselves dead on social media until enough money was raised for “Keep A Child Alive.”  The “dead” quickly rose from their virtual graves and were updating their statuses before the monetary goal was reached. The efforts were undercut by the sheer narcissism. The world wide web still remembers just as it holds onto the memory of Rihanna and Ciara battling it out on Twitter over who could book a stage. And who could forget Chris Brown, Frank Ocean and Tyler the Creator going at it, calling each other b**** a** n****s and apes? There was also the time when even Jennifer Hudson threatened to go Chi-town crazy on a fan. From a purely entertainment standpoint, one could sit in front of their computer screens with a bag of popcorn and just refresh for the next few hours. However, when your antics are what starts to get you page views instead of an actual craft, there’s an issue.

It’s easy to insist that celebrities are upending conventional wisdom by putting their business on front street. They assume control by not pushing a phony perfect image. They’re being real but Dave Chappelle wasn’t lying when he said keeping it real can go wrong. It’s not always the best look; inviting the world into your most personal business and drama just gets the side eye more than a standing ovation. When that does happen, a lot of these stars tend to push back by telling the media to mind its own…even though they made their exploits public.

Beyoncé is called boring because she doesn’t tweet her every bowel movement. She’s only begun utilizing Twitter for professional purposes and is employing Tumblr to share family snapshots. Every star doesn’t need to follow her model and play it safe PG-13 style. At the very least, there should be a happy medium. It seems the more we know, the more some look at celebrities as people they actually know. But for others, the more we know, the less we can take their antics.

In the back of everyone’s minds, we like to think that these stars are just like us. We just don’t always want to see how much.

Stephanie Guerilus is a journalist and author. Follow her @qsteph

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