I like music videos. What’s not to like about them? They offer musicians a chance to further develop their artistic vision. They give fans a chance to actually see their favorite bands. They introduce new artists both aurally and visually to an audience thirsting for fresh music. The “Smells Like Teen Spirit” video even introduced what has become a standard at school dances everywhere and anything resembling a rock concert – moshing. Sure, the distortion-incited chaos existed well before the video first aired, but it wasn’t until America’s youth saw Kurt and company playing to a gym filled with hopping, colliding bodies that moshing became part of pop culture. Videos can make or break a band. It is nearly impossible to build a national fan base without a video. Visuals have become as important as the music itself. Videos intrigue me, excite me, enthrall me. So why isn’t the biggest annual event in music videos making me sweat with anticipation? MTV’s Video Music Awards (VMAs) are airing Thursday at 7 p.m., and I really don’t care. I used to tune in for the VMAs even when I didn’t have cable. I would call up a friend, go over to their house and steal their remote. Nothing would get between me and my videos. Why don’t I give a damn anymore? I still like music videos. I like them a lot. But, for some reason this year, I have a problem with MTV and their over-hyped VMAs. I have issues with a cable channel that claims to be music television, but whose video programming takes up only about a quarter of the airtime. They still play videos on MTV. Really, they do. I have seen them myself. One night around 3 a.m., while channel-surfing, I hit MTV, expecting to find myself in the middle of a 5-hour block of “Undressed.” To my surprise, Creed’s “With Arms Wide Open” was on, part of the show “After Hours.” MTV still plays music videos. Admittedly, they are about as hard to find as an unsmiling face on “Total Request Live” (“TRL”), but videos do still exist on MTV. And “TRL” is one of two shows that actually airs them. Two shows? That’s right. It appears that many MTV staples like “120 Minutes,” “MTV Jams” and “Buzzworthy” have gone the way of “Headbangers’ Ball” and “Alternative Nation.” The shows are still listed on mtv.com, though they are nowhere to be found on this week’s schedule. My problem is, how can MTV hold a music awards show if it doesn’t show any videos? Oh, it slipped my mind already. I forgot. “TRL” is a music show. It is easy to forget about music when screaming 13-year-old girls, annoying contests and the glare off of Carson Daly’s teeth are all vying for your attention. Watching the VMAs will probably be a worthless experience. All anyone has to do to see the nominees is watch “TRL,” because that is virtually the only pool of videos available. Of the approximately 99 video nominees, there are only five or six that did not make it on “TRL’s” countdown. The two leaders are `N Sync and Eminem, with six nominations each. This may not seem like a bad thing, but the awards are supposed to encompass all the videos made in a year. Critics, musicians and industry professionals should choose the videos that were truly the best, whether they were popular or not. There is a reason MTV established the Viewer’s Choice award, after all. But now, the category is redundant. The “TRL” countdown is chosen by fans. With nearly all of this year’s videos coming from the haven of boy bands and boob jobs, the VMAs are merely a glorified “TRL.” I may still watch the VMAs. I may not. But if I do, I doubt I will react with more than a yawn and a sigh. However, I think this will be the year I bid the once-hallowed VMAs “Bye, bye bye.”