Mac Miller, Best Coast, Calvin Harris Take Home 2012 Woodies

The mtvU Woodie Awards were filmed in Austin during SXSW and aired last night, letting viewers see how against all odds, rappers Mac Miller and Machine Gun Kelly — two ideologically different rappers supported by similar grassroots fan armies — took home the show’s major prizes. Best Coast and Calvin Harris also each racked up a win, while artists including Santigold, Steve Aoki, Gary Clark, Jr., and A$AP Rocky played live.

Miller won Woodie of the Year (slaying the Black Keys, Frank Ocean, Foster the People, and Skrillex) and the Performing Woodie (beating, incredibly, the Black Keys, Skrillex, Swedish House Mafia, Jay-Z and Kanye West, and Alabama Shakes). MGK won the Breaking Woodie against an impossibly stacked deck — A$AP Rocky, Azealia Banks, the Weeknd, Charlie XCX, Cloud Nothings, Cults, fun., Kendrick Lamar, Future and Iggy Azalea. Before you let out a huge “WTF,” keep in mind that the Woodies aren’t exactly MTV’s Grammys — they recognize what they call “the music voted best by college students,” in other words, the music click-voted the most times on mtvU’s website by insanely dedicated fans.

Harris took home the award show’s first-ever EDM award, the EDM Effect Woodie, for his work with Rihanna on the inescapable “We Found Love.” He was up against other genre-blending EDM artists like Avicii (for his his sampling on Flo Rida’s “Good Feeling”), Benny Benassi, Flux Pavilion, and Steve Aoki/Laidback Luke. Best Coast scored Best Video Woodie for her Drew Barrymore-directed, child star-studded clip for “Our Deal”, and Appalachian State’s hip-hop and metal-leaning station WASU-FM, a.k.a. the App, won the show’s annual College Radio Woodie.

All of the Woodies performances are posted on MTV’s website, but here’s a Santigold highlight: