The 2009 MTV VMAs Changed Pop Culture Forever

From Lady Gaga’s performance of “Paparazzi” to Kanye West’s infamous interruption of Taylor Swift, here's a look back at the Awards Show 15 years later.

We’ll never have another 2009 MTV Video Music Awards. From Lady Gaga’s game-changing performance of “Paparazzi” to Kanye West’s infamous interruption of Taylor Swift, the final MTV awards ceremony of the aughts was just one iconic pop culture moment after the next, and in the 15 years since, MTV has yet to replicate that same magic.

Of course, everything was different in 2009. Twilight had been such a massive success that Taylor Lautner was granted a prime slot, presenting an award alongside Shakira. The nominees for Best New Artist were a mixture of now-inescapable superstars (Lady Gaga and Drake), cult acts (3OH!3 and Kid Cudi), and one-hit-wonder white rappers (Asher Roth).

Justin Bieber’s voice had yet to drop. Jennifer Lopez was still in love with Marc Anthony. Kanye West was still walking arm-in-arm with Amber Rose (and neither of them was a Republican). P!nk was just starting to do that whole aerial acrobatic routine. Even Perez Hilton was there. (At the awards ceremony, he was seated proudly next to his then-bestie, Lady Gaga.)

Or, just consider that hosting duties were handled by Russell Brand, who spent the night making icky jokes about how turned on he was by a hole in Katy Perry’s trousers, how turned on he would be if Lady Gaga did, in fact, have a penis, and how turned on he still was despite Megan Fox being a “little bit cuckoo upstairs.” I am quite possibly the world’s biggest Get Him to the Greek apologist, but even I struggled with this level of crass. “It seems I can say whatever I want and sort of get away with it,” he bragged at one point—a perfect summation of the time.

But beyond the details that simply haven’t aged well, the 2009 VMAs, in retrospect, feel like the end of something. It was the last time an awards show felt like it reached every corner of the pop cultural sphere. The last time a celebrity-studded event felt like it was actually generating culture instead of merely responding to it.

Not that everything was a highlight. Madonna’s opening tribute to the recently deceased Michael Jackson went from touching to uncomfortable, as the pop star concluded by shaming the “lynch mob” public for starting a “witch hunt” against a man who had been accused of sexual abuse. The most indelible part of Jay-Z and Alicia Keys’s “Empire State of Mind” duet was Lil Mama’s inexplicably bonkers (but undeniably hilarious) decision to bum-rush the stage in the middle of it. (I guess she’s just really proud to be a New Yorker.)

And you’d be forgiven for forgetting performances by bands like Muse and Green Day, which were perfectly fine, if not exactly memorable. Ditto for Katy Perry’s cover of “We Will Rock You” with Joe Perry—even if it does feel refreshing to revisit in the age of “Woman’s World.” If anyone should be remembered, though, it’s Janet Jackson, whose dance-heavy journey through her older brother’s biggest hits still stands out as one of VMA’s all-time best tribute performances.

But even a great performance—like, say, Beyoncé’s fierce rendition of “Single Ladies”—would struggle to break through the noise that erupted around Lady Gaga. In fact, the pop star probably had a better showing than anyone else in that room. Like Taylor Swift (who, earlier in the night, made her VMA debut with a performance of “You Belong With Me” live from the 42nd Street MTA subway station), Lady Gaga was taking the VMAs stage for the very first time. And as the favored winner of Best New Artist, quite a lot was riding on her debut.

To say she delivered feels inadequate. With her haunted performance of The Fame smash “Paparazzi,” Gaga shifted the earth on its axis. The artist that went on that stage is not the same one that left it—this was a caterpillar metamorphosing into a striking butterfly in real-time. A brain-melting fusion of soaring vocals, expert piano playing, complex choreography, impeccable costuming, and intricate set design—all packaged with a high-brow message about the vicious relationship between artists and the audience surveilling them.

Gaga’s performance existed on its own planet, complete with its own gravitational pull. By the end, as her bloodied body was left dangling from the ceiling, her head tilted to the side with eyes eerily glazed over, it was impossible to deny that we had just witnessed a historical event. When she later won Best New Artist, dedicating the award to “God and the Gays,” it was as though a prophecy had been rightfully fulfilled. This was the crowning of a new pop great. A star had been born.

But the moment we all remember, the one that would be referenced for years to come, the one that launched a feud that, in many ways, is still playing out to this day—still belongs to Kanye West and Taylor Swift (with Beyoncé, unfortunately, trapped in the middle).

During a recent rewatch, I was actually surprised at how early the spat happened. Best Female Video was the first award of the night, and Taylor Swift, winning her first VMA (after losing Best New Artist to Tokio Hotel the year prior), seemed genuinely humble and grateful for the honor. Long before her total chart domination—before she had even won a single Grammy—Swift recalled how she “always dreamed about what it would maybe be like to win one of these someday.” (Hilariously, in hindsight, she “never actually thought that would happen.”)

Then came the words that would forever alter history: “Yo, Taylor. I’m really happy for you. I’m gonna let you finish. But Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time.”

It’s no surprise that these words have taken on a life of their own. Though Kanye has built an entire career around unhinged outbursts—never forget “George Bush doesn’t care about Black people” (which, it should be noted, was a correct sentiment) — something about him turning this onto a fellow celebrity, during a primetime awards show, felt truly seismic. In the wake of his comments, one could sense the awkwardness in the room. Even Beyoncé looked shocked and, possibly, slightly embarrassed.

People weren’t shy about taking Taylor’s side at the time. The optics of a promising 19-year-old country starlet having her big moment usurped by an established, controversy-prone rapper wasn’t ideal. (Later that night, after “Single Ladies” won Video of the Year, Beyonce would invite the singer back onto the stage to finish her acceptance speech.) But what no one could have known back then was how, in a twisted way, Kanye was predicting everything that would come.

Though Best Female Video also featured women like Katy Perry, P!nk, and even Lady Gaga, with his comments, Kanye made it clear that the real competition had always been between Taylor Swift and Beyoncé. Fast-forward 15 years, and the country singer and former Destiny’s Child member are now arguably the two biggest pop stars in the world — and though the pair do a good job of publicly supporting each other’s mutual world domination, their respective posts at the top of the pop ladder almost necessitate that they’ll forever be compared to one another.

Mere months after the 2009 VMAs, the two artists were pitted against each other once again at the Grammys, where Swift’s Fearless beat out Beyoncé’s I Am… Sasha Fierce for Album of the Year. And just last summer, as they both mounted massive world tours, fans couldn’t stop comparing earnings — even as both Renaissance and Eras broke records and boosted economies. Today, no one is in the realm of these two behemoths. And to think, their lifetime of friendly competition started that night. This is what it means to generate culture.

But since that night, the VMAs have failed to reach those same heights. Sure, there have been more iconic moments: Gaga arrived in a dress made entirely of raw meat the very next year and as her drag king alter-ego Jo Calderone the year after that. Beyoncé announced her first pregnancy with a rub of her baby bump while performing in 2011. And who could ever forget about a foam finger-waving Miley Cyrus twerking all over Robin Thicke in 2013? In 2015, we were even treated to another legendary outburst when Nicki Minaj infamously called out Miley “This Bitch That Had a Lot to Say About Me The Other Day In the Press” Cyrus. But these were all standalone incidents, mostly remembered in isolation, not as pieces of a larger cultural whole. To that effect, the 2009 VMAs feel like one of the last true vestiges of the monoculture, a relic of the “old times” before so much of pop culture—and how we engage with it—splintered off into a sea of disparate units.

But what to make of the reasons why?

There are some practical reasons, like the simple fact that the entire landscape of television has drastically shifted. With the rise of streaming, “appointment television” has largely become a thing of the past, making it near impossible for anything airing on TV to truly take hold of any singularly definable “moment.” This is doubly true for live awards ceremonies, which, aside from a few cases, have been steadily waning in popularity for some time now.

Then, there’s our new mores. While what is considered “appropriate” hasn’t necessarily changed—there was always a consensus that Kanye was in the wrong, for example—how the public engages with misbehavior has evolved almost tenfold. Would Kanye still be willing to interrupt a beloved young country singer if he knew a horde of angry Swifties were waiting in the wings, ready to viciously dogpile him on Twitter? (To be fair, if anyone would be, it’s Kanye.)

But perhaps most important is the matter of sheer star power. On that night in 2009, Radio City Music Hall was packed with megastars. Beyoncé. Taylor Swift. Lady Gaga. Janet Jackson. Madonna. Kanye West. Jay-Z. Even presenters like Kristen Stewart and Shakira lent a degree of shiny prestige to the proceedings. The ceremony felt like the thing because everybody who was anybody was in attendance. You tuned in because you didn’t want to miss out.

Compare that to the roster for this year, which includes performers like Shawn Mendes, Camila Cabello, Anitta, and Rauw Alejandro, and presenters like Halle Bailey, Addison Rae, Big Sean, and Lil Nas X. These are (mostly) all people that I love. But do any of them qualify as globally renowned A-Listers? It’s quite telling that those who do—nominees like Ariana Grande, Billie Eilish, Bad Bunny, and, well, Beyoncé and Taylor Swift—aren’t slated to actually participate in (or even confirmed to attend) the ceremony. The biggest name, that is? Katy Perry, this year’s Video Vanguard honoree. And if murmurings from fans and critics on the internet are anything to go by, she is in the middle of what many agree is her biggest flop era yet.

But maybe there’s hope. Hiring the infinitely charismatic Megan Thee Stallion as a host feels like a truly inspired decision, and if Drake decides to show up (he has two nominations, after all), I wouldn’t object to the Hot Girl throwing some old-school shade his way. Also, the two biggest breakouts of this summer, Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter, are both making their main stage debuts—who’s to say that one of them can’t blow the house down with a career-making performance à la Gaga’s “Paparazzi?” And yet, I still can’t help but to wonder: if the world isn’t tuned in live to witness the magic as it’s happening, will it even have the same impact?

Better yet, did it even happen at all?

The 2024 MTV Video Music Awards air live on Wednesday, September 11.

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