Coverage: Reactions to MTV’s Video Music Awards

The MTV Video Music Awards took place Sunday night, and accumulated in little more than a pile of sequins, an overflowing swear jar and a Kanye West diatribe. Viewership numbers for the show have yet to come in, but hopefully for MTV, Miley Cyrus and her wild antics were enough to pull back viewers, which dropped 18 percent last year.

Mikael Wood of the Los Angeles Times broke down why Miley wasn’t the night’s biggest attraction:

Turns out it wasn’t Miley we needed to worry about.

Virtually all the chatter heading into Sunday’s MTV Video Music Awards had to do with what kind of ruckus Miley Cyrus might raise as the show’s host. Two years ago, remember, it was Cyrus — the Disney Channel star turned twerk-happy enfant terrible — who scandalized a nation with her super-raunchy performance alongside Robin Thicke on the VMAs. Then, in 2014, Cyrus didn’t perform, and viewership dropped 18%.

So MTV spared no opportunity hyping Cyrus’ gig as emcee for this year’s event, broadcast live from the Microsoft Theater in downtown Los Angeles.

But apart from her flummoxed response to a show-stopping accusation by Nicki Minaj, it wasn’t Cyrus who provided Sunday’s thrills. Indeed, compared to Minaj’s vitriol toward the host and a mercurial speech by Kanye West, the host seemed downright tame as she introduced performers and acted in a series of painfully unfunny sketches lampooning her reputation as a pop-culture troublemaker.

“This show hasn’t had a host for the last two years,” she said in her opening monologue, before bragging that the network will probably return to that setup next year.

Yeah, probably.

MTV prides itself on the VMAs’ air of unpredictability — the special sauce that distinguishes the show from more buttoned-up affairs like the Grammys — and Sunday its first taste came when Minaj accepted her award for best hip-hop video. (Other winners, which matter here even less than they do on other performance-heavy awards shows, included Taylor Swift for video of the year with “Bad Blood,” Fetty Wap for artist to watch, and Big Sean for video with a social message for “One Man Can Change the World.”)

Jon Caramanica summed up the show for The New York Times:

By any measure, booking Miley Cyrus to host the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards seemed like a certain coup. Two years ago, performing on the show, she ignited a thousand think pieces with her antics, and since then, she’s become perhaps our most unfiltered pop star, for better and often for worse. She is a reliable generator of controversy, and a reliable generator of memes.

On a youth-focused awards show that’s as effectively consumed on the big living-room picture box as in bite-size pictures and videos on Instagram, Vine, Twitter and Snapchat, Ms. Cyrus is a model host, as well as a harbinger of cultural collisions and distribution strategies yet to come.

And yet, by the end of the night, when Ms. Cyrus performed a new song about self-empowerment (and drugs), backed by the Flaming Lips and dancing drag queens, she wasn’t nearly the most memorable part of the evening’s ceremonies.

Instead, the 2015 V.M.A.s — which took place Sunday night at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles and were broadcast on MTV with a brief, necessary tape delay to handle the abundant cursing — were defined not by Ms. Cyrus’s stagy shock, but rather by eruptions of extreme sincerity, sometimes bursting out of situations that were clearly contrived, and sometimes not.

At one point, rapper Nicki Minaj squared off against Cyrus, as this Associated Press article pointed out:

Nicki Minaj called Miley Cyrus out at the MTV Video Music Awards after the 22-year-old said in an interview that the rapper was being a poor sport about not receiving a nomination for video of the year.

After collecting best hip-hop video for “Anaconda” on Sunday, Minaj told the audience: “And now back to this b—- that had a lot to say about me a lot in the press. Miley, what’s good?”

Minaj’s microphone was cut off, and Cyrus fired back with “we all know how they manipulate” words during interviews, referencing a pre-VMAs interview in the New York Times.. Cyrus then stumbled over her words as she tried to read from cue cards about voting for the artist to watch award.

“I lost this award in 2008 and I was fine with it. Whatever! Because it’s no big deal. It’s just an award and I persevered,” she yelled, appearing to look over at Minaj.

She ended with: “Congratulations Nicki.”

Cyrus criticized Minaj for her “pop star war” with Swift that began in July. On the show, however, the rapper ended her issues with Swift and they joined forces onstage.

After Minaj entertained the audience with her upbeat “Trini Dem Girls,” Swift joined the rapper during her performance of the “The Night Is Still Young.” Swift wore a bright red dress that mirrored Minaj’s ensemble. Swift then performed some of her hit, “Bad Blood,” as Minaj danced around her. They closed with a hug.

Swift, the top nominee with 10, traded words with Minaj over Twitter when the VMA nominees were announced in July. Minaj, who had one of the most viewed videos of the year with “Anaconda,” is not up for video of the year, and she tweeted that slim women easily earn top nominations and said black female entertainers don’t get enough credit for their influence on pop culture. Swift thought the rapper was referring to her and they traded words online, but later apologized.

And while Cyrus’ hosting capabilities will surely be critiqued, the most memorable moment of the night belongs to rapper Kanye West, for his 12-minute acceptance speech. Jethro Nededog of Business Insider summed up its most important points:

Kanye West took the MTV VMAs hostage for a full 12 minutes after receiving this year’s Video Vanguard Award.

In another nod to a feud with Taylor Swift (the night already had this one and then this one involving Nicki Minaj), the singer presented the award to West. Six years ago, West rushed the stage and interrupted her acceptance speech because he wasn’t happy about her win over Beyonce that year.

“Listen to the kids, bro,” West said as part of his diatribe.

He also points out how the media stokes feuds between artists. He even called out MTV.

“Do you know how many times they announced that Taylor was going to give me that award ‘cuz it got them more ratings?” he said.

He then goes on to question the very idea of award shows.

“I don’t understand how they get five people who work their entire life [to] sell records, sell concert tickets, to come stand on a carpet and for the first time in their life be judged on a chopping block and have the opportunity to be considered a loser.”

He ended his speech with: “And, yes, as you probably could have guessed in this moment, I have decided in 2020 to run for president.”