Mtv Video Music Awards

At one point during the Sunday night broadcast of the 25th annual MTV Video Music Awards, the action apparently switched from Paramount Studios to the Whisky a Go Go on the Sunset Strip, where the rock band Paramore's performance was inciting a riot. Not really, though: Singer Hayley Williams and her boys were ripping it up in a simulated nightclub directly adjacent to the award ceremony's main stage. "Nothing is as it seems," said the night's host, comic Russell Brand. Get it? Just like in the movies!

The 2011 MTV Video Music Awards ceremony went without a host or much sense of direction Sunday night at Nokia Theatre, as a heartfelt tribute to singer Amy Winehouse and a career-rehab performance from Chris Brown offered strong moments over the course of a wildly inconsistent evening. In the salute to Winehouse, who died last month at 27, British comedian Russell Brand recalled first hearing her "raw, from-the-guts-of-humanity voice" in London before he knew who she was. "She suffered from alcoholism and drug addiction.

After delivering one of the worst performances in the history of the MTV Video Music Awards, Britney Spears has a chance to be crowned this year as the absolute best. The rebounding pop queen is nominated for video of the year for "Piece of Me," a clip that had fun with her reputation as a tabloid queen. Other nominees included the Jonas Brothers for "Burnin' Up," Chris Brown for "Forever," the Pussycat Dolls for "When I Grow Up" and the Ting Tings for "Shut Up and Let Me Go." Other nominees announced Friday -- Paramore, Fall Out Boy, Slipknot, Linkin Park and Foo Fighters -- were in the category of best rock video.

"Let's have a toast," sang Kanye West in September of this sometimes seemingly endless year, debuting a new song, "Runaway," on the MTV Video Music Awards. Over a glassy keyboard sample and an old-school breakbeat, West intoned a gentle melody. "Runaway," many expected, would offer apologies to Taylor Swift: This was the one-year anniversary of West's notorious interruption of an acceptance speech by the country-pop princess, which led to his brief retreat from the media spotlight. Instead of a rose, though, West's outstretched hand held up a middle finger.

At least the shocker this year was related to music. The MTV Video Music Awards are always willfully chaotic, keeping alive the myth of pop as the provenance of rebels by placing a bunch of moderately edgy celebrities within a festive environment and fueling the mood with sexy performances, off-color jokes and "incidents" that are often staged, but good for a thousand Twitter tweets. One of these mostly bogus controversies usually goes a bit deeper, hinting at real issues of identity, status, personal power and self-expression -- the sticky stuff from which pop music is, in fact, made.

Korn's video for "Freak on a Leash" grabbed nine nominations to lead all other contenders Wednesday in the 1999 MTV Video Music Awards. The nominations for "Freak on a Leash" includes best video of the year, a category in which Lauryn Hill's "Doo Wop (That Thing)," Ricky Martin's "Livin' La Vida Loca," Will Smith's "Wild Wild West" (with Dru Hill and Kool Mo Dee) and the Backstreet Boys' "I Want It That Way" also are vying.

Isn't it ironic, as Alanis Morissette would say, that the anti-fashion message was so pronounced at a celebration of the music video, a medium that has made the visual element of rock nearly as important as what we hear. Judging by the MTV Video Music Awards in New York City on Wednesday night, the rock world is divided not only into alternative, rap, R & B and heavy metal, but into those who dress to impress and those who don't.

We know videotape deteriorates over time. But, assuming some preservationist soul keeps a cryogenic chamber in chilly operation over the years, what will the kids of the 21st and 22nd centuries learn about our own times when they open that freezer-burned box marked "MTV Video Music Awards nominees, 1993"? Plenty: * From En Vogue's progressive anthem "Free Your Mind" (the most nominated video, with seven nods), future generations will learn that we were very much into tolerance and cleavage.

Highlighted by a surprise pre-tour appearance by a rejuvenated Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones, the 19th annual MTV Video Music Awards telecast on Thursday ... what's that? That was the Hives? Oh. Sorry. Sparked by the Who's memorable return to its instrument-smashing glory, the MTV Video Music ... say what? The Vines? Let's try this. Climaxed by an amusing spoof of the long-absent Axl Rose and an imaginary Guns 'N Roses, including a masked guitarist with a pail on his head, the MTV ... yes?

What so proudly they hailed, 'round about the twilight's last gleaming Thursday night at the MTV Video Music Awards ceremony, was Sinead O'Connor. The target of controversy recently for threatening not to perform if the American national anthem were played before her show at a New Jersey hall, O'Connor won scattered boos but more cheers on Thursday at the Universal Amphitheatre as she picked up three MTV Video Music Awards.

At most award shows, the tension is typically reserved for the envelope moments — Who will win? Who will lose? — but at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday the drama was bottled up in two questions: What would she wear? What would he say? The "he," of course, was Kanye West, the petulant, tweeting prince of hip-hop culture, and the "she" was Lady Gaga, the plasticized fashion plate of pop who has taken Madonna's costume art one step further with something close to wardrobe architecture.

When Taylor Swift showed up over the weekend as both host and musical guest on NBC's "Saturday Night Live," the 19-year-old country-pop star delivered the show's highest ratings of the season so far. Tonight she'll be vying with country music veterans -- all men -- for the title of entertainer of the year at the Country Music Assn.'s annual award ceremony in Nashville. Should she win, she will be the first woman to win that title since 2000, and she'd become the youngest recipient of the CMA's top prize.

It was "The Jay Leno Show's" big prime-time debut, but Kanye West unquestionably stole some of the spotlight from the host to announce he'll be taking time off to reflect on his actions after his controversial outburst over the weekend at the MTV Video Music Awards. One day after the famously outspoken artist interrupted an acceptance speech from 19-year-old country star Taylor Swift at the award show, suggesting that her prize for best female video should have gone to Beyoncé, a contrite West appeared on Leno's new NBC show to deliver an apology.

At least the shocker this year was related to music. The MTV Video Music Awards are always willfully chaotic, keeping alive the myth of pop as the provenance of rebels by placing a bunch of moderately edgy celebrities within a festive environment and fueling the mood with sexy performances, off-color jokes and "incidents" that are often staged, but good for a thousand Twitter tweets. One of these mostly bogus controversies usually goes a bit deeper, hinting at real issues of identity, status, personal power and self-expression -- the sticky stuff from which pop music is, in fact, made.

Michael Jackson fans will get a couple of new things to chew on this weekend if they're channel surfing. On tonight's edition of "20/20," Barbara Walters sits down with LaToya Jackson for her first televised interview since her brother's death in June. It airs at 10 p.m. on ABC. Then on Sunday evening, during the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, the cable channel will premiere the trailer from "This Is It," the forthcoming film using footage from rehearsals for the concerts he was planning to stage in London.

Even without a live performance, Britney Spears worked her magic for the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards. More than 8.4 million viewers tuned in to Sunday's three-hour show, up 19% over last year (and 46% higher than the 2006 tally). Spears' heavily hyped kickoff to the 25th edition of the VMAs included no more than a taped bit with "Superbad" star Jonah Hill and a 30-second introduction, but the night gave the pop star the comeback she tried to achieve last year: Her clip for "Piece of Me" was awarded three moon men -- the pop star's first VMA wins -- including the video of the year prize.

The 2006 MTV Video Music Awards are over, and I feel a little dirty, as one does after a party that seemed pretty fun the night before. But that's nothing new. For most of its 22 years, the music channel's annual fete has been a wicked pleasure at best, mocking the very principles of the awards shows it emulates.

RUSSELL BRAND is a bad, bad boy. Thank the punk rock saints for that! As the English comic and sole male inheritor of Amy Winehouse's hairstyle laid waste to good taste as the host of this year's MTV Video Music Awards, somewhere in heaven's dark alley Joey Ramone and Sid Vicious shared a laugh. Since the program aired Sunday, Brand has been pilloried by some pundits and applauded by others for his banter, which was far more politically minded -- and friskily filthy -- than that of any awards show host in recent memory.