1984- It's that time of the year again. The MTV Video Music Awards were Sunday and we look back on some of the show's best moments. Dressed in a revealing wedding dress, lace gloves and her infamous "boy toy" belt, Madonna performed "Like a Virgin" at the first Video Music Awards in 1984. Her album of the same name, which dropped that November, went on to become one of the best-selling albums of all time.
Newlyweds Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley smooched on stage in 1994 after Jackson addressed the crowd, "And just think, nobody thought this would last." The pair of course parted ways less than two years later.
1999-Lil' Kim wore a
purple wig and pantsuit to the 1999 VMAs. Revealing her left breast,
which was covered by a matching pasty, the getup gave a whole new
meaning to off the shoulder. Diana Ross fondled Lil' Kim's exposed lady
part during the show, and we've never been able to forget it.
2003-How does an iconic pop star pass the torch? By kissing her successors on stage at the 2003 VMAs, of course. Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera donned wedding dresses to pay homage to Madonna's 1984 performance of "Like a Virgin" before Madge joined them on stage. She danced with and kissed each of the young singers before calling Missy Elliott to the stage.
2007-After shaving her
head and seeking treatment in early 2007, Britney Spears' VMA
performance was touted as her "comeback." However, the singer's awkward
"Gimme More" performance was met with critical reviews. Time said the
usually confident Spears looked "tired, nervous, uncomfortable, aloof
and out of place." 
2011- After Beyonce finished singing her hit "Love on Top," she dropped the mic, opened her jacket and revealed the baby bump that would become Blue Ivy.
2013- Miley Cyrus was met with a general consensus of disgust after she twerked and gyrated on stage as Robin Thicke sang his hit single "Blurred Lines" during the 2013 VMAs.
Every awards ceremony has its reputation, and MTV's Video Music Awards proudly wears the badge of scandal.
Where the Oscars are
elegant and the Golden Globes rowdy, the VMAs are all about testing the
boundaries of what culture deems "decent" and reveling in youthful (and,
yes, sometimes immature) freedom.
This reputation was cemented from the first VMAs broadcast in 1984, when a then-26-year-old Madonna sensually writhed on stage in a wedding dress to "Like A Virgin." At the time, she was told her antics would ruin her career -- when in fact the opposite happened. It's now one of the most well-known moments not only from the VMAs, but from the now 55-year-old's legendary career.
Countless pop stars and
rockers have followed in Madge's footsteps, with each new year bearing
the promise of an ever-shocking performance.
So when Miley Cyrus took
the VMAs stage on Sunday and proceeded to provocatively dance (with
teddy bears, no less) before removing even more clothing, was she committing the offense the Internet has claimed, or simply upholding 30 years of VMAs tradition?
With her striptease,
20-year-old Cyrus didn't do anything her predecessors haven't already.
In 2000, Britney Spears was not yet 19 when she ripped off a pantsuit at
the VMAs to reveal a sparkling, flesh-toned body stocking underneath.
As host network MTV has said
of the memorable moment, Spears' "striptease (not to mention the
accompanying panting and grinding) served notice that Britney was no
longer the pigtailed schoolgirl of the '... Baby One More Time' video,
but rather a full-grown, supremely sexy woman."
The singer followed up that headline-making move by dancing seductively with a snake
in 2001. In 2003, as a callback to the VMA original "Like a Virgin"
performance, Spears and Christina Aguilera wore wedding white for the
performance. And then there was the famous Spears kiss with Madonna.
When that scene threw Spears back into the crossfire, the pop star told CNN that she was just "performing and expressing myself."
And need we remind you
of Nirvana's havoc-filled performance of "Lithium" in 1992, or Diana
Ross feeling up Lil Kim's bare breast in 1999? (If you need a refresher,
recall that Lil Kim was wearing a violet bodysuit that exposed one
breast, which was covered with nothing more than a matching purple
pasty.) Howard Stern, Marilyn Manson, Prince and Lady Gaga (the latter
was at this very same show!) have all bared their bums for MTV's
viewers.
To be sure, Cyrus' Sunday performance took notes from all of the above and combined them into one show-stealing set.
But that's more or less
what the VMAs have historically been: A place to go wild (within reach
of censors), and a platform for young stars to show the world that
they're now adults, perhaps even one that feels comfortable bending over
in front of an audience and dancing in a latex two-piece.
Yet the reaction to
Cyrus appears to be more eviscerating than previous years. Some viewers
were in awe that this is the same Cyrus who was once the Disney
Channel's teen queen on "Hannah Montana," and others aghast at the
provocativeness of her performance.
"Raise your hand if you feel personally victimized by Miley Cyrus' #VMAs performance," tweeted E! Online.
"Do you think (Miley's
dad) Billy Ray Cyrus woke up with an achy breaky heart this morning
after his little girl's performance at the VMAs last night?" said Lady Antebellum's Charles Kelly.
Judd Apatow, posting a picture of Cyrus from her 2012 movie "So Undercover," tweeted that he'll "always have this version of Miley. Let's live in the past and heal."
Cyrus herself has been
silent about her set and its overwhelming reaction, but anyone who's
paid the slightest attention to the star wouldn't be too surprised by
her routine.
Although she rose to
fame on "Hannah Montana," a role she landed at just 13, Cyrus has always
had a rocky relationship with the squeaky clean image she was expected
to uphold. At 15, the singer/actress came under fire after she posed topless for Vanity Fair, holding a sheet to her chest as she gazed at the camera.
The following year,
Cyrus was criticized for her Teen Choice Awards performance, during
which she danced atop an ice cream cart -- complete with a pole -- while
singing her hit, "Party in the U.S.A." The moment would infamously
become known as Cyrus' "pole dance." She was 16.
In the days following her 18th birthday in 2010, Cyrus was subjected to more scrutiny when a video surfaced of the star smoking a bong apparently filled with salvia.
The attention has only increased in the years since, as Cyrus has tried
to transition from her Disney days into being a grown-up pop star,
complete with an eye-catching haircut and the occasional middle finger
thrown up in photographs.
While her critics have been vocal about their discomfort with her behavior, Cyrus has said that she's simply being herself.
Speaking on her new
album, "Bangerz," to Billboard magazine, she said that she feels like "I
can really be myself. ... I really have more of a connection of who I
am, and I feel like I can maybe express that more in my music now."
Basically, we're hearing
Britney Spears 2.0. The moves Madonna and Spears once performed at the
VMAs are now an indelible part of pop culture history, moments that make
the VMAs appointment-viewing after 29 years. (BuzzFeed, for example, has come up with an astonishing 95 reasons why the "VMAs are absolutely nothing without Britney Spears.")
Will Cyrus' 2013
performance receive the same fate? It's far too early to tell. But if
the legacy of the MTV VMAs is any indication, she's going to express
what she wants -- whether we like it or not.
culled from www.cnn.com
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