| The 2009 Video Music Awards came less than two months after the death of Michael Jackson — a name so synonymous with MTV that there's an award named after him — so there was no doubt the King of Pop would be a focus of the ceremony. Madonna, his nearest peer in those halcyon MTV days, opened things up with a speech about Jackson, which then segued to a troupe dancing along with some of MJ's greatest videos. The highlight, of course, was Janet Jackson performing their dual hit "Scream" alongside video of her late brother. It was cathartic to watch the Jackson siblings dancing together onstage, Janet in the foreground, Michael on the video screen, their moves perfectly synchronized. After the miscast memorial concert at the Staples Center a month earlier, this was the King of Pop tribute America deserved. |
| To celebrate both the new songs and old hits of the recently released HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I, Michael Jackson opened the 1995 VMAs with an epic 15-minute(!) medley that puts 10 songs from King of Pop's solo career in a blender. Vincent Price's "Thriller" laugh cackles over a four-second supercut of several different sections of "Beat It." He dances over the "Billie Jean" bassline for a minute before singing but one line of the song. Slash, then in his frustrating final months in Guns N' Roses, falls to his knees and solos endlessly like a man possessed. But in a surprising turn of events, it's a deep cut, "Dangerous," that gets most fully realized setpiece, taking breaks for "Smooth Criminal" and Ennio Morricone's The Good, the Bad and the Ugly theme |
本番ノーカット| MTV's Video Vanguard Award is the VMA equivalent of a lifetime achievement award, and even though Janet Jackson — the 1990 recipient — had only been a substantial presence on the channel for three years, she made a huge mark with her hyper-precise dance moves, stylized videos and songs that celebrated female empowerment. Before receiving her Moonman at the 1990 show, she opened the festivities with a rip-roaring performance of her scalding Rhythm Nation 1814 track "Black Cat," showing off her ability to channel the feline sensibility before ripping open her crisp white button-down to reveal a black bra, much to the audience's surprise. |
