The best, weirdest, and most memorable moments from the MTV VMAs

Madonna was the queen of pop when she hit the scene, and she’s always been willing to change up her image to keep things from getting stale. She’s also never been shy about being provocative. That’s why it was not entirely shocking when Madonna and Britney Spears vigorously kissed on stage. People were buzzing over it for days. Madonna also kissed Christina Aguilera, but that was overshadowed by Madge and Britney’s makeout session.

Lady Gaga has never been afraid to make bold fashion choices. However, at least she usually wears fabric. At the 2010 VMAs, though, Gaga went a little more carnivore with her look. All her little monsters were giddy when they saw her show up in a meat dress — yes, a dress made of meat. It’s that simple and that strange.

You know the words by heart. You can hear “I’m-a let you finish” in your head. It went viral at the dawn of virality. Taylor Swift won Best Female Video, besting, among others, Beyonce’s video for “Single Ladies.” Kanye West was apparently a big fan of Queen Bey’s video because he rushed the stage, stole the microphone and told us all that Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time. Turns out Kanye is kind of a weird guy. Who would have thought?

Anything Beyonce does seems to be news. Her actions drive the media. While we all knew that Beyonce and Jay Z were together, it was during a performance at the VMAs that she first displayed her so-called baby bump. She didn’t have to say a word, but people knew what she meant.

They say never work with children or animals, but Britney Spears didn’t take that advice in 2001. She was only just emerging as an adult performer after making her name as a teen. While performing the sultry “I’m a Slave 4 U,” Britney danced around with a 7-foot python over her shoulders. It’s a lasting image from an iconic career.

'N YSNC and Backstreet Boys turned the boy band craze into the biggest thing in pop music for a couple of years. Then, as many bands do, it broke up. 'N SYNC’s breakup was precipitated by the rise of Justin Timberlake as a solo performer. Fans of the quintet were surely saddened but eventually there would be a brief reunion. Obviously JT was never going to go back to being in a boy band full time, but for a couple of songs at the VMAs we were able to relive the glory days.

Bieber has had a, shall we say, a complicated career and life. Hey, being a pop star as a teenager can mess with your head. While the Canadian crooner brought some of his issues on himself, he clearly still wanted to have a music career. In fact, while performing at the 2015 VMAs Bieber got so stressed and worried about putting on a good show that he broke down and cried in the middle of performing. The Biebs kept going, but it gave us a look at the man behind the tabloid fodder.

Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake, back when they were a couple, famously wore matching Canadian tuxedos to an award show. If you aren’t familiar with the nomenclature, a Canadian tuxedo is a denim-on-denim outfit. So if you’ve ever worn a jean jacket with jeans congrats. Over a decade later, Katy Perry and rap weirdo Riff Raff paid tribute to the famous fashion moment with a pair of Canadian tuxedos of their own.

Obviously the voice is a singer's most important tool. Unfortunately things can go wrong, though, and the next thing you know singing isn’t on the table. Take, for example, when Lorde got such a bad case of the flu that she had to have an IV. Her throat and vocal cords were in no shape for a big musical performance. While she could have just lip synced, or canceled, Lorde decided to try something different. The New Zealand musician just danced along to her song.

It doesn’t rain indoors. Well, it shouldn’t at the very least. Clarkson, still beginning her career after winning the initial “American Idol,” pulled out all the stops in her performance of “Since U Been Gone.” A whopping 3,000 gallons of water were used to simulate a torrential downpour. It was ambitious, but it worked.

Clarkson wasn’t the last musician to pull out all the stops to make a performance memorable. Kendrick Lamar was riding high on the success of “DAMN.,” which got him the chance to open the 2017 VMAs. You would think that break-dancing ninjas would be enough, but Lamar had something even bigger in mind. He performed in front of a literal wall of fire, which probably made it feel toasty in the arena but certainly created a stunning visual.

Fortunately there are some odious words that have largely fallen out of our vocabulary since 2013, such as “twerk” and “Robin Thicke.” It was a grim time for popular music. The state of pop was perhaps best synthesized when Miley Cyrus, wearing a peach-colored bikini, twerked on Thicke while he performed his song “Blurred Lines.” Also, he was dressed like Beetlejuice for some reason.

Nirvana was not afraid to leave it all on the stage when performing. During the band's heyday, many an instrument was destroyed, and their bodies would get tossed around a bit as well. Unfortunately things got a little out of hand for Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic when he threw his guitar in the air. Instead of catching it as intended, it smashed right into his head. Novoselic quickly left the stage to deal with his injury.

Music stardom never felt like a great fit for Fiona Apple. And yet she still won a "Moon Person" for her memorable, controversial video for “Criminal.” When she won, she took the stage and didn’t just deliver mere platitudes. She declared that “this world is bullsh*t,” meaning the music industry and MTV. She also added, “You shouldn't model your life about what you think that we think is cool and what we're wearing and what we're saying and everything. Go with yourself.”

Hey, remember when Michael Jackson married Lisa Marie Presley? That was really weird, right? You know what was the strangest thing of it all? When they took the stage at the VMAs to share a stage kiss that felt...less than passionate. To the surprise of nobody, they would divorce fairly quickly afterward, and we all just tried to push this kiss out of the memory.

Courtney Love has had a lot of problems, often involving her being caught under the influence in public settings. The Hole frontwoman had a memorable clash with Madonna while the latter was being interviewed on MTV. How did Love end up crashing the interview? She had just been kicked out of the press room for her antics.

RuPaul and Milton Berle are a strange pairing. Actually, Berle and MTV in 1993 were a strange pairing as well. He was a TV legend back in the ‘50s and ‘60s. He and the drag legend were scheduled to have a little banter, but RuPaul decided to go off script to take shots at Uncle Milty. He tried to go back at Ru, and it was all just really awkward.

We understand being mad that Limp Bizkit won Best Rock Video at the 2000 VMAs. A lot of people probably agree with that assessment. It made even more sense for Tim Commerford to be irked about it, as he was the bass player in Rage Against the Machine, which got beat by Fred Durst and crew. It’s the way that Commerford expressed his displeasure that raised eyebrows. He decided to climb the scaffolding on stage during Limp Bizkit’s acceptance speech to heckle the band. Eventually, he would get down, and he would be arrested for his troubles.

Madonna’s “Like a Virgin” performance may be what made the VMAs. It’s one of the first — perhaps the first — iconic moments. The image of Madonna wearing a wedding dress and writhing around onstage is an indelible moment from ‘80s MTV. She wasn’t called the Queen of Pop for no reason.

It’s always nice when a popular artist and a legend get to perform together, especially in a setting like the VMAs. Pearl Jam was one of the biggest bands on the planet in 1993 and was at the forefront of the grunge movement. Young wasn’t exactly unknown in MTV circles, as he won Video of the Year once, but a lot of young music fans were probably seeing him for the first time when he took the stage with Pearl Jam. To make things even better, the performed Young’s propulsive classic, “Keep on Rockin’ in the Free World.”

Van Halen has had a tumultuous history. The band has gone through a few different singers, though in the minds of many the original lineup is the one worth remembering. We’re talking the two Van Halen brothers, Eddie and Alex, Michael Anthony and singer David Lee Roth. A bit surprisingly, that quartet actually reunited on stage at the 1996 VMAs. It was their first time appearing together in over a decade.

Eminem likes to put a lot of “humor” in his music videos, but apparently he doesn’t like it when the joke is on him, especially when those jokes are out of the mouth of an insult comic dog. Triumph, a dog puppet voiced and performed by Robert Smigel, likes to get a rise out of people, and that definitely happened when he confronted Eminem. Slim Shady wasn’t too happy about it, and you can even see one of the guys in his crew taking Smigel’s notes and tearing them up during the confrontation.