Music opinion: Do the VMAs still shape pop culture?
For nearly four decades, the MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) have been one of the music industry’s most audacious spectacles.
They are a ceremony where the rules are constantly rewritten, where artistry collides with theatrics and where pop stars seize the opportunity to immortalise themselves through a single performance.
The VMAs have given us moments that feel stitched into pop culture’s DNA, such as Madonna rolling around in a wedding dress, Britney Spears dancing with a python, Kanye West storming Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech, and Beyoncé revealing her pregnancy on stage with a mic drop and belly rub.
But the question remains. In today’s world of TikTok virality, Instagram reels, and 24/7 online content, do the VMAs still shape pop culture or have they become a nostalgic artefact of a time when television ruled?
Lindokuhle Mlombo delves into the debate for Music News Blitz.
The birth of a cultural force
When MTV launched the VMAs in 1984, it positioned the awards not just as a celebration of music videos but as a chaotic, youth-driven alternative to the more buttoned-up and too structured Grammys. It worked.
The VMAs quickly became the one night a year when artists could abandon formality in favour of spectacles and fans.
Back then, the reach of MTV was unparalleled. A shocking performance or a provocative outfit could dominate conversations for months.
These cultural earthquakes mattered because audiences were largely centralised and everyone watched the same shows, listened to the same radio stations and read the same magazines.
If you wanted to know what was cool, MTV and the VMAs were the compass.
The golden era of shock and awe
The late 90s and early 2000s are often remembered as the VMAs’ golden era. Each ceremony seemed designed to provoke.
Britney Spears and Madonna’s kiss. Eminem marching through the crowd with an army of clones. Lady Gaga dripping in fake blood.
These were not just performances. They were pop culture resets.
Artists leaned on the VMAs as a platform to define themselves. A bold move on that stage could launch a career into superstardom or rebrand an artist entirely.
The show became synonymous with unpredictability and unpredictability and in turn, became the essence of pop culture itself.
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A fragmented landscape
Fast forward to today, and the media environment looks nothing like it did during the VMAs’ beginning days.
Streaming platforms, social media apps, and algorithm-driven feeds have fractured audiences into countless niches.
A song can go viral on TikTok without ever being played on MTV. A performance on a late-night show can trend on YouTube before the VMAs even air.
The internet has democratised virality.
Anyone, from an unsigned teenager in their bedroom to a global superstar, can create a moment that catches fire online.
In this sense, the VMAs no longer have a monopoly on pop culture. They compete with millions of other cultural touchpoints that appear on our feeds every day.
Why the VMAs still matter
Dismissing the VMAs as irrelevant would be too simplistic. What the VMAs still offer is focus.
In a chaotic and noisy media world, they provide one night where the spotlight is on music, fashion and performance.
For a few hours, artists have the rare chance to command global attention on a single stage.
Performances remain the lifeblood of the show. Beyonce’s visual medleys, Doja Cat’s genre-bending theatrics and Bad Bunny’s celebration of Latin identity remind us that the VMAs still produce moments that trend globally.
These performances live on long after the broadcast, being replayed endlessly on YouTube, clipped into TikTok edits and dissected on Twitter.
The VMAs also remain one of the few platforms where risk is rewarded. Unlike the Grammys or the Oscars, which often lean toward tradition and polish, the VMAs thrive on experimentation.
They celebrate boldness, whether it is in fashion, choreography or sound.
In that sense, they continue to reflect and even accelerate shifts in pop culture.
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The rise of global pop
One of the most significant changes the VMAs have embraced is the globalisation of music.
Where once the stage was dominated by American and British acts, now artists from across the world bring their cultures to the spotlight.
BTS performing to screaming fans, Rosalía blending flamenco with modern pop, and Burna Boy introducing Afrobeats to global audiences are more than just performances. They are cultural exchanges.
This global lens ensures that the VMAs remain a stage where pop culture is not just shaped but also redefined.
They have become a barometer of where music is headed, reflecting the reality that the future of pop culture is multilingual, multicultural and borderless.
Fashion, virality and the red carpet
If performances are the heartbeat of the VMAs, then fashion is the oxygen.
The red carpet has consistently delivered some of the most unforgettable images in music history, such as Lil Kim’s one-shoulder jumpsuit, Lady Gaga’s meat dress and Nicki Minaj’s kaleidoscopic ensembles.
In the social media era, the red carpet has arguably become just as important as the performances themselves.
Every look is instantly shared, meme-ified and debated across platforms.
For designers and stylists, the VMAs remain a playground for bold experimentation, ensuring that the show continues to shape and style conversations around the world.
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Do they still shape pop culture?
So, do the VMAs still shape pop culture? The answer depends on how we define cultural influence.
If we mean dominance as in the ability to dictate trends for months or years at a time, then perhaps not. That era of centralised cultural control has passed.
But if we define shaping as sparking, igniting and amplifying cultural conversations, then the VMAs remain vital and significant.
They are no longer the sole driver of pop culture, but they continue to act as a mirror and a megaphone.
They reflect the current state of music while amplifying the voices, performances and aesthetics that resonate most strongly with audiences.
The VMAs may not own pop culture anymore, but they still shape it in bursts, in flashes, in viral moments that ripple across a fractured but still interconnected digital world.
The verdict
The MTV Video Music Awards may never again hold the absolute dominance they enjoyed in their golden years, but their relevance endures in new ways.
They remain a showcase for risk, creativity and global artistry.
They may not decide pop culture, but they still capture it, and in capturing it, they continue to shape how we see music, celebrity and the ever-changing world.
In the end, that might be the VMAs’ greatest legacy, not as the rulers of pop culture but as its most flamboyant and unpredictable mirror.
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