Sep 17, 2026 · 1 hr 21 min · 12 segments
The MTV Video Music Awards of 2016 represented the culmination of an era of pop music and culture, with career-apex-type performances from Beyoncé and Rihanna and huge moments for Drake and Kanye…
Andrew UnterbergerHostKatie AtkinsonGuestLooking back at it, it was just sort of shocking to see the sheer star power that was on stage and in the audience that night-
... because I feel like there have been, not just the VMAs, just diminishing returns on, on awards shows in general.
Um, so it was just stark to see, um, what they, like, had in that building, and also, like, the sort of ambitiousness of all of the performers that night as well.
And I, I should say that this is very much like a retrospective take on my part, 'cause I was, I was reading the thing that I wrote about the VMAs at the time, uh, when I was still actually working for Spin back in 2016.
I'm actually, uh, uh, about three days away from hitting my 10-year anniversary here at Billboard, so-
Uh, but I, that, those were my waning days at Spin, and the article that I wrote about it at the time was titled, "The VMAs Need to Stop Relying on Their Stars So Much."
And it was all about how the VMAs, they sort of adopted the strategy of let's just kinda get as many of these big names as we can in the building, and then we'll just kinda give them carte blanche to do whatever they wanna do.
And in my opinion, at the time, the awards had gotten kinda overstuffed and maybe a little bit suffocating and kinda charmless as a result of all that.
And in the, in the, in the article, I called it, uh, overblown and underplanned.
And looking back 10 years later, I don't even know if I necessarily totally disagree with any of that, but as you were sort of alluding to there, Katie, in 2026, the idea of criticizing an award show for being too star-powered and having too many famous, iconic people in the building, that's sort of a unfamiliar feeling at this point.
Like, we, we'd spent a long time since we could say that about any awards show, let alone the VMAs.
Looking back at it, it was just sort of shocking to see the sheer star power that was on stage and in the audience that night-
... because I feel like there have been, not just the VMAs, just diminishing returns on, on awards shows in general.
Um, so it was just stark to see, um, what they, like, had in that building, and also, like, the sort of ambitiousness of all of the performers that night as well.
And I, I should say that this is very much like a retrospective take on my part, 'cause I was, I was reading the thing that I wrote about the VMAs at the time, uh, when I was still actually working for Spin back in 2016.
I'm actually, uh, uh, about three days away from hitting my 10-year anniversary here at Billboard, so-
Uh, but I, that, those were my waning days at Spin, and the article that I wrote about it at the time was titled, "The VMAs Need to Stop Relying on Their Stars So Much."
And it was all about how the VMAs, they sort of adopted the strategy of let's just kinda get as many of these big names as we can in the building, and then we'll just kinda give them carte blanche to do whatever they wanna do.
And in my opinion, at the time, the awards had gotten kinda overstuffed and maybe a little bit suffocating and kinda charmless as a result of all that.
And in the, in the, in the article, I called it, uh, overblown and underplanned.
And looking back 10 years later, I don't even know if I necessarily totally disagree with any of that, but as you were sort of alluding to there, Katie, in 2026, the idea of criticizing an award show for being too star-powered and having too many famous, iconic people in the building, that's sort of a unfamiliar feeling at this point.
Like, we, we'd spent a long time since we could say that about any awards show, let alone the VMAs.
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