Dissect DJs - I Watched the MTV VMA's for the First time in 15 Years | 2025 VMA's Review

Episode Date: September 9, 2025

The MTV Video Music Awards are a thing I haven't thought about in at least 10 years, and haven't watched in close to 20! With that in mind, I gave it another try and watched the 2025 VMA's and gave it a full review!Along with a quick rundown of the history of the show, we take a look at what the show looks like now, who are the stars of the show, and if it holds up to the historic moments and controversy of the show's past.Mariah Carey, Busta Rhymes, LL Cool J, Lady Gaga, Sabrina Carpenter, Ariana Grande, Tate McRae, and a whole lot more are all here, let's break it down NEXT!Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Dissect DJ, DJ. Those are the sweet sounds of Mariah Carey. Ryan Castle coming to you. It is the Dysect DJs. If this is your first time joining the podcast, welcome. Hey, if you're checking back in, welcome back. The only podcast that likes to spin it, fix it, throw it back, and dissect it. And today we're almost doing a part two of Ryan Castle reviews what's going on in the world.

That is a working title that I'm probably not going to stick. with. But as you might have seen earlier, I had my NFL week one review and now I'm going to try to do something completely different. That is, watch the VMAs. In fact, I haven't done it in 15 years. And I thought maybe it's a good opportunity to sort of discuss the history of the VMAs a little bit. And I would give the show a chance for the first time and a while just to sort of see where music's at and compare it to where we came from. So let's go ahead and get into a quick little rundown of the history. of the VMAs. Now in order to run down the history of the VMAs, I've categorized it into five different eras. I've labeled each one, and I'm going to give a quick little description of how it impacted pop culture

at the time, how it was viewed, and how it is remembered. And I will just say I obviously didn't live through all of these, but MTV, that was one of the channels that you just have on. You know, back then we didn't have streaming options. We just kind of took what the TV gave us, and MTV used to love to throw the best moments of the VMA history at chess. So even the shows that were around before your time, you were caught up on it, what kind of stuff happened to it. So let's go ahead and get started with the first era, which I would put 1984 to 1989. This is an era I've called cable TV has changed the world and MTV is driving it. Now in the early days of MTV, it was also the early days of cable TV. Pop culture as a whole was starting to figure out the kind of impact that that had and the effect

I could have on both the youth generation and then TV as a whole. Before that, you just had a few networks that ran the game, and everybody just had to watch whatever they put on. Never before had there been a channel that was just associated with this type of product. And along with that comes the VMAs, and the early years of the show was a lot of figuring out the landscape of how to do an award show like that. There was definitely some awkward moments. There was one of those years in there.

Peter Gabriel won like every award, and he wasn't even at the show. So it was just a constant, Peter Gabriel's not here to accept this again. And, you know, like that kind of thing would never happen today. They're not going to give Peter Gabriel over your word and you can't be at the show. But it also gave you some classic moments. You know, there was like Madonna singing like a virgin. Cindy Lopper doing the thing. Michael Jackson, David Bowie, Axel Rose, getting into it with Vince Neal. If there's one thing the show did in those times, it definitely exuded what the vibe of MTV was. And that would be something that continued to happen for many years.

The catalyst of MTV showing the world, this is what we are. This is how you're. present ourselves and not only us but this is what rock music is because it was mostly rock music back that and pop stuff that'll take us to the next era which is 1990 to 1995 an era i'm calling mtv's at a cutting edge of pop culture and the vmAs is the showcase now when we get into the early to mid 90s this is when mtv really starts cooking one of the things about how you would view the history of mtv definitely is how old you were at whatever area you're watching obviously mtv was always aimed at early mid-teens. That's the age when people really start to idolize these artists, and they grow up and then become lifelong fans of them. So you want to get them that.

Around this time, MTV, it just seemed like the coolest thing on TV. I know that's crazy to think of, and you know what? Because I was a kid during that era, maybe that's a little bit of like my own bias speaking, but there was something about it that felt edgy. There was something about it that felt cool. I remember my mom telling me I wasn't allowed to watch MTV when we finally got cable. It took years for us to even get cable. And what's that going to do when you're a kid? Your mom tells you there's one channel you can't watch. You're going to find times when her back's turn or she's outside doing stuff. You're going to flip the channel to it real quick and check it out. But beyond that, they also had awesome programming, you know, they had their

unplugged concerts. They had their rock and jock celebrity games, the real world. Yo MTV raps. They'd have their top 10 list. Yeah, classic VJs like Bill Bellamy, Dan Cortez, Ed Lover, and Dr. Dre, Not that Dr. Dre. It was a different Dr. Dre. Was that not confusing everybody back then? Because what are the odds? It would be two Dr. Dreys. There was also two Julie Browns. There's a black one and a white one.

A black one referred to herself as downtown Julie Brown. The white one was a comedian who had red hair. They had the cutting edge of what's cool in rock, what's cool in hip-hop, and VMAs, once again, exuded exactly what that personality was. Gave you legendary moments like Madonna doing her Vogue performance. Prince showing up there in his ridiculous outfit. Nirvana versus Guns and Rose. playing out on stage, Howard Stern doing his weird thing, Snoop Dog performing right after he was

being charged with murder and rapping murder is the case of the game me, telling everybody he's innocent. The VMAs are basically the main event of MTV every year. That takes us to the next era, which is 1996 to 2005, an era that I'm calling MTV is the heart of pop culture. If you want to make a statement, this is your stage to do it. By this point, the VMAs were like appointment viewing. Every year you got controversial moments, memorable performances. And if you wanted to make a headline, the world would be talking about tomorrow. Do it at the VMAs. Put on a performance and nobody will forget.

Do it at the VMAs. Promote your upcoming album drops. Do it at the VMAs. Literally, everybody, all the time, nonstop. Because back then, album drops actually mattered. I just remember the next day, whenever the VMAs happened, everybody was talking about it. There was Britney and Christina Kiss and Madonna or Eminem getting a fight with Triumph, the old comic talk.

That guy from Rage Against Machine climbing onto the stage. Like, it just felt like you had to watch it live because you wanted to be in the conversation of what everybody was talking about the next day. So MTV is still very relevant, but as the end of that era comes, that starts to wane a little bit, which takes us to 2006 to 2013.

MTV is becoming irrelevant, but at least they still have the VMAs. At this point, MTV seemed to determine that any TV that was related to music was not for this network. The whole era of rate of network exists, and a board room pouring through data and deciding music content wasn't bringing in the numbers they wanted. People want trash reality TV. Hate watching annoying people being annoying. Gone were the

countdown list, gone were the animated series, gone where the concert shows. Now we had trash reality, heavy quotation marks around reality shows like Next, Room Raiders, 16 and pregnant, Sweet 16, and even eventually Jersey Shore. You remember all the horror shit they used to put on back then. It was about as far away from music television at this point, and it never really came back. This is when I think most people tuned out on MTV, myself included. But there was still the VMAs happening, and people were still using it as a stage to create controversy that would grab the world's attention. Miley Cyrus, busting out of her Disney phase and into her mollied-up-ho era.

Nikki Minaj calling out Miley on stage, and of course Kanye grabbing the mic from T. Swift. Stuff was still happening in the show that kept the show relevant, but the channel was quickly becoming irrelevant because that was about all the music that you were getting on the channel was that one night and that takes us to 2014 to present an era i'm calling mtv has become ridiculous yes and i guess the vmAs are still happening by this point mtv completely threw in the towel on attempting a program entertaining tv they not only ditched music they even ditched trash tv and basically just became a non-stop rollout of ridiculousness so pretty much for like the past five years it's just been 24 hours straight of Rob Deerick pointing at somebody falling on their dick. So that's where

we're at now. What does the VMAs look like? As the title of this episode states, I have no idea because I haven't watched it in at least 15 years. But I thought it could be a fun hook to put on a modern review. So here are my quickie notes of the 2025 VMAs. All right, let's start off with this. I was fully anticipating there will be some people involved in the show that I'm not going to know. You know, like I said, these shows tend to be more focused at early mid-teens. Obviously, I'm not that. So there's going to be some artists I've never heard of.

I'm not going to lament every single time. I'm like, who the hell is this guy? Like, I just know there's going to be some artists and people involved that. I don't know. I'm just going to play this sound bite. And that denotes. I don't know who the hell that person is. So let's get to the show, which is, by the way, not on MTV.

It is actually on CBS. Might have got bumped for ridiculous. I'm not sure. Actually, I think the reason I even am aware of the show is happening is because it's on CBS. So much more advertising and mainstream because CBS is obviously going to boost it up. I kept seeing commercials for it. You know, and then all day when I was watching football today, I kept seeing it pop up. So it was on my radar. So I think maybe it being a CBS production, actually probably gave it more light than it would have gotten.

So anyways, let's go ahead and get through the show. First note I took is the stage looks awesome and the crowd looks packed, so good on them for that. Glad they haven't ditched the moon man imagery, which was always their trophy. Not exactly sure why. I think it has something to do with when the network first took off. They had like a moon man landing as sort of like we have arrived. I think he stuck the MTV flag and I'm pretty sure that's what it's cool that they haven't ditched it, you know? Respect to their history.

They got this image all over the stage. Hello, Cool J is the host. I'm always here for LL being a host, you know? He's got a great stage presence about him. He's gonna lick his lips after every third thing he says. It's great stuff. He's wearing the cleanest leather jacket I've ever seen. There is not a single wrinkle, crease, or pocket to be found.

And shiny as a motherfucker. Also random bedazzles on top of his pants. Look, I'm not gonna comment on a bunch of people's outfits. I'm not gonna be the fashion police over here. Who the hell am I to do that? These guys are rock stars and stuff. They're gonna have edgy fashion. I respect it.

but I thought the bedazzled pants were worth a call out. So then we kick it over to Doja Cat who pops up on the screen doing her best Max Headroom impression. Which awesome callback. Look, anybody who gets the Max Headroom reference, yes, you are my homie, we should hang out after the show. Probably tripped out a lot of people who had no idea what that was, but I enjoyed the callback.

So then Doja Cat performs and Kenny G pops on the stage. Hold on a what? Did you just say Kenny G Ryan? Yes, I damn sure said Kenny G. And you know what? I'm into it. I love a little jazzy riff in my R&B. And I'm glad we've come around to appreciating him because that dude got hammered on in the 90s. When I was a kid, he took a beating. He was like the go-to punching bag for when you wanted to call something lame or talk about lame music. They even made a joke about it in Wayne's World too. You know, we have lots of big acts that come through here. Ice capades, tiny tunes, Kenny G.

Kenny G. So, what, we don't even get to apply for a permit? Yeah. Now am I going to go to a Kenny G concert if it's just him playing? No. I'm not going to do that. But it's Doja Cat on stage and she's got him playing in the background and just adds a nice little riff to her music. Cool.

I'm for it. Doja Cat gives us a fierce Janet Jackson style performance. Got a sick pop and lock dance number in there with her crew behind her. That reminds me of Roundhouse. Sick reference number two. Get at me if you remember Roundhouse in the 90s. The 80s and 90s color set she's working with is my vibe. I'm gonna say she's crushing this one.

I wrote, this girl watched a ton of Janet Jackson growing up. This whole performance feels like a tribute to Janet, her movements, the music, the style, the dancers behind her. It all feels very Janet. And I love me some Janet Jackson, so we'd knock it out of the park right out the gate. So with a Janet-style performance, L.L. hosting, and then they said Busta Rhymes is going to be honored, and of course, Mariah too, this could work out. This might be sick. That's what I put in my notes. A lot of big ups to my era. I'm into it. Then Lenny Kravitz comes out to announce the artist of the year. And Lenny Kravitz, he looks the same. This dude doesn't age. You've got the dreads back now. Dudes look the same my entire life. Nominees for the artist of the year is Lady Gaga. Bad Bunny, Taylor Swift, Kendrick, Beyonce, Morgan Wallen, and The Weekend. And Lady Gaga wins. She's back in her over-the-top statement-making aesthetic,

looking like a black wreath bush on skates. She looks like something Daffy Duck would hide behind as he creeps into some sinister activity. And I was wondering why they give artists of the year as the first award, because I don't know, seems like maybe it'd be like the main award. But then at the end of Gagas' speech, she says, I wish I could stay and watch a show, but I have to get back to MSG. Okay, it makes sense. So they tooled it around her performance, and I would say I'm pretty sure she knew she was winning.

Otherwise, I don't think she would have showed up to the show, but that girls would be hustling, man. Prop, she's shown up at an award show, and then she ends up performing later, by the way. And then she's just got a concert, like, across the street at Madison Square Garden. Go get you some, Gaga. Next up, we get a performance from Lola Young. Huh? I don't know what genre I described this girl as. She kind of has like a hip lounge singer, R&B Neo Soul thing going on.

Kind of like an Amy Winehouse crossed with Adele, but in Miss Yellie, it's wardrobe, if that makes sense. If it doesn't, go watch a performance. See what I'm talking about. Then we get Jay Balvin introducing Ricky Martin, who performs Live in La Vita Loca, some of his famous Latin songs, exactly what you'd imagine from a Ricky Martin performance. The main comment I took on this performance, never seen Ricky wear baggy pants. Cool. It's at this point I realize it's CBS and out MTV, so maybe they're playing to more the CBS

crowd. And considering I'm closer to the CBS Age demo than what I'd imagine the MTV demo is supposed to be. Thanks. I appreciate that because I'm not 12. But also, I don't even think there is a demo for MTV anymore, you know. Jessica Simpson comes out to ring Ricky an award. I didn't hear what the award was.

Yeah, it's probably some kind of lifetime achievement. A lot of this show ended up being a lot of lifetime achievement. So I don't think I've seen Jessica Simpson in at least 15 years. I'm going to say looking good. Kind of has a little bit of that. You know, my face kind of looks shocked because of some of the stuff I've had done. But I'd say she looks good. Also, I recall she married a nineer.

So I'm team Jess for that one. Go 9-10. Nikki Glazer then comes out. Uh, wearing a dress, I'm thinking she thought would be like slightly see-through. But that thing is like 90% opacity. Sorry, that's some video editor nerd talk. But, uh, love Nikki. I'm not my favorite comedians right now.

She's always funny. Doesn't have much to say here because she's really just there to introduce Tate McCray, who does a little performance surrounded by nine naked dudes. All right, they're wearing Speedos, but yeah, all right.

Paris Hilton comes out to introduce the song of the year. We got Bruno and Roseae, APT, which has been covered here on the dot set DJs. Billy Irish, Birds of the Feather, Gracie Adams, I love you, I'm sorry,

Tate McCrae, Sportscar, Alex Warren, Ordinary, and Bruno and Gaga. I die with a smile. Bruno and Rosei win, and Rosey gives like a seven-minute speech reading off of her notepad. It's at this point I begin to appreciate the Oscars, play them-off music. I'm going to say this show could use a little bit of that. I know why they didn't do it, because that would seem disrespectful to the artist, and this show is like for the artist. It's like their type of show.

It's supposed to get away from that whole corporate feeling that, you know, maybe the Oscars and the cramies have. But I think somebody could have gave him the light, you know, the way a comedian gets out, all right, this is your last joke bit. And you're just going to like, all right, you can cut off the end of that list probably. LL's back and he introduces Busta Rhymes with the VMA Rock the Bell's Visionary Award, which is an award they made up for this show. But considering LL's the host and they want to give it to Busta, I'll allow it. Bustle comes out to perform some of his classic jams.

He got that little guy who's always with him, but I never recall hearing his name, but he's still rocking with Busta. He's got a sick neon boon box cassette tape set up in the background. A lot of cool stage setups in this one. Let me give him props on that. He had a few guest performers come out. They didn't put their names on the screen, so I didn't really know. I'm pretty sure one of them was Glorillo though.

Always cool to see Busta, big fan of his growing up, and then he gets his award. He says it's the first VMA award he's ever got, so glad he could finally hold a Moon Man. then he does in his speech make special mention to Ananda Lewis, who was a popular VJ back in the late 90s, early 2000s, who recently passed away tragically. He also mentioned that L.L. was the reason that he first started rapping, which I thought it looked like LL was touched by that. So, cool moment. I always love to see the legends of your youth. Get honored. It's one of the reasons the Hall of Fame is cool in sports, and baseball's taking that away from me because they don't nominate any of the players I grew up watching because the sports writers are more important than the players, I guess.

But this is not a sports podcast. I did that one earlier. It's one's about music. So let's keep the ball rolling. Sabrina Carpenter is out next. She begins her performance by popping out of the sewer. Writing the Hater Jokes Forum. Respect. We got more boomboxes in this performance, more 90s aesthetics, more roundhouse set vibes. I'm here for it. She also had several drag queens on stage with her holding protect trans signs. And then it starts raining on her. And I'm just going to say it, indoor rain on a performer never doesn't work. A hundred percent efficiency rating on that. Everybody always looks cool when they're performing the rain.

Ice spice and Lato come out next, and it feels like they try to do a bit, but just kind of forgot what they were going to say, and they just kind of were awkwardly looking at each other, and they just sort of pushed right through it. And they presented an award called Push Performance of the Year. which I guess is a combo of breakthrough artists and fan choice award. That's what it sounded like. And the winner was Katzai.

Hey! From Dysect DJ's episode 143 fame. They've got to thank us in their speech, but I'm sure they just had a lot in their mind. They mentioned it was their first award show like this. These girls are still new to the business. They'll get us next time. Then a guy named Luke Grimes introduces Post-Ballone and Jelly Roll, who are performing live from Germany.

Posty is still. in his full-on country era and I'm not gonna hate on it except yeah you will why not I've been the super nice all episode postie you made white Iverson what happened in that kid with the cigarettes in his headband what happened to the kid who had to answer to every question what happened to that kid who was sussin and swaggerin on you saucein I'm swagger on you also I'm just realizing the first time I've ever actually seen Jelly Roll perform. He sounds exactly as you'd imagine he would.

In case you've never seen him, you probably have. A lot of country heads out there. They do their thing. Post Malones in his wearing football jersey on stage era, but not like the way rappers used to. Kind of like the way a high school football player would at like a backyard barbecue party in like the Midwest. It's kind of got that look going on.

John Jones comes out next and a cowboy hat. He introduces Bailey Zimmerman and Kid Leroy. They do a whole performance. thing. I'm getting one direction vibes from him. Ariana Grande comes out to introduce Mariah Carey for the Video Vanguard Award, which I saw as the Mave. And I'm just going to say it. Has anyone ever coached switched up across all races more than Ariana?

That's all I'm going to say about it. But yeah, Google it. So then Mariah starts performing all her hits. Fantasy, Honey, Heartbreaker, obsessed. It's like that. We belong together. All the classics. Here's what I want to say about Mariah's performance. I know Mariah has never been known much for her dance moves on stage, but Home Girl is doing the minimalist movement possible. And I got a feeling this is kind of how she just is in general these days.

It's almost like she's being paid per each movement. An occasional shoulder shimmy here. A little slight step in this direction. Even the moments when like the fans are like reaching out in the front row and she kind of like half holds her arm out a little bit for like half a second and be like, nah, it's too much effort. That's all you're getting. They do some attempted skit to set up a heartbreaker because I don't know if any of you all

remember that music video, but like she has a fight with herself in that music video. So basically they try to reenact that with a girl on stage. Where Ryan gives the saddest attempt at like, obviously you're not trying to slap her, but she first of all misses the sound effect of the smack kind of like half. pretend to do it and then it's just like okay what's my next spot i'm just saying go watch this it feels like a statue that came to life and is now learning how movement works for the first time it feels like one of those robots you put in a quarter at like the aquarium or something and it kind of does like a little motion not like one of those guys at venice that'll do like a full-on

like pop and lock routine like an actual robot which doesn't really have like motion skills can like slightly rotate just such. Even after her performance and Ariana comes out to give her the award, she goes to hug her and she goes to like give her in a kiss. Again, Mariah is not willing to move more than like an inch at a time. And she kind of half goes for like an air kiss. It kind of feels like she's got a two inch movement at a time max allowance. Even at one point they were like showing her walk back stairs.

And it almost felt like somebody was gently like moving her around while she was like, It almost was like she was floating. Like she's not really taking real steps. Then she complains the trophy is too heavy. I gotta say, Mariah, she looks like she's still relatively fit. I'm getting a vibe that she does as little movement at all times as possible. Anyways, so she gets her little golden moon man for the video vanguard, which basically like the Lifetime Achievement Award.

And I know there's a lot of Lifetime Achievement stuff in this show, but this is the award that has actually always been a part of the show. So to me, this is like the main career achievement one. And I'm going to say Mariah deserves it. She calls out MTV for being her first VMA award ever, which is the same thing busted it earlier. And it's like, for real. I'm made tonight.

I just have one question. What in the Sam Hill were you waiting? Yeah, I'm glad that they actually both got their flowers. It's like the lifetime achievement Oscar when they gives it to an actor who's always crushed it but was never really nailed their best actor roles, like Harrison Ford, for example. or Tom Cruise. I'm going to say good on you for the Lifetime Achievement Award for these two MTV. I was going to give a top five list for my all-time rise songs,

but then when I saw how long this show goes, I was trying to speed run through this thing, and then the show just kind of kept on going. You'll get to that. So all I'll say is, in this performance, she did a few of them. I'd have Honey-Hine in there, Heartbreaker in there. Fantasy is pretty good. I always love her boy.

I guess I'm doing the list anyways. I don't know. That ain't no fun remix. That was always a good one. He's got some jams. Anyways, back to the show. Rosey's back to introduce Lady Gaga. And Jesus, she's back already?

Didn't she just say she had to go perform it at Madison Square? That lady hustles give her her flowers. And make sure they're black roses, so they'll match her attire. Rosey mentions that Gaga's already won three VMAs tonight, which made me realize, oh, so we're not really doing the award thing at this award show. It just occurred to me. They've only handed out like two actual awards so far, then a bunch of lifetime achievement stuff, and then mostly performances.

And you know what? I'm not going to complain. I think this show is plenty long enough with the awards they've given out. I bet the other ones are available online. I didn't look it up because you can do that. Gaga performs her monstery tracks. She's a master stage performer, a set design, and the people on stage around her, the whole thing. Anyone who's ever seen Gaga perform knows what I'm talking about. You'll never see Gaga just do like a quick couple songs in a month.

Mike. I'm just going to sing a song, like, real quick here. No, she's going to deliver a whole damn Broadway show with insane costume changes, perfect choreography, and make you say, what the fuck is going on right now, at least once. I will say that she's one of those people that it's, like, impossible to imagine just being, like, a normal person in life. Like, can you imagine Lady Gaga just going outside to get the mail? Or, like, calling an electrician to her house, because the right side of her living room had a fuse blowout? Like, she seems like a person who only exists on stage in a wild performance setting and I feel like that's sort of the way it was a little bit more back in the day like social media so much these days we're so inside these people's lives

some of the people back then the only time you saw them was on stage you knew nothing about their life behind it and that's the way it was and we liked it and that's the way it was and we liked it we loved it two blown girls come out I'm thinking that they must be country singers I didn't hear their name and then they introduce Alex Warren. He gives me Christian megachurch cult leader vibes. Like he's pulled in his followers to the majesty of song. Then we get an Ozzy Osbourne tribute. They toss it over to his son who gives a preregorted message with his family. And then some shirtless guy performs crazy train. I didn't hear his name introduced so I'll just refer to him as guy with no shirt guy and he's got a shit down of eyeliner but then stephen tyler and joe perry show up to

perform more azic classics and can we just take a moment to reflect on how long these rock stars keep it going for like i remember my mom telling me aerosmith was her favorite band when she was in high school these guys just keep on riding and the people keep hopping in the vehicle for the spin glorilla comes out to introduce j balvin and yeah this is definitely not so much of an award show as it is a series of performances and the people who introduce them with the occasional honorary award. Jay Balvin's got some more dope neon boombox aesthetics going on on the stage, and it's pretty dope. Like, I want the background of this performance to be the background of this podcast. Someone make that happen. Oh, it's me that does that make it happen? It looks like an expensive setup.

Maybe eventually, I'll keep this look in mind. And then there's just randomly a giant shoe on stage with them, like a massive timblin. And there was a little bit of a little. And there was a little bit of a a very good reason for this. Jay Balvin likes giant shoes. Giant shoes are badass. Then three girls come out on stage after that. I'm pretty sure they're K-pop stars. Not going to look up who

they are, but one of them Kaka's like hits them with a... I'm sure the fan base gets it. They present the Best Album Award and the nominees for Best Album were Sabrina Carpenter, the weekend, Morgan Wallin, Kendrick Lamar, Bad Bunny, Lady Gaga, and Debbie

Tierar. And the wind goes to Sabrina. Can I just say that whatever Sabrina's eye color is, that's my favorite color. I wonder if there's a swatch that can be found at Sherman Williams of that blend. Swatch, isn't that what they call the little samples? I don't know. Sounds right to me. Gorgeous color.

The show goes on. Alex Earle comes out and she is here to present another performer. Jesus. This one is Megan Maroney. And she has like a boppy country pop thing going on. Kind of feels like what Dolly Parton would be if she were to be reincarnated into a modern country pop star. It's cute. It's adorable. Then this girl named Megan Seltter comes out on stage, and she's dressed like a giant salt shaker.

That's what it looks like to me. I think she's actually funny because they had some Dunkin ads that she was in, and I thought she had good timing. She was pretty funny. However, when she comes out on stage, as is the case with live TV, sometimes doesn't necessarily hit the same when you got the, Mike and your solo and there's just a room full of people. She's trying really hard to be funny. It is not really landing. So she even starts laughing at herself because nobody else is joining in on doing that. And she is here to introduce another performance. This one is a guy named Somber. And he looks like if a rake came to life, put on some leather pants and a shirt from

the Dave Navarro collection. He also looks like he could be anywhere from age 30 to 12. I believe any age you told me in that range. He's got a photo booth on stage, a disco ball, a bunch of dancers, gyrating all up on each other. And this show's starting to feel like it's just going to keep going at this point. Sierra comes out on stage. She appears to be wearing a red velvet Christmas stocking with a giant zipper. She gives an award called Best Pop. That's it. Best Pop. This is a two-word award. You know what? It's fine. The nominees are all the people you'd expect.

Think of a pop person right now. They're nominated. wins. She reads a full page front and back of thank yous and is literally having a panic attack the entire time because she's like, I gotta get through this whole list. She's fighting to get through it. Her VFX team, mathematics lighting team led by Harold Skinner, our key grip, Jimmy Sweet and all of our grips, art department and art director, Zach Friedman, props, and our prop master Robbie, our colorist, Stefan, Sondonfeld, sorry. Special effects. She's literally thanking the catering team from like her music video shoot,

like really trying to get everyone in there. At this point, I'm quite thankful that the majority of the awards are not making the telecast. Jessica and Ashley Simpson are back out next, and they are here to present Best Collab. They list the nominees. I don't really care. Bruno and Gaga win.

Cat's eyes back out to introduce someone named Conan Gray. He's sort of doing this Shakespeare in the Park thing. Kind of like a Romeo and Juliet vibe, except it's more of a Romeo and Romeo thing, if you know what I mean? You literally has a guy laying on the bed like he's dead, and then at the end of his performance, he drinks the potion and dies with him,

so I'm pretty sure I actually nail the Romeo and Romeo vibe. L.L. is back on stage to give out video of the year. I think this is the last one, guys. We made it! The nominees for Best Video of the Year are Sabrina Carpenter, Manchild, Billy Eilish with the birds. So I didn't write the entire title of that song. I can't remember what it is. You know what I'm talking about.

Lady Gaga with her song. I just stopped writing the title. You know what? These happen quickly as you're going through it. Ariana Grande, brighter days, the weekend timeless. Bruno Mars and Rose A.P.T. And Kendrick, not like us. Ariana wins again.

Hopefully she leaves her list back at her seat this time. I put in my notes. She did not leave her list back at her seat this time. But this one's actually. kind of hilarious because the mic is pulled up to LL's height because he was the one who introduced the award. So it's like way too tall for Ariana. And it's just a hilarious visual because she's got her head craned up completely like cocked so that she's like she's talking to the ceiling and the microphone is just right at her nose. And she's trying to say all this like poetic, insightful stuff.

And the whole time she's just literally like talking to the ceiling with his microphone in her nose. And then she throws it to her director who was on stage with her. This guy is somehow even shorter than her. And the whole time he's talking, his entire face is just blocked by the microphone as well. And then LL says, that's a wrap. And we are outy 5,000. We did it. We watched the VMAs for the first time in 15 years.

So what are my final thoughts on the 2025 VMAs? I'm not going to take a whole lot of time for it because that show took a whole lot of time to go through. And this is my second podcast I've recorded back to back. So really got the wide end of the spectrum. NFL first, VMAs after that. I'm just going to say, great presentation. Was surprised with how many artists I grew up watching that were included. But I appreciate it because I know who they are.

Didn't really come across anyone I wasn't aware of that I feel like I need to chase down and be like, oh, yeah, that's an awesome harness. Shout out to Doja Cat. I thought she had the best performance of the night. Mariah's immobility was hilarious, as was Ariana's attempt to speak into a mic that was taller than her. You know, the main thing I took away is no controversial moments. I think it's pretty clear that this was going to be, you know, a standard presentation of music show. Maybe it's a CBS thing. They were not going to play any of that wild MTV chaos shit.

Not a lot of, like, shocking outfits. Gaga had her wild, like, black rose bush outfit, but, you know, that's kind of part for the course for her at this point. We're all used to that. It was basically the Grammys with a little bit more neon and a little less prestige. So there it is. In honor of the Vanguard, I'm gonna have a classic Mariah Jam play us out. That is your rundown of the VMA's 2025. I don't feel like I learned too much more about the music scene that I didn't already know.

So what was the point of this? Might have been a total waste of time, but hopefully you enjoyed me running down the card. Feel free to comment on Spotify, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, at Dissect DJs at Red Castle on YouTube. Let me know your thoughts on VMA history and what you thought of the Twitter. But for now, we got one thing to say. And next.