We Need to Talk About the 2026 VMAs

Evolution of a Snake: The Taylor Swift Fan Podcast

The hosts provide a comprehensive recap and critique of the 2026 Video Music Awards, characterizing the event as culturally stagnant yet paradoxically achieving its highest viewership since

Key takeaways

• Taylor Swift surpassed Beyoncé to become the most decorated solo artist in VMA history with three wins, including Video of the Year for 'Fatal Ophelia'.
• Madonna led the night with seven wins from thirteen nominations and delivered a heavily criticized opening performance featuring Charlie XCX and Sabrina Carpenter.

Main topics

• 2026 VMA recap and cultural relevance
• Celebrity audience engagement and red carpet fashion

Notable quotes

"It literally felt like senior skip day is how I would describe it."

Conclusion

The episode concludes that while the VMAs remain a necessary monocultural touchstone for exposing

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) Welcome back to Evolution of a Snake. I'm Zach. And I am Madeline. And we are giving you a recap of the who's who of who's that, the 2026 Video Music Awards. I can't describe to you how boring this was and how un-VMA like it felt. Speaker 2 (0:20) It literally felt like senior skip day is how I would describe it. It literally felt like it's Q4 at school. All the seniors are about to graduate and they can't be fucked to show up. And it is all of the freshmen and sophomores and juniors running amok. Half of them are barely paying attention in class. It just felt like last day of school energy. Speaker 1 (0:43) Before we get any further into today's episode, you guys need to go to patreon.com slash cryptologist and get in on all the fun. You get weekly bonus episodes and our unedited reactions to things. So both of our unedited reactions to the show, Worldly Encore, are up there and my VMA live stream. The entire thing recorded is on the Patreon too. So go there, patreon.com slash cryptologist, and let's get into today's video. One of the big takeaways for me was how disengaged the celebrities were with the VMAs themselves. Like they were not, they were only ever in the audience if they were about to accept an award. It used to be sit in your chair and we're putting a camera on you the entire night to capture every reaction that you give. This is how we get Taylor Swift and Selena Gomez capsizing over We Can't Stop. Iconic cultural moments. But every time it panned to the crowd, randomista, randomista, randomista. I remember Speaker 2 (1:33) when Snoop Dogg was like, you know, at the start of award shows, always the host is like, you know, Justin Bieber's here. Conan O'Brien's here. And it goes to them in the audience. The only person there was Lisa. So he's going, Taylor Swift is here. Ray is here. Charlie XCX. Lisa. And she's the only person there. And she's like, yeah. I was like, oh, Lisa. She was one of my Speaker 1 (1:55) winners of the night, I have to say. Like she was someone who brought a little something to the event that actually cared. She cried when she won her award, which we love to see. But Snoop Dogg as a host, what has happened to him? I think AI has like gotten to his brain somehow. He was giving like chat GPT Snoop the entire night. I think he's just kind of, he's just. available for hire for anything now. Like he's all over every commercial, like he is for sale. So I was like, Snoop, it's time to pack it up. Like this, this made you a lot less cool. Speaker 2 (2:27) It really did. Yeah. I don't think hosting the VMAs did him absolutely any favors whatsoever. Um, I don't think it's a coveted slot. I actually. I didn't watch last year's VMAs because I was abroad. So I missed them last year. But I looked it up. Who hosted last year out of curiosity? LL Cool J. See, I watched this Speaker 1 (2:48) and I don't even remember that. Speaker 2 (2:51) The other, the person who did it in 2024 was Megan Thee Stallion. I'm fairly certain the year before that, it Speaker 1 (2:57) was Nicki Minaj. Speaker 1 (3:02) Interesting, no? Miley's hosted. Katy Perry hosted catastrophically one year. That was great. When Katy Perry hosted, I'm pretty sure the year Katy hosted, it was also the premiere of the Look What You Made Me Do music video. The jokes write themselves. See, that was camp. Speaker 2 (3:18) That's when it was worth tuning in. Miley, what's good? That's a show. Speaker 1 (3:24) We're never getting back there. And Miley in her outfit. Speaker 2 (3:28) Absolutely nothing that happened at the VMAs 2026 is worthy of everybody's talking about it the next day. They have had to manufacture moments. They had to manufacture this fakery where Taylor's up on stage accepting her award and they clip together a completely unrelated clip of Charli XCX and the audience looking annoyed. Not related. That wasn't the same moment. Back in the Speaker 1 (3:50) day, you could have actually got that shot. But you didn't Speaker 2 (3:53) get Speaker 1 (3:53) that anymore. The audience cam for Taylor Shake It Off 2014, hysterical. Miley Cyrus, Katy Perry with riffraff sitting there. completely stone-faced. That was cinema. That was television. And now, I mean, I said this in my review, but you know, nobody wants to make a moment anymore. Nobody wants to get their ass up and like be messy. And I get it because the social media backlash to doing anything even slightly controversial or not nice is so not worth it. So I get it. It used to be that the VMAs having a moment could stir up some controversy that would benefit you positively. Maybe this is like not worth the, the juice ain't worth the squeeze. Speaker 2 (4:32) And nobody was squeezing. And nobody was squeezing. In spite of the fact that nobody was squeezing, it's actually the highest view to VMAs since 2015. For some reason, I have to assume it's at least in part because Taylor debuted a music video, but it was like up 51 % from last year. I'm like, Taylor Speaker 1 (4:50) isn't going to these things. I Speaker 2 (4:50) think it was also streaming this year. Speaker 1 (4:53) I think it might have been easier to watch. Speaker 2 (4:55) Maybe so. Maybe so. I have no idea. Interesting. I feel like... And everybody's assuming this is the last year, this is the last year. I wouldn't look at that spike in viewership and say I'm canceling this personally. No, I think Speaker 1 (5:10) it's going to carry on, unfortunately, in some. dreadful capacity. Speaker 2 (5:14) Well, you know what? I do have to say- If they had no Taylor Speaker 1 (5:16) this year, there would have been no show. Sorry. Like, there really would have been nothing major. When these are gone, Speaker 2 (5:20) you guys are going to fucking miss these. I'm telling you that right now. These also, I feel like there's something so important about these kinds of award shows where it's like you have to engage with things that you would normally never engage with. Some people really need that. There's a lot of people living in their bubble of white pop girl, white pop girl, white pop girl. Are there any other artists in the world? Well, yes. You have to engage with Shabuzy. You have to engage with Lisa. You have to see K-pop, Latin artists. This isn't the best particular year to showcase all these things, but there have been other award years where they've done so much Latin American music. They've done so much, you know, like hip-hop, R &B, all that kind of stuff. Like, these award shows are like a net good. And when they're gone, everything is going to get worse. It's also like a cultural thing. Speaker 1 (6:08) for like everybody to engage with and talk about. Something we have to look forward to, like because we have no monoculture, these kinds of things become more important, but also they end up feeling like extremely random and fragmented because we don't have a monoculture in music. So when you force different niches to come together, it does seem a bit kind of patchwork quilty because we are all in our echo chambers, but it is good to engage with things that you otherwise wouldn't actively seek out. I'll get to, I'll reserve my comments on how people responded to being forced to see things that they weren't going to choose to see when we get to Madonna. But let's just say that not everyone is meeting that challenge with grace. Speaker 2 (6:47) In fact, very few people are. So famously, the show was 15 to 20 minutes late because a football game right before it on CBS, it was like the parent streamer or like who was hosting the award show. It went into overtime. So people like PopBase and PopTings were physically there, and they were updating on their accounts. Taylor just won. Madonna and Sabrina just won. So I got like half the award show spoiled for me. That annoyed the hell out of me. There was a time when these were an MTV exclusive. I would just like to say that. But MTV basically doesn't exist anymore. So just another thing we've lost to the sands, ladies and gentlemen. Also, don't Speaker 1 (7:24) you? the award show host have a say over when this gets to air. So why would you do it on the same night as a football game on your same channel that you know can run overtime? I mean, this is not rocket science, girls. It also felt homophobic. Yeah, I'm going to say it. It felt homophobic that I had to wait 20 to 30 minutes to watch my VMAs because of pigskin. Speaker 2 (7:46) No, it actually is really crazy. And they've done shit like this before. Football has always been like a really big issue. They're Speaker 1 (7:52) always scheduling football. Speaker 2 (7:54) Is there an overlap, Speaker 1 (7:54) divas? My question is, are people really not going to tune in because they're watching the game? The opening performance is Madonna. Speaker 1 (8:04) Who knows? Speaker 2 (8:05) Who knows? Who Speaker 1 (8:06) knows? But Speaker 2 (8:07) nonetheless, it was a bunch of bullshit. It took way too long. When it went into overtime, I was like, you have to be kidding me. But nonetheless, the show began 20 minutes late as Pop Bass got to view everything 20 minutes before me. That really irritated me. The show starts. I thought the staging was absolutely baffling. I always liked the big moon, man. Speaker 1 (8:26) But the way that it's set up. It really reminded me of that, you know, that year when Britney swept for a piece of me the year after Gimme More. That also had a really confounding, strange stage layout with like huge screens and not a lot of footprint on the stage. Like not a lot of space to like do sets or things like that. Screens, essentially. So, yeah, it was weird. Speaker 2 (8:48) I also hate the way that they've been designing the Grammys. I think the Grammy stage has been the same for, if not three years, at least two. It's the giant. orb like the giant circle where the celebrities come out you know what i'm talking about it's been the same and i hate it i absolutely hate the staging i mean i feel like they're always trying to innovate and it's like how about a stage picture this it's a stage actually the Speaker 1 (9:12) country music award shows are much better at that they just do a stage because Speaker 2 (9:15) they don't overthink it these are like they're always trying to like do oh and it's like we don't we don't care about this We really don't care about this. Actually, the AMAs, Speaker 1 (9:24) which is another flop summit, AMAs always has good staging, too. It's just a stage. It's just a stage. Speaker 2 (9:29) So some notes about the floppishness about the VMAs this year. They cut every single genre. Speaker 2 (9:37) category out of the main telecast, including hip-hop, alternative, R &B, Latin, K-pop, and country. That means that a lot of the people who were nominated in these categories that weren't going to be telecast didn't show up. Ariana wasn't there. BTS was not there. Ella Langley wasn't there. Zara Larsson wasn't there. Cat's Eye wasn't there. Olivia Rodrigo wasn't there. Tate McRae wasn't there. Doji wasn't there. These are all people who had at least two nominations. Of course, some people just have prior commitments, but a lot of people said, I'm not going to that flop fest. And I get it because Speaker 1 (10:07) you should be. Also, I felt the award show was very light on the awards and I like to see who wins. That's kind of why I'm tuning in. It's an award show, girls. So the random asides and weirdly, like there was one too many performances, too. There were a couple of performances where I was like, this is not necessary. We didn't need this. Speaker 2 (10:28) Madonna led the awards, 13 nominations. She also won seven of those nominations. Taylor was number two. She had 11 nominations and she had three wins. BTS also won three awards. Not one of those awards was televised, likely because they said we're not showing up to this fake bullshit. And you know what? Respect. Speaker 1 (10:45) Respect. Speaker 2 (10:46) Respect, BTS. Thank you so much. It's also worth it to note on this night, Taylor surpassed Beyonce to be the most decorated solo artist of all time at the Video Music Awards. So congratulations, Taylor. Speaker 1 (10:59) I will also say very impressive that Beyonce held on to that record for so long because she hasn't done an album cycle with visuals since like 2017. Speaker 2 (11:07) And you know what? All of Renaissance Speaker 1 (11:08) is visual-less. Speaker 2 (11:11) And that hurts. Speaker 1 (11:12) Beyonce should be the most awarded music video artist of all time. I'm sorry. I'm saying it. She deserves. I just feel like Speaker 2 (11:22) Beyonce's music videos, this is skewing. So Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time. But like. The cultural impact of so many of her music videos were pretty massive, which isn't to say that Taylor has never had cultural impact with her music videos. I think she said, I mean, Who Belongs to Me was huge. Look What You Made Me Do was huge. But I do think there's something to say about like still in cultural conversation today. Beyonce has videos like Speaker 1 (11:48) that. Speaker 2 (11:48) I Speaker 1 (11:48) wouldn't Speaker 2 (11:48) consider Speaker 1 (11:48) Taylor Swift to be a music video artist, you know? Just like I don't consider every songwriter to be or every like pop star to be a songwriting first artist. But you know what? Congratulations, Taylor. Congrats. Speaker 2 (12:01) Congratulations. Like we already talked about, they just didn't do any crowd work. The cameras could not find a celebrity to save their lives. They could not find Taylor Swift in the audience, Charli XCX in the Speaker 1 (12:14) audience. Speaker 2 (12:14) You know who they could find? Paris Hilton. Paris Speaker 1 (12:17) Hilton was there. Every time the camera came, hand on her hip. Every single time. And you know what killed me is that she was in the audience the entire time, but they had her in the third row behind the randomistas so that they could have space for when the actual celebrities came out. That killed me. Speaker 2 (12:33) And you know what? We need more respect on Paris's name because she was somebody, a celebrity who came to work. She clocked in for the VMAs. She could Speaker 1 (12:41) have done Speaker 2 (12:41) a moment. She Speaker 1 (12:42) could have worked a little bit harder. Speaker 2 (12:43) She could have done a moment. She could have done a moment. In addition to not being able to find any celebrities in the crowd, I personally found it hard sometimes to find celebrities on the stage. They had people I swear to God I've never heard Speaker 1 (12:56) of. Who are Speaker 2 (12:56) you? Who is that? I'm still asking what is a summer house? I genuinely don't know. What is that? Speaker 1 (13:05) I engage with Bravo and Summer House is not really on my radar. It's basically the girl. So it killed me because Snoop was like, this is a night about celebrating like the excellence in music. And with that being said, here's Sierra Miller from Summer House. And I was like, beautiful girl. She's a gorgeous girl. But what is the point? You know where the reality stars used to be? The MTV Movie Awards. That's where they would go. We would have Jersey Shore. We would have those people would go to like a visual medium that was scripted, non-scripted, sure. This felt like we are canvassing far and wide for anybody that has ever been famous ever once in their life to just panhandle on stage. Like, please come and lend us your 1 million followers. We really desperately need you. And she's not even, no offense to her, she's not even like a Bravo star. She's not one of the biggest stars on Bravo. I'm like, if you had, I don't know, Lisa Vanderpump? Sure. Why not? Kyle Richards? I would clap. Erika Jayne revitalizing pop music? Yes. Sure. Now that's something interesting. Speaker 2 (14:07) That's just not interesting to me. And to me, I'm not even sure who that Speaker 1 (14:13) is. Speaker 2 (14:13) You don't know what a summer house is. I won't explain it to you. You don't need to know. It's none of your business. So whether or not they were in the crowd, they were on stage, there were actually a lot of celebrities there. I think most of them just decided, I'm going to stay backstage all night. So the red carpet was probably my favorite part of the night because I actually liked a lot of the outfits. I noticed old Hollywood styling was popular for this night. For the Emmys, I think it was pastels, and everybody was cheering because they were like, yes, color is back. It was not back at the MTV VMAs. This was like feather. Speaker 1 (14:43) And rhinestones are back. Also a fun fact that I saw, there was an influencer that went to the red carpet for the VMAs and they kind of let all the influencers stand adjacent so they could watch the celebrities come on the carpet. And apparently when Taylor came, like usually the photographers are really loud and everybody, like it's like a very bustling situation. When Taylor came, apparently it was silence. Everybody was silent. They were respectfully going, Taylor over here, Taylor over here. She took her damn time. She walked really slow. She gave everybody what they needed to give. Another moment that the VMAs tried to make was Taylor reacts to being called Mrs. Kelsey. And it is a video of her literally not reacting. Speaker 2 (15:21) No reaction whatsoever. You think you're Speaker 1 (15:23) going to break her? You think you're going to get a candid moment from Taylor Swift on a red carpet? You're crazy. An asteroid from space could come down and hit the red carpet and she's doing her pose. Absolutely. Speaker 2 (15:35) And I watched it like twice too. I was like, okay, I'm trying to like a micro reaction Speaker 1 (15:39) even. Nope. No, she literally, if anything, she just moves her head. Speaker 2 (15:44) Mrs. Kelsey. Speaker 1 (15:45) And I was, when I Speaker 2 (15:46) saw Speaker 1 (15:47) Taylor reacts, I was like, Ooh. Speaker 2 (15:49) And then I clicked it. She's like, Speaker 1 (15:50) she's going to, it's going to be a chapel moment. Wrong. She's Speaker 2 (15:52) going to get them. Excuse me. I'm Mrs. I'm not changing my, I was like, Ooh, feminism. Yay. But it wasn't, it was literally. Or even if Speaker 1 (15:59) she was like, yes. Yay. Thank you for calling me Mrs. Kelsey. I love that. I would have taken that too. But queen knows I'm not giving this flop a moment. You're not getting a moment from me. Speaker 2 (16:08) Well, speaking of Taylor, let's start with Taylor's red carpet look. This is Tamara Ralph Couture that she's wearing. It is a dress. I thought it was maybe a bodysuit and a skirt, but apparently it is a dress. I like it. Speaker 1 (16:20) This is one of her best looks in so long. When she showed up, I said, she just looks good. Okay. It fits her in all the right places. I love the ruching and like the draping of the skirt. And I also love the panels and the bodysuit for like a little waist. accentuation. So cute. The hair also amazing. This was the perfect length. I love. Speaker 2 (16:40) It looks absolutely amazing, but something that some people did because of the circle on the ground, it kind of makes you look like a Sim. And so naturally people edited the instrumental Cleveland over her standing there. So it looks like she's in. That's not right. That's not Speaker 1 (16:57) right. That's not right. Did it work on every level? Speaker 2 (17:00) Did it work on every level? Is this Speaker 1 (17:01) show girl? Sure. Speaker 2 (17:03) Sure. Well, people are starting to, well, I guess we'll talk about this when we talk about the Patient Zero music video. But nonetheless, this is an amazing, amazing look. I also really loved the pared down makeup. I really loved how bare it was. And it was just like, you know, very minimal jewelry. I find that with Taylor looks, the more minimal, the more I tend to like it with her. Because I just feel like. Sometimes when it's too busy, that's where we lose the plot. But when we keep it simple. I Speaker 1 (17:33) didn't Speaker 2 (17:33) love Speaker 1 (17:33) the earrings. I could have done like a hoop or a diamond. But sure, why not? That's my small quibble. Everything else, cunt. I even love the shoe. The shoe's perfect. No notes. And the best part about the red carpet is she has one less opportunity to fumble because there's usually no bag. So it's just hair and shoe. And she slayed both. Speaker 2 (17:52) And Speaker 1 (17:53) she slayed both. And she looked great. Thank you so Speaker 2 (17:54) much, Taylor. Constantly raising the bar for us all. Up next, this is one of the first people that I saw on the red carpet. We're talking best