Highlights
If you have any doubts about the legitimacy of the VMAs, '89 is your year. To begin with, Arsenio hosts, Madonna performs and Neil Young takes Best Video. To top that, the Rolling Stones play their first live set in years and The Cure play their first US
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9.6.1989, Los Angeles: Madonna opens the 1989 VMAs with a provocative performance of "Express Yourself."
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9.6.1989, Los Angeles: Though it means taking a break from hosting his own show, electric dresser Arsenio Hall looks thrilled to be running the 1989 MTV Video Music Awards!
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9.6.1989, Los Angeles: Long before South Park and Janet Jackson relieve the world of its scruples, Andrew Dice Clay receives the only "Lifetime Ban" for his lewd jokes at the 1989 Video Music Awards.
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9.6.1989, Los Angeles: Who needs idols when you’ve got Moonmen? Paula Abdul collected four for “Straight Up,” at the ’89 VMAs.
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9.6.1989, Los Angeles: DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince stare lustfully into the audience while accepting their Best Rap Video Moonman for “Parents Just Don’t Understand.”
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9.6.1989, Los Angeles: How do you top live performances by The Stones and The Cure? You don’t. But watching Neil Young accept his Moonman for Best Video of the Year (“This Note’s For You”) from Daryl Hannah and Chevy Chase is a pretty sweet cherry.
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