VMAs Producer Van Toffler on Awarding Taylor Swift’s Evolution, Honoring Dolly Parton’s Legacy & Mixing TV Generations: ‘Streaming Has Erased Time’
Categoria: Musica
The returning MTV producer talks more about adjusting the VMAs in the "grayer and older" television landscape.
Por Billboard | 24/09/2026
The 43rd annual MTV Video Music Awards are now just three days away, coming up this Sunday (Sept. 27). This year’s broadcast looks to be dominated by icons both new and old, with Taylor Swift accepting the show’s first-ever Artist Director Honors (and debuting her new video for “Patient Zero”), in addition to past VMAs greats like grunge paragons Nirvana and pop exemplar George Michael receiving tributes, and even the late Dolly Parton — whose crossover peak largely pre-dates the VMAs — being honored. Related Taylor Swift to Be First Recipient of Artist Director Honors at 2026 MTV VMAs VMAs Producer Van Toffler on Nirvana & George Michael Tributes at 2026 Awards and Why the VMAs Are Best at Their Most ‘Age, Genre & Color Blind’ Madonna to Open 2026 VMAs — Her First Time Performing on the Show in 23 Years And then, of course, there’s Madonna. The Queen of Pop represents the VMAs’ legacy both historically — she received the Video Vanguard lifetime achievement award back in 1986, a full 40 years ago — and in real-time, as she is both the most-nominated artist at this year’s awards (for her acclaimed Confessions II album and its accompanying singles and videos) and the night’s opening performer. After talking with Billboard earlier in the week about the upcoming Nirvana and George Michael tributes, today, VMAs producer and Gunpowder & Sky CEO Van Toffler discusses some of the other genre-and-generation-spanning musical greats involved with this year’s awards, and why it makes sense to mix them all — along with some potential future icons — on television in 2026. Making the move to CBS, with the audience that’s built in from the CBS viewership — does there come with either more of a pressure, or maybe just more of a permission to kind of play to the older crowds? Is there less of a pressure to be solely youth-oriented than there would have been when it was only on MTV, and that being such a youth-oriented channel? It’s a great question. I think part of the issue for television is that it’s all gotten grayer and older. I mean, the median age of MTV is much older. I left in in 2015. The median age was 22. I’m going to guess it’s a bit older than that right now. So the thing is that — also with streaming of music — it has kind of erased time, and so what I mean by that is, if you’re a metal fan, you may like Black Sabbath or Def Leppard or Guns N’ Roses, and they’re decades apart. But you just say, “I like metal music,” right? And that’s what Spotify and Apple did. And so a 15-year-old young woman may love Fleetwood Mac, and they weren’t [releasing music during that young woman’s lifetime]. And so I think mixing those kind of genres has kind of come natural as a way of listening to music. So having it live [together] on an award show makes a lot of sense to me, When we