MTV have decided that they will no longer celebrate the ‘Best Rock’ video of the year at their annual Video Music Awards.
When the full list of nominations for the 2026 MTV VMAs were announced earlier this week, the ‘Best Rock’ category was notable by its absence, as NME reports.
While the music channel will honour genres including Pop, Dance, Hip-Hop, R&B, Latin, K-Pop and Country, there is no longer a standalone Rock category: instead viewers will be asked to vote for the best Alternative video, for which the nominees are:
Geese – Taxes
MGK & Fred Durst – Fix Ur Face
Noah Kahan – The Great Divide
Olivia Rodrigo – The Cure
Sombr – Homewrecker
Tame Impala – Dracula
Twenty One Pilots – Drag Path
Rock music was first recognised at the VMAS in 1989, when Guns N’ Roses (Sweet Child O’ Mine), Aerosmith (Rag Doll), Def Leppard (Pour Some Sugar On Me) and Metallica (One) faced off in the ‘Best Heavy Metal Video’ category, with Gn’R taking home the award.
That year ‘alternative’ music was labelled ‘Post-Modern’, a category contested by R.E.M., The Cure, The Escape Club, Love and Rockets, and Siouxsie and the Banshees.
The Best Heavy Metal Video category was later changed to Best Metal/Hard Rock Video, then Best Hard Rock Video, then Best Rock Video, finally becoming simply Best Rock.
The 2025 Best Rock category was contested by Coldplay (All My Love), Evanescence (Afterlife), Green Day (One Eyed Bastard), Lenny Kravitz (Honey), Linkin Park (The Emptiness Machine) and Twenty One Pilots (The Contract), with the only English artist nominated emerging as the winner.
There are no rock artists nominated for Video Of The Year, Artist Of The Year, Song Of The Year or Best New Artist in 2026.
This year’s VMAs will be held at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on September 27, if you still care.
