MTV has recently announced the nominees and genre categories for this year’s Video Music Awards, but music fans who have looked closely have stumbled upon a missing category that’s pretty glaring: Best Rock.
Looking at Billboard’s breakdown of the award categories, genres including Pop, Hip-Hop, R&B, Alternative, Dance, Latin, K-Pop, and Country are all represented. Now, there’s a possibility that rock could be announced soon, along with Afrobeats, which is also missing. However, it doesn't look likely, with the rest of the nominees already announced.
Best Rock Video is a category that’s undergone many changes at the MTV Video Music Awards. In 1989 – the category’s inaugural year – the category was named Best Heavy Metal Video, a reflection of how ubiquitous the genre was at the time.
From 1990 to 1995, the category was named Best Metal/Hard Rock Video, followed by Best Hard Rock Video in 1996. In 1997, it became Best Rock Video, and after MTV changed all category titles to remove “Video,” it simply became Best Rock.
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Over the years, the award has gone to artists including Metallica, Linkin Park, Limp Bizkit, Soundgarden, Korn, and many others. For the first time in over 35 years, a rock/metal award hasn’t been included in the genre categories.
However, MTV is casting a wide net with its Best Alternative category, which includes the likes of Geese, Noah Kahan, Olivia Rodrigo, Sombr, Tame Impala, twenty one pilots, and a showing of nu-metal thanks to mgk’s collaboration with Fred Durst, FIX UR FACE.
At this year’s Video Music Awards, Madonna – fresh off the release of her dance-oriented record Confessions II – leads the charge with eleven nominations.
She’s followed by Taylor Swift, with nine nominations to her name; Ariana Grande and Sabrina Carpenter with seven nods apiece; Bruno Mars, PinkPantheress, and Zara Larsson with five; LISA with four; and Shakira, Tate McRae, and Yung Lean, each with three nominations.
First-time nominees include viral Boston hitmaker Stella Lefty, Noah Kahan, Don Toliver, Kali Uchis, Olivia Dean, Tucker Wetmore, and more.
The 2026 Video Music Awards will be held at Los Angeles’ Peacock Theatre on Sunday, 27 September – airing in Australia the following day. In the US, it will air on CBS and MTV, with a livestream on Paramount+.
Fan voting across 13 categories is now open, with the Best New Artist vote staying open during the show. You can cast your vote here.
