Kendrick Lamar and Ed Sheeran have won the top prizes at the MTV Video Music Awards but an absent Taylor Swift and lifetime achievement honoree Pink have dominated the show.
An angry Swift took on her critics in the world premiere of the music video for her first solo single in three years, Look What You Made Me Do.
The satirical music video depicted Swift, 27, crawling out of a grave and declaring her old self dead in a portrayal of a hard-edged artist with nothing left to lose, drawing more than 470,000 views on Youtube within an hour of its premiere.
Lamar, who went into Sunday's event in Los Angeles with a leading eight nominations, kicked off the show with a medley that featured dancers in flames.
The California rapper went home with six statuettes, including the top award for video of the year and best hip hop video for Humble.
British singer-songwriter Sheeran was voted artist of the year.
Swift herself was a no-show, although she won the only category in which she had been nominated - best collaboration for I Don't Wanna Live Forever with Zayn Malik.
Nevertheless, her video quickly became one of the show's most talked-about moments, overshadowing performances by the likes of Sheeran, Fifth Harmony and Lorde.
Hosting the VMA show was Swift's rival, Katy Perry, who made her entrance from the ceiling wearing a spacesuit and ended the event with a performance of single Swish Swish with Nicki Minaj.
Pink, the 2017 Vanguard Award winner, gave a speech about beauty and acceptance directed to her six year-old daughter, Willow, that moved many to tears.
"Baby girl, we don't change," the singer said. "We take the gravel and the shell and we make a pearl, and we help other people to change so they can see other kinds of beauty."
The ceremony also saw the mother of Heather Heyer, who was killed protesting against a far-right rally in Charlottesville, launch a charity to promote her legacy.
Paris Jackson, the model daughter of Michael Jackson, started the night by denouncing racism and urging fans to unite against "Nazi, white supremacist jerks" in the Virginia city as well as across the US.
Six transgender soldiers and veterans attended The Forum arena after they were invited by MTV bosses in a rebuke against US President Donald Trump, who has banned new transgender recruits.
