Editor’s Note: “Remember When?” is a CNN-style series that delves deep into the archives of pop culture history, offering a nostalgic look at the celebrity outfits that defined their eras.

CNN
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Singing about the dangers of fame, being dragged from under a fallen chandelier and then bleeding to death in front of a room full of celebrities, Lady Gaga didn’t mince her words when she made her debut at the MTV Video Music Awards.

It was 2009 – many will remember it because rapper Ye (formerly Kanye West) interrupted 19-year-old Taylor Swift on stage and suggested that the award for best female video should have gone to Beyoncé. But Lady Gaga, then 23, didn’t let the competition outdo her and made pop culture history herself that night.

Her rendition of “Paparazzi,” in which she laments both unrequited love and the ill effects of tabloid smear campaigns, has been lost to the Gaga legend, not least because of the lack of quality footage, leaving fans to rely on grainy, screen-recorded versions circulating on social media.

In the limited number of pixels, Gaga is seen at the start of the performance in an all-white ensemble: a jeweled, asymmetrical lace bodysuit and matching cape, over-the-knee boots, a feathered Keko Hainswheeler headdress, and glittering pearl necklaces. As she staggered back from her piano at the song’s crescendo, however, an audible gasp could be heard in the room as thick blood suddenly seemed to pour from her abdomen.

“I’m your biggest fan, I’ll follow you until you love me,” Gaga wailed desperately, her once flawless outfit now painted scarlet. She finished the number floating above the stage, “dead,” with more blood dripping from her eyes.

“(It) gives me goosebumps every time I see it,” Olivia Rodrigo told MTV in 2021. “I think Lady Gaga is the best artist of our generation.” The “Drivers License” singer appeared to be taking notes. At this year’s Grammy Awards, she began “bleeding” from clenched fists during a performance of her hit “Vampire,” spreading fake blood all over her arms and neck as the song progressed.

Rodrigo wasn’t the only young artist to draw inspiration from Gaga’s bloodshed: TikTok sensation and pop star Addison Rae created the blood-soaked look for Halloween 2022, while singers Madison Beer and Reneé Rapp called “Paparazzi” one of the most iconic moments of the VMAs. “That was the most impactful performance of my youth,” Beer told MTV in 2021. “It changed the culture forever,” Rapp agreed in a separate interview two years later. “Nothing was the same.”

But not everyone was convinced.

In an article published immediately after the VMAs, The Daily Mail accused Gaga of “attracting attention with her fashion sense rather than her bawdy pop music,” and described Gaga herself as “outrageous” and “eccentric” and her outfits as “bizarre.”

“She accepted her award for best new artist in a red outfit that obscured her face and would have raised even Isabella Blow’s eyebrows,” wrote a similarly skeptical New York Times critic Jon Caramanica.

Page Six also wasn’t happy that Gaga “stuck our craziness in the face” with her “Catholic artwork” or her “lazy” vocals, which together caused the reviewer to “reach for the (fast-forward) button.”

But Gaga’s blood-soaked body suit was more than just a gimmick – it was a sign of her autonomy and a critique of the institution she was performing for.

“If they wanted me to be sexy or pop, I always put an absurd spin on it that made me feel like I was still in control,” she told studio musician Nick Movshon in “Gaga: Five Foot Two,” a 2017 documentary about the artist that she also co-produced. “If I want to be sexy at the VMAs and sing about the paparazzi, I’ll do it while I bleed out and remind you what fame did to Marilyn Monroe… and what it did to Anna Nicole Smith and what it did to, yeah, you know who.” (The film’s director, Chris Moukarbel, later confirmed that the “who” was Amy Winehouse.)

“Paparazzi” was Gaga’s rebuttal to the insidious demands of the press and her fans to own – and inevitably get rid of – female stars. Chappell Roan – who has long been compared to Gaga for her own theatrical music and fashion – rose to meteoric fame this summer after her songs “HOT TO GO!” and “Good Luck, Babe!” went viral. But she has also since denounced the intrusive nature of fame after fans began asking her on the street for photos with her and finding out where her family members worked.

“People started acting like freaks,” she said on TikTok star Drew Afaulo’s podcast “The Comment Section.” “I honestly stopped everything I could do to make myself more famous.” She reiterated her stance on her Instagram and TikTok accounts, declaring, “I’m allowed to say ‘no’ to creepy behavior.” Whether Roan – who is making her VMA debut this year after being nominated for Best New Artist and PUSH Performance of the Year – will decide to make her own fashion statement remains to be seen.

Gaga not only won the Best New Artist trophy in 2009, but also two others, for Best Special Effects and Best Art Direction. In the 15 years since, she’s created countless other jaw-dropping moments, including the famous meat dress she wore the following year. But that night at the VMAs, Gaga established herself as a pop force to be reckoned with and, ironically, gave the press everything it ever wanted: a moment that would be talked about for years to come.