Puff Daddy replaced Pagliacci and the Backstreet Boys elbowed out ``La Boheme'' as pop music's annual excuse for excess, the MTV Video Awards, invaded the Metropolitan Opera House on Thursday.
Comedian Chris Rock, dressed as Rigoletto from the Verdi opera in a huge poster in the lobby but all in white on stage, was the host.
"I may be the first black man in history to take the stage of the Met without a mop,'' Rock quipped.
It's the program where awards are less remembered than wardrobes or attempts to shock the censor. For the record, the rock band Korn had nine nominations, while Ricky Martin, TLC and Will Smith each had six.
After Rock poked fun at white rappers, Kid Rock offered raucous history lesson of the rock-rap collaboration by performing with members of Run-DMC and Aerosmith.
Martin invited his choreographer onstage to celebrate his best dance video award for "Livin' La Vida Loca.'' Leather-clad TLC members slapped hands with the audience before picking up a trophy for "No Scrubs.''
With the award ceremony's usual home, Radio City Music Hall, under renovation, MTV went uptown for a new venue this year. The clash between high and low culture gave producers a rich vein of material.
In the venerable hall's lobby, the display cases stuffed with opera costumes were cleaned out in favor of moments from MTV's past: the hip-hugger pants Madonna wore to the 1995 video awards, Busta Rhymes' red crushed velvet ensemble from his appearance at the podium with Martha Stewart two years ago.
Dressed in gowns, a chorale group opened the show with an a capella version of Kid Rock's "Bawitdaba.''
Martin, Britney Spears and the Backstreet Boys were featured prominently in the nominations, as MTV reflected pop music's embrace of Latin rhythms and perky teen-age pop.
Korn's ``Freak on a Leash'' video, with its depiction of an animated bullet moving in slow motion through several scenes, was perhaps the most arresting image in a year of slickly produced music clips.
It competed for video of the year with Martin's ``Livin' La Vida Loca,'' the Backstreet Boys' ``I Want It That Way,'' Lauryn Hill's ``Doo Wop (That Thing)'' and Smith's ``Wild Wild West.''
