Paramore, Muse Lead VMA Noms for Best Rock Video

Green Day walked away with the award for Best Rock Video at last year's MTV Video Music Awards, and today Rolling Stone can exclusively reveal who's in the running for the Moonman at the 2010 ceremony, which goes down September 12th in Los Angeles. 30 Seconds to Mars' nine-minute epic "Kings and Queens" is up against Muse's post-apocalyptic nightmare "Uprising," MGMT's British-culture tribute "Flash Delirium," Paramore's nightmarish "Ignorance" and Florence and the Machine's arty "Dog Days Are Over." British pop star Florence also scored nominations for Video of the Year, Best Art Direction and Best Cinematography. To gear up for this year's VMAs, check out clips of the nominees below and leave your pick for the winner in the comments:

Look back at the '09 VMAs' most memorable moments, from the Michael Jackson tribute to Kanye's stage invasion.

30 Seconds to Mars' "Kings and Queens"

Muse's "Uprising"

MGMT's "Flash Delirium"

Paramore's "Ignorance"

Florence and the Machine's "Dog Days Are Over"

• 
  MUSIC Exclusive Live Chat With Linkin Park and Incubus
• 
  MOVIES & TV Peter Travers: 'The Avengers' Has it All
• 
  POLITICS Matt Taibbi: Jon Corzine Is the Original Zimmerman
• 
  VIDEOS Exclusive Premiere: Tenacious D's 'Tinnitus'

Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

More Song Stories entries »

Twitter