Last year's top MTV Video Music Award winner, for example, was the eclectic, hard-to-pigeonhole Beck, who took home five of the cable channel's odd-looking silver-astronaut trophies.

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Neither Harris nor Rihanna were present to claim the award, which is given to the best individual music video.

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This Sunday MTV will air the 2011 Video Music Awards (aka the VMAs) live, marking 27 years of a successful annual award show.

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