The MTV Video Music Award for Breakthrough Video was first awarded in 1988, replacing the award for Most Experimental Video. Along with Best Direction in a Video, this award was considered to be one of the most important professional categories at the VMAs, as every once in a while it was even presented during the main show (unlike most technical awards which were presented during the pre-show). The award for Breakthrough Video was given out every year from 1988 to 2005, after which it was retired. In 2009, however, MTV decided to bring back this category and continued to present it until 2011, when it was retired again.

R.E.M. R.E.M. was an American rock band from Athens, Georgia, formed in 1980 by drummer Bill Berry, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills, and lead vocalist Michael Stipe, who were students at the University of Georgia. One of the first alternati ...

and

Fatboy Slim Norman Quentin Cook (born Quentin Leo Cook, 31 July 1963), also known by his stage name Fatboy Slim, is an English musician, DJ, and record producer who helped to popularise the big beat genre in the 1990s. In the 1980s, Cook was the bassist f ...

are the two biggest winners of this award, as they each have won it twice.

Art of Noise Art of Noise (also The Art of Noise) were an English avant-garde synth-pop group formed in early 1983 by engineer/producer Gary Langan and programmer J. J. Jeczalik, along with keyboardist/arranger Anne Dudley, producer Trevor Horn, and music ...

, meanwhile, is the only artist or group to have won this award under its two incarnations: Most Experimental Video in 1985 and Breakthrough Video in 1989.

Recipients

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mtv Video Music Award - Breakthrough Video MTV Video Music Awards Awards established in 1988 Awards disestablished in 2010