Meow TAYLOR SWIFT

The 2014 VMAs are in the books, but perhaps overlooked amid all the hoopla is an incident that occurred five years ago at the very same ceremony–and may have had a bigger impact on the popular culture of the past half decade than anything that occurred last night. Taylor Swift and Kanye West’s controversial moment at the 2009 VMAs has been replayed, rehashed and parodied more than many of both artists’ songs. The words “I’mma let you finish” still conjure images of the scene: West storming the stage moments after Swift won the award for Best Female Video, then snatching the microphone from the startled starlet and launching into a tirade about why Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies” deserved the honor. For West, the fallout was swift as Taylor. After being booed off the stage by many fellow artists in the crowd, the rest of the world started weighing in, from Perez Hilton all the way up to Barack Obama, who called West a “jackass” in what he thought was an off-the-record moment with a reporter West apologized for his actions multiple times, even doing so on air with Jay Leno, saying he was “ashamed” of what he’d done. But it wasn’t enough: the comments kept coming from all angles, and Donald Trump went as far as to call for a boycott of all things Kanye. A month later, West cancelled a tour he’d planned with Lady Gaga as rumors of poor ticket sales swirled. Though observers almost unanimously agreed that West was out of line at the VMAs, quite a few (this writer included) came to believe that reaction against him in the weeks that followed was disproportionate. Some, perhaps West himself, believed his career had been damaged irreparably and was possibly over, a punishment far too dire for his actions (the motives behind those overreactions could be a topic of another article, if not an entire book). Half a decade later, though West is arguably the biggest male musical superstar in the world; a case can also be made for Taylor Swift on the female side. And the incident that intertwined their destiny may have helped push both artists to greater artistic and financial heights over the past five years. The numbers tell the tale. In 2009, just a few months before the VMAs, the 19-year-old Swift made her debut at No. 69 on the Forbes Celeb 100 power list with earnings of $18 million. West ranked No. 46 with $25 million. In the aftermath of the incident, however, Swift cemented her status as a mainstream celebrity, rocketing to No. 12 with $45 million in 2010. West fell off the list entirely as his earnings plummeted to $12 million (Swift has remained in the top 20 every year since, and her earnings have risen steadily to this year’s peak of $64 million). Meanwhile, West went into a brief pop culture exile. The reaction to his antics had made him more determined than ever to create brilliant music, and he re-emerged a little over a year later with My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Many believe the operatic album to be his best—and perhaps one of the bes