The 2013 MTV Video Music Awards have come and gone, and like every year, viewers of the now 30-year-old awards ceremony were left with plenty to talk about. Much like past years, this year’s VMAs combined musical performances from award contenders who maintain a more professional and “respectable” image with those a bit more – or a lot more – shocking, from artists who’ve long cultivated risqué reputations, and also those who are making an effort to shed their old, more child-appropriate, images.

Never known for innocence and restraint, Lady GaGa opened the show, performing her latest release, the song “Applause,” complete with numerous costume and hairdo changes throughout. This year, she wore no dresses made of meat, but she did turn her sex appeal to its highest setting, ending her performance wearing a seashell thong and hair extensions in her most recent hair color, blonde. As expected, the crowd hooted and hollered their approval, and gave thunderous applause to her performance. Little did they know the levels the show would later hit – or sink to – depending on one’s perspective of the night’s events.

Honored Timberlake

As the night unfolded, fan favorites Taylor Swift and One Direction, among others, picked up awards for their efforts during the previous year, as did Justin Timberlake, winner of the Video Vanguard and Video of the Year awards, the latter of which was received for the song ‘Mirrors,’ which Timberlake said he considers to be an homage to his grandmother and grandfather. Timberlake also provided attendees and viewers with 20 solid minutes of musical performance on stage, which included some of his top hits from past years, including ‘Sexy Back,’ and ‘Cry Me a River,’ as well as a brief moment in which he reunited on stage with fellow members of the boy band with which he began his career, N’Sync.

Sexy Cyrus

The most talked-about moment of the night, however, did not come from Justin Timberlake, or Lady GaGa, or even Bruno Mars, who added sizzling male sexiness to the night that rivaled that provided by Timberlake. Instead, the honor of making tongues wag the most was claimed by Miley Cyrus, who was clearly trying to leave the innocence of her Hannah Montana character behind, once and for all.

Cyrus took to the stage for her performance dressed in a fuzzy gray leotard and surrounded by dancers wearing backpacks that gave them the appearance of large teddy bears. As her hit single ‘We Can’t Stop,’ played, Cyrus gyrated her body and twerked with enough energy to leave fans’ twerking needs satisfied until the 2014 VMA awards, but she was by no means done yet. As the song concluded, Cyrus stripped off her leotard to reveal a tight, flesh-colored vinyl bra and panties, and then began performing ‘Blurred Lines,’ with singer Robin Thicke, who looked a bit surprised himself as she amazed the audience with the sexuality and suggestiveness of her moves, including a few crotch grabs and use of a foam finger in ways not normally seen with such an item, and never before associated with the girl who once was Hannah Montana.

Lively Perry

Though not as risqué, Katy Perry, another beautiful favorite of pop music fans, took to the stage to close out the show, with a lively performance of her newest song, ‘Roar,’ which she did not in the auditorium, but instead performed underneath the Brooklyn Bridge, in a boxing ring built for the night’s events. By the end of the show it was clear to everyone watching the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards had made their mark, and solidified themselves in everyone’s memories of the evening.