What a nine years it’s been: At the 2014 VMAs, Taylor Swift didn’t even know she was going to enter a whole new era, pun intended, by rerecording the song she performed here (“Shake It Off”) as part of an avalanche of empowerment. Miley had broken off her first engagement to Liam Hemsworth and was a few years away from her second, Kim had just married Kanye, and Blake Shelton wasn’t even a glint in Gwen Stefani’s eye. Amanza Smith didn’t know she was going to turn up on a real-estate-based reality show. Oh, the things I could TELL these people, if I had a time machine.
