The biggest scan­dal of last night’s MTV Video Music Awards was the Kanye West/Taylor Swift con­tro­versy. Madonna’s open­ing trib­ute to Michael Jack­son, and Janet’s live per­for­mance, were arguably the most “his­toric” moments of the show. But it was Lady Gaga’s num­ber, and her mul­ti­ple out­fit changes — not to men­tion her Best New Artist accep­tance speech, where she ded­i­cated her award to “God and the gays” — that we con­sid­ered the most enter­tain­ing parts of the evening. (Sorry Jay-Z. Show­ing up in a town car five min­utes before you per­form and hav­ing the cam­eras fol­low as you slowly walk the halls of Radio City Music Hall can’t match the drama of a dan­gling Gaga cov­ered in faux blood.) After the jump, we decode the pop cul­ture ref­er­ences secretly lurk­ing in her sar­to­r­ial choices.

Images via Lady Gaga’s 2009 VMA Looks

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