American Music Awards’ 50th Anniversary Special: 8 Takeaways From a 2-Hour Crash Course in Pop Music History

Music has gone through a lot of changes since the American Music Awards debuted on Feb. 19, 1974, as a fan-driven alternative to the Grammy Awards. American Music Awards 50th Anniversary Special, a two-hour special that aired on Sunday, Oct. 6, captured many of those changes in smartly curated segments and fresh performances.

Fifty years is a long time, of course. Two of the three co-hosts of that first show (Roger Miller and Helen Reddy) are no longer with us, nor is the show’s creator, legendary TV producer Dick Clark. The show recently switched networks, from ABC to CBS, which aired this anniversary show and will air the next regular AMA broadcast in May.

The original plan was for the AMAs to debut on CBS with a regular best-of-the-past-year broadcast. Someone had the bright idea to first remind the audience of the AMAs’ considerable history before relaunching the show (which has been on hiatus since 2022.)

Motown legend Smokey Robinson, who was the third co-host of that first show, introduced a segment on this anniversary show. He was one of six former AMAs hosts or co-hosts to appear, along with Gloria Estefan, Jennifer Lopez, Reba McEntire, Jimmy Kimmel and Cedric the Entertainer.

The AMAs has had a far longer life than most expected – and that includes Clark himself. In December 1973, Clark was working on the first AMAs. He knew a little publicity couldn’t hurt, so he found time for an interview with Billboard’s Bob Kirsch which ran on page one of the Dec. 15, 1973 issue under the headline “ABC-TV Slates Favorite Acts’ Awards Feb. 19.”

At the end of the piece, Clark attempted to take the long view of his fledgling show and said “If this is done properly, we may have a show that will last 20 years and will finally get the general public involved in popular music awards.”

Clark underestimated the longevity of his own creation. Next year’s AMAs will be the 51st.

American Music Awards 50th Anniversary Special was produced by Dick Clark Productions.  Michael Dempsey served as executive producer.

Here are eight moments from the AMAs special in which they most effectively told the big-picture story of the vast changes in popular music in the last 50 years.

American Music Awards 50th Anniversary Special is produced by Dick Clark Productions. DCP is owned by Penske Media Eldridge, a Penske Media Corporation (PMC) subsidiary and joint venture between PMC and Eldrige. PMC is the parent company of Billboard.