Green Day, who arrived at the venue in the vintage green convertible from their gritty Boulevard of Broken Dreams video, won best rock video and video of the year for the clip -- two of their leading eight nominations. They also won the viewer's choice award, best group and several technical categories, losing only to Gwen Stefani's What You Waiting For? for art direction.

In recent years, hip-hop and pop have dominated the show, especially in the major categories. Not this year: My Chemical Romance and Coldplay were among the showcase performances, and Kanye West was the only rapper to win an "all-genre" award, with his Jesus Walks taking best male video.

"It's great to know that rock music still has a place at MTV," said Green Day lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong.

The Killers won for best new artist. Fall Out Boy won the MTV2 award for their song Sugar, We're Going Down, beating out artists like Mike Jones, My Chemical Romance and reggaeton star Daddy Yankee.

The first American Idol Kelly Clarkson's Since U Been Gone won two awards, for best female and pop video. Also winning two awards were Missy Elliott, the Gorillaz and Gwen Stefani.