A Quiet End of an Era

For some of you there was a time when MTV meant Music Television. For me I caught the tail end of Music Television and the beginning of what MTV is today...lame reality TV shows.

But in that tail end of Music Television after the first few seasons of the "original" reality show The Real World and right before the explosion of reality TV both on this network and on primetime network television, there was a sort of music renaissance. MTV had just debuted their Time Square studios and were juggling around newer shows in their line-up.

When they debuted the new studio they also premiered their new afternoon show MTV Live hosted by Ananda Lewis, Carson Daly, and a random ass British guy named Toby Amies. Occasionally they would have rock music guru Matt Pinfield on as well. And then their primetime consisted of 12 Angry Viewers where they would debut new videos and have fans talk about the vids, Say What? where popular videos were played with the song's lyrics scrolling on the bottom of the screen, and a little show called Total Request where fans would call in during the day and vote on the most popular videos.

That line-up worked for some time and built both popularity and viewership, particularly in MTV Live and later on at night Total Request. The popularity culminated into the combination of the two: Total Request Live. Debuting in September 1998, Total Request Live or TRL as dubbed by Carson Daly, the show's first and primary host until 2003, played the 10 most popular videos of the day as voted by fans. It also played as another way for musicians and movie stars to promote their latest projects.

With the combination of the rising popularity of pop and boy band groups, TRL took off. For the next 5 years, TRL reached it's peak in popularity, becoming both a cultural phenomenon and an icon in and of itself. In the early years, it was the ultimate avenue for new music, and not just the pop that is normally associated with the show. All genres of music were pretty much scattered in. I remember hearing Korn and Limp Bizkit being played alongside Eminem and Britney Spears. The first time I heard "Stellar" by Incubus or "Last Resort" by Papa Roach was on TRL.

I'm not quite sure what happened after Carson Daly left, for like Carson and some of the earlier viewers, I grew up and moved on. But I can guess that the popularity of the show outside of the stars that appear on the show and the host dwindled as more and more new avenues on the internet became available for new music and videos to come out and be shared. As MySpace and YouTube gained popularity to see not just new artists but established artists, MTV again started moving away from music.

Which brings us back to my title. A quiet end of an era.

Tonight was the finale episode of Total Request Live. I just found out about it by chance, my wife still watches a couple of shows on MTV (yep, all of them reality shows). I totally forgot that TRL was still even on. At first I was kind of upset. Even though I had stopped watching the show years ago, it still brought me back to those first few years when it was the flagship of MTV and they stopped Times Square traffic for episodes.

The more and more I thought about it though, the more I realized that it had been quite some time since TRL had even had any relavence. Although all of us old schoolers complain about MTV not playing videos anymore, it's no surprise they don't play any music anymore. The current generation of youth no longer needs a television station that plays music videos. They get them online now. And now instead of new artists debuting on TV they can generate a lot of buzz online as well. MTV moved back toward reality shows as a business move to preserve the company. If no one is watching the network for videos, they had to do something.

And so the finale...although there were a lot of iconic celebs that appeared and performed on the finale and there was a crowd in Times Square, it wasn't the same. They did bring Carson Daly back, but you would think a show like that and being on for that long (ten years is a long time on a network like MTV) there would be more fanfare. But I guess that is what happens when the world changes around you.

I think TRL was on a bit longer than it should have been, which is kind of sad. And so it ends. I guess it is fitting, especially since the first few artist featured in the first few years are now in their late 20s and early 30s. Some like Britney and Christina have since been married and have kids (and in Britney's case have come full circle being divorced, mentally breaking down, and then mounting a career comeback). And some have even disappeared into obscurity (if anyone watched the finale, did you notice that Fred Durst was noticibly absent from all this? I think he's a "film director" now).

So here is my quiet goodbye...thanks TRL. In the pre-Web 2.0 days, it was the ultimate way for music fans to vote on their favorite artists and discover new music coming out. For old schoolers like me, it was an icon that I'm thankful I got to witness and watch and appreciate. I'm sure a program like it will come out eventually. I mean, hell, they first compared TRL to American Bandstand and Carson Daly to Dick Clark (I think Carson still hosts New Years on NBC, so his career is sort of paralleling except for the fact that he dropped of the face of the planet doing his late night show).

So long TRL. Thanks for the memories.