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'TRL,' R.I.P.
By Rick Porter
September 16, 12:57 PM

MTV is shutting down TRL in a couple of months, which means the "M" in the network's name, like the "E" in ESPN and the "A" in A&E, is really, really just a letter now.

This is not going to be a rant about how MTV never shows music videos anymore (at least not entirely). That long-dead horse has been beaten enough. What the news got me thinking about, though, was that the rise of TRL -- the show that foisted Carson Daly upon the nation -- pretty well coincided with the time that MTV lost me as a viewer.

Which is not to say that the rise of Britney and the Backstreet Boys and the other folks who drove the TRL engine was what drove me away. A lot of it was coincidental -- when the show became Total Request Live on Sept. 14, 1998, I was 26, which meant that I was already on the back end of the MTV demographic curve. My days of staying up to watch 120 Minutes and giggling along with Beavis and Butt-head were pretty well past me. And The Real World just never really did it for me.

Still, I watched Daria and Loveline and Sifl & Olly and generally had MTV in my regular TV rotation. But TRL's ascendancy really did signal a change: If MTV's early years were built on the backs of Michael Jackson and Duran Duran and early, poppy Madonna and countless hair-metal bands -- none of whom my R.E.M.- and Clash-loving teenage self particularly cared for -- they at least all belonged to me and my friends. The boy-band era that TRL ushered in signaled to me that perhaps it was time to go.

Not that there's anything wrong with that. MTV has always been a young person's network -- folks my age just happened to be the first young people around when it signed on in 1981. Fifteen years from now, the kids who hang on every half-verbalized thought on The Hills will probably be shaking their heads at whatever the current MTV flagship is and talking about how much cooler the channel was when they watched.

But with TRL being cancelled -- or, if you believe MTV, given a sabbatical to "catch its breath" -- the original organizing principle of MTV all but disappears. The "M" stands for music, and MTV's on-air identity (videos are still pretty prominent online, at least) will feature practically zero music-related content (oh, sorry -- I guess America's Top Pop Group sort of counts). The channel says it does plan to bring back the video- and live-music showcase FNMTV in the fall, but that's an hour a week on a channel whose motto used to be all music, all the time.

Ah well. Cue the mournful Don McLean music, or get someone to update the Buggles song: If video killed the radio star, then I guess maybe L.C. and My Super Sweet 16 killed the video star.




I don't feel one bit sorry for them. For years Rock & Roll bands have been negleted in order to blow "rap shit" up our ass. Ever since Viacom purchased MTV seems like they have an agenda to push & to hell with the ratings!!!

TigerLand

MTV is a joke now anyway,i only watch one show on there and its too gay to admit to but fuck MTV and all that reality crap. Just a shame you have to go to a rock tv station to get good classic rock from Guns N Roses,AC/DC etc unlike the old days when MTV covered all styles and even had different styled shows.

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All In Red...All In

canu

Goodbye MTV

Greven359

Maybe someday they'll go back to being musically related. I fondly remember the day I heard the freak on a leash had beaten out the backstreet boys for the number 1 spot.

joerockhead

I have not watched MTV in years. They went downhill a long time ago.

Stupid Reality shows and game shows. Blah!

It did start out good though, as said in the Rant "All Music, all the time!"

Not anymore.

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CD

They need to reboot it soon. Put back music videos on the channel, and convert MTV2 into the other shit that has nothing to do with music.

And they wonder why nobody watches the MTV Video Music Awards! Probably because they never play any videos anymore, so nobody either has seen the video or cares about it when it is up for an award!

Blah.

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mainstay

....lol....lol.

TigerLand

Trust me its gay but i'll never tell I do love the show though

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All In Red...All In

Waldo

TRUTH

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