Total Request Live: A Decade Of Memorable Moments
I’m sure by now most of you have seen the VH1 documentary, The TRL Decade, but if not, seriously, what are you waiting for?! After watching it for about the fifth time, I started to reminisce about all of the good memories TRL gave me and millions of others out there. For instance, I first discovered Michelle Branch on TRL in the summer of 2001. Michelle’s music has pretty much changed my life in the way I view music and without TRL, I might not have discovered her. Back before we had Twitter, Facebook and most music sites, TRL was THE place to promote your band or movie. If you wanted to know a release date for an upcoming album, TRL was the place for that. If you wanted to see behind the scenes footage of a movie or music video, TRL was the source of all action. It was the start of an age and it changed the way teens listened to and bought music. Now this is just my opinion but after Carson Daly left, the show started to gradually lose its realness. (No disrespect to Damien Fahey, of course; such a good dude.) For instance, in 2007 I finally got the chance to experience a live taping of the show. First of all, let’s just say it wasn’t live and we learned that it would air the next day. That was kind of a major blow. Second, when people in the audience were picked to be part of a segment with one of the celebrity guests, MTV employees prepared them for what they were supposed to say. Remember back when TRL wasn’t perfect and whatever kids said on the air was what you saw on live TV? Yeah, it wasn’t like that anymore. That phony atmosphere really disappointed me and needless to say, I left there unimpressed and nostalgic for the old TRL from 1998-2002. The rest was all a blur to me.
One thing I always enjoyed was the battle between the boy bands and the rock bands, Personally, I appreciated both. Back then, if I admitted that out loud to a crowd of Limp Bizkit and KoRn fans, I’d probably would of had life threatening injuries. Nowadays, I think the boundaries between pop, rock, and rap have been banished in the sense that it is more accepted than it was twelve years ago. Linkin Park collaborated with Jay-Z, Kanye West with Bon Iver, and who can forget the NSYNC and Nelly collaboration? Maybe I’m just biased and a bit delusional but I think TRL played a major part in all of that. Even though it wasn’t exactly cool at the time to be merging all of those artists together, TRL did it anyway and they got away with it! Plus I thought it was kind of amusing to see a sweet Britney Spears dancing all happily along the beach then go straight into Limp Bizkit’s “Nookie” video.
There’s no doubt about it: TRL was a huge platform for so many stars and a safe haven for kids of my generation. I couldn’t wait to come home from school and turn on MTV. I pity the new generation of kids that don’t have TRL in their lives. Now, when they turn on MTV, they see the monstrosity that is Jersey Shore, hipster fools in I Just Want My Pants Back, and an overwhelming amount of teenage mothers. MTV has been transformed into what I like to call “Moronic Television” and it’s quite disheartening to see it go downhill like this. I honestly don’t think TRL would survive in this day and age of technology but I’ll always remember TRL the way it was.
Oh and here’s just a little more of my opinion thrown at you. Who the hell came up with the idea to put a friggin’ store in the place of the studio?! Are they insane? Don’t they know and understand all of the history that was made in there?! The first time I saw that my jaw literally dropped and I said “What the f$@% is THAT?!” out loud in Times Square! Let’s just say that I’ll never be okay with that, and whoever gave the thumbs up to put a clothing store there, I’m looking for you. *evil Tiffany stare* I guess the place where Carson used to stand is now occupied by hoodies and jeans. Things like this make me shake my head.
What is your favorite TRL moment?
