Rest In Peace, Total Request Live Wherever You Are

RIP

Here Lies TRL

1998-2008

Ah...remember the days? Running home from school to catch the debut of a fresh TRL? 10 songs that mostly stayed the same for weeks at a time, but nonetheless must be seen in order to stay up to date with those long lunchtable discussions. I myself have some nostalgic memmories of the show. I remember seeing Kid Rock's debut of "Bawitdaba," Eminem's mooning of times square and of course Tom Green's video which glorified all the things his "bum" has been on.

The first video I ever saw was Blink 182's "What's My Age Again," I had a friend who wore a red New York Yanakees hat a la Fred Durst and I remember being forbidden from watching The Bloodhound Gang's "The Bad Touch" as lame as that might be in retrospect. I will even cop to owning Sisqo's "Year of the Dragon" and the Eiffel 65 album that featured "Blue," both no doubt influenced by MTV and its best three letter show TRL.

After 10 years though MTV has decided to scrap the once venerable franchise. MTV is planning a final send off for the show slated for November and it is reported that many of the show's original stars such Eminem, 'N Sync, will attend. Also there will be Carson Daly himself, the loveable everyman who was just bland enough not to offend anyone and who might just have been the glue that held the entire show together. With his happy to be there appearance he never seemed to take his job too seriously, something that other hosts struggled with. And most importantly with all those stars, it is likely that the hordes of young girls with homemade signs that once crowded Times Square will return as if returning from a migration south.

So just what happened to the staple of our MTV viewing youth? It seems in the Youtube era, no one wants to watch 30 seconds of the same video for 60 some odd days. But while this may seem as an advantage, think about what is lost in the process.

What kind of healthy male bonding can take place without the shared experience of being exposed to sensual videos like "Baby One More Time" and my personal favorite "Genie in a Bottle." Some of my first comments to girls were over my anger that the Backstreet Boys and 'N Syncs dominance of the charts. Certaintly any sense of a mass cultural consciousness will be lost in the process. The aility to all be able to look back and collectively ask "why the hell did we all think any of it was cool?"