Spring Break
MTV says 'so long' to 'Total Request Live'
Justin Pacheco
Issue date: 10/7/08 Section: Entertainment
10/07/08 - "Total Request Live" is being cancelled by MTV and the final episode is scheduled to air Nov. 8.
"TRL" was a huge part of middle school life for me and probably many other people my age. I can remember coming home from school to watch it with my sister. We came to view the show as a competition between our musical tastes. Each episode would be an epic match-up of our current musical idols.
She had her boy bands and pop stars like 'N SYNC, The Backstreet Boys, and Christina Aguilera.
I had my pop-punk bands like Sum-41, blink-182, and Green Day, as well as a brief obsession with Alien Ant Farm and a regrettable one with Puddle of Mudd.
We both had mostly negative reactions to any rap intruding on the countdown and disrupting our musical battleground, although we both liked Eminem's "funny songs" like "My Name Is" and "The Real Slim Shady."
I don't remember her reaction to the unstoppable force that was Tom Green's "The Bum Bum Song," but I remember finding it incredible funny. Granted, this was also a time in my life when I thought The Bloodhound Gang were comedic geniuses.
"The Bum Bum Song" is still the only song to be given an early retirement from the countdown, with Tom Green pulling it because, as he said, "it's not fair to 98 Degrees."
TRL: Where Tom Green defers to 98 Degrees out of respect for their artistic credibility.
Of course, no one can talk about "TRL" without mentioning about Carson Daly. While artists like Lou Bega and Sisqo came and went, Daly was always there. (Until he left of course, but I stopped watching before that).
When I watched the show regularly and with a perverse intensity, I remember thinking that Daly was a tool. I viewed him as a boring stiff who was relentlessly fake.
Now that I'm older, and arguably more mature, I can definitely see that the opposite was true. Daly was the only real thing about the show. The bands were fake. The screaming crowds were fake. The votes were fake. The show wasn't even live. Also, Santa Claus isn't real and there is no tooth fairy.
"TRL" was a huge part of middle school life for me and probably many other people my age. I can remember coming home from school to watch it with my sister. We came to view the show as a competition between our musical tastes. Each episode would be an epic match-up of our current musical idols.
She had her boy bands and pop stars like 'N SYNC, The Backstreet Boys, and Christina Aguilera.
I had my pop-punk bands like Sum-41, blink-182, and Green Day, as well as a brief obsession with Alien Ant Farm and a regrettable one with Puddle of Mudd.
We both had mostly negative reactions to any rap intruding on the countdown and disrupting our musical battleground, although we both liked Eminem's "funny songs" like "My Name Is" and "The Real Slim Shady."
I don't remember her reaction to the unstoppable force that was Tom Green's "The Bum Bum Song," but I remember finding it incredible funny. Granted, this was also a time in my life when I thought The Bloodhound Gang were comedic geniuses.
"The Bum Bum Song" is still the only song to be given an early retirement from the countdown, with Tom Green pulling it because, as he said, "it's not fair to 98 Degrees."
TRL: Where Tom Green defers to 98 Degrees out of respect for their artistic credibility.
Of course, no one can talk about "TRL" without mentioning about Carson Daly. While artists like Lou Bega and Sisqo came and went, Daly was always there. (Until he left of course, but I stopped watching before that).
When I watched the show regularly and with a perverse intensity, I remember thinking that Daly was a tool. I viewed him as a boring stiff who was relentlessly fake.
Now that I'm older, and arguably more mature, I can definitely see that the opposite was true. Daly was the only real thing about the show. The bands were fake. The screaming crowds were fake. The votes were fake. The show wasn't even live. Also, Santa Claus isn't real and there is no tooth fairy.
