TRL: The Final Countdown

by stephanie ~ September 19, 2008

I am, and probably always will be, a teenybopper.  My iPod continues to blast ‘N Sync, Britney Spears, and the Backstreet Boys.  When I heard MTV’s classic video countdown show, TRL, is coming to an end this November, I was surprised and almost sad.

TRL has been on air for 10 years, dramatically influencing the careers of many pop stars.  New York City was nearly declared to be in a state of emergency during a visit by the Backstreet Boys at the peak of their success.  TRL was critical in the late 90s-early 2000s music scene.

When I think of TRL, I think of the days when my classmates and I would rush home to see who was number one: Eminem or Britney?  Ricky Martin or Limp Bizkit?  When new videos premiered on the show, teens would actually go to a store to buy the CD.

Nowadays, CDs are rarely used for music purposes.  Music videos are almost unnecessary- they are no longer the primary means of promotion for an artist.  With music videos costing so much to produce, I’m not sure why they are even made anymore.

At first, I wondered what this news would mean to the music industry.  If the year was still 2000, then I think it would cause an uproar.  But today, the show has become less about the videos and more about the audience.  James Montgomery noted that TRL was not only the first show that made the audience the stars of the show, but it was also “YouTube before YouTube ever existed.” 

With YouTube, people can watch the music videos instantly.  Who wants to wait around hoping that their video made the cut, just to catch a 30-second clip?  Clearly, not too many in the instant-gratification kind of world we live in today.

EW.com/Popwatch Blog: “Does this mean Internet officially killed the video star?”

More on TRL’s Ending:  The Legacy of ‘TRL,’ In Bigger Than The Sound

Stephanie Jones is an intern at Mediashop PR.  A student at Fordham University, Stephanie is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in communications and media studies.