During one of my recent study breaks or should I say YouTube sessions I stumbled across an episode of MTV's Total Request Live (TRL) from the early 2000s. As usual, my eyes wandered to the sidebar, where I discovered links to an assortment of music videos I remember loving when I was 12.
These videos got me thinking about music consumption and distribution. The more I considered the ways in which my own music consumption patterns have changed in recent years such as whether I watch music videos online or on TV, for instance, and how I discover new artists and songs the more certain I became that the success of YouTube and other similar websites has changed the role television plays in the music industry. After discussing these ideas with a few friends on campus, I quickly came to the conclusion that there is a striking difference between how we viewed (and, consequently, remembered) the music of our pre-teen years and how we view music videos today.
But don't get me wrong I am not saying the demand for music and music videos has in any way decreased. With the invention of YouTube which allows anyone with internet access to view virtually any music video and listen to any song free of charge more people than ever are now consuming music and music videos.
Nor am I am saying that our changed music consumption patterns prevent the discovery of breakout pop stars. In fact, success of YouTube stars such as Justin Bieber has proven the opposite to be true. Meanwhile, megastars like Lady GaGa and Rihanna demonstrate that you don't have to be discovered on the internet to make it big in the music industry today.
What I am saying is that music that is distributed and popularized on television is more likely to have a lasting impact on a generation's music memory. My parents, for example, could talk about Dick Clark's "American Bandstand" a musical variety show that aired on ABC from 1952 to 1989 for days on end.
Music consumers who came of age in the '80s, by contrast, associate the music of their youth with shows on MTV, a network that began to play music videos all day, every day during that era. As the channel gained popularity, it launched new shows like "Yo! MTV Raps" for rap and hip hop that followed a countdown format, playing the top-ranked videos in a certain genre. Even today, people from the MTV generation will usually associate LL Cool J's "I'm Bad" or Tupac's "Keep Ya Head Up" with "Yo! MTV Raps," where they probably first watched the music videos. Thus, the videos remind MTV consumers not only of certain songs and artists, but of the medium through which they once discovered and consumed popular music. I can relate this is exactly how I feel about TRL.
Because TRL played all of the top videos of the moment (and trends in popular music are constantly changing), the show had to morph all the different genres together in one countdown from the boy band explosion of *NSYNC to the pop princess reign of Britney Spears to the rap and hip-hop of Eminem and Destiny's Child.
TRL gained popularity as MTV began to play more shows that had nothing to do with music and expanded to include multiple digital cable channels. One of the only shows on MTV's main station devoted solely to showcasing music videos and live musical performances, TRL premiered new videos, introduced potential superstars, embraced one-hit wonders and debuted stars crossing over from acting to singing, such as Hilary Duff and Lindsay Lohan.
TRL also served as a vehicle for talent discovered on other popular television shows. O-Town and Danity Kane, the products of the MTV series "Making the Band," looked to TRL when promoting their singles "Liquid Dreams" and "Showstoppers." Similarly, the show helped promote singles by the contestants and winners of FOX's "American Idol," popularizing songs like Kelly Clarkson's "Since U Been Gone." Both discovered and promoted on television, these artists profited from the exposure that TRL provided for them, even if some of the bands may have ultimately floundered (Danity Kane, anyone?).
For me, pop anthems like "Since U Been Gone" trigger memories about TRL and the music scene of my early teenage years. I love reminiscing about music videos from this era and how I would eagerly anticipate watching them on TRL, the only means that was available for me to view my favorite music videos at the time.
Indeed, my nostalgia for shows like TRL which went off the air in 2008 makes me wonder if I will ever reminisce about the current internet-based music culture. Today, television is clearly losing ground in the music industry. Most countdown shows like TRL have gone off the air. Meanwhile, the few that remain are rapidly becoming obsolete as YouTube and iTunes become the primary means of music consumption. With the departure of Simon Cowell and Paula Abdul, even the ever popular "American Idol" seems to be losing its staying power.
Although new artists are still being discovered all the time, there is a notable difference between being a YouTube star and having your music video premiere on TRL.
As the internet replaces television as a vehicle for showcasing new music, I am certain that I will become less and less likely to associate popular music videos with a certain moment in time. Rather than waiting for TRL to premiere my favorite artist's new hit, I can just log on YouTube.
