Well, it's finally happened. MTV now contains no music television.
TRL was officially cancelled. Let's be honest, we all saw it coming. The D-list, Nick Lachey-dating VJ's. The teenage audience screaming with slightly fewer decibels. The lack of stars guesting to pimp their latest album, movie or album-movie tie-in. But mostly: the total lack of viewership.
TRL started a bit before my time (I didn't even have cable until two years ago), but as a music buff I've always been aware of it's cultural significance when it began. It became a vehicle for showcasing the latest videos, and with teens having the ability to vote for their favorites it seemed like the perfect junction of music and democracy.
With the interweb however, TRL's services have become unnecessary and old-fashioned. Why wait to see if your Chris Brown's "Forever" video will be number one if you can just watch it five times on YouTube?
For a network that tauted itself as music television, it's ironic that it hosts fewer music-themed shows than even Fox. Even VH1 compiles 5-hour marathons of "The Best Songs of the 90's!" to take up unused time blocks. MTV just airs a stale season of America's Next Top Model in its entirety.
It's a damn shame that TRL has died. I admit, I was never an avid fan (I never found that it spoke to my music taste), but I always appreciated what it represented: music as a cultural focal- and talking-point.
R.I.P.
P.S. Will MTV now just be referred to as...TV??
