The Return on TRL
Yesterday, Monday, October 2nd, MTV brought back one of the shows that really defined millennial's adolescent years, Total Request Live most popularly known as TRL.
The fan-inclusive show is hosted by DC Young Fly and Tamara Dhia and the special co-host DJ Khaled. I'm not sure if Khaled is a permanent host but he definitely made sure his presence was known.
They opened the show in a somber mood giving their condolences to the victims of the Las Vegas shooting, which was nice and appropriate. {If you want to know how you can help end gun violence visit http://everytown.org/act}
Next they went on with the live show. The hosts were introduced in Times Square with a little dance party and then they dropped the Times Square New Year's Eve ball, which only happens on New Year's Eve. So that was a little epic, but for me that's where the hype ended.
Migos gave a live performance of their new single, "To Hotty", but they had to bleep out, literally with the bleeping noise, a lot of the lyrics. To me that was a little tacky but I guess in a live show they can't take any chances, especially on the season opener.
They then entered the iconic TRL studio with the live audience, who were LIT, which made it feel like old TRL. There were some awkward moments and transitions and a lot of words of wisdom or as they called it "Major Key Motivation" from Khaled, which was cool until it was like okay you just said that same thing.
The next guest they had was Ed Sheeran, who admitted that he never watched the show in England, but was excited to be on the comeback season. DC Young Fly interviewed Sheeran and he seemed a little nervous, which is understandable because this is a new position for him but even Sheeran said that he was doing a good job. Sheerab blessed up 2 fans with tickets to his North American tour next year and also performed 2 songs.
Migos and Lili Reinhart, star of Riverdale, came up for interviews and they kept checking in on the outside crowd, like the original TRL.
But the one thing that they DID NOT have that makes me not care to watch it or record it is they had NO music video countdown. WTF MUSIC Television (MTV)?! How are you going to bring back Total Request Live with no requests whatsoever. They did some weak shit where they asked you to hit up their social media about songs you want to hear and then they will play them on Friday. But the whole reason TRL was so successful in the first place was because artists got to engage with their fans and show off the hard work they put into making a music video so it could be in that number one spot.
They have the fan interaction down and the live performances but without the videos it doesn't really feel like TRL. I'll watch a few more episodes to see how it goes, but if there is no real requesting then I'm good. Maybe i'm not the target audience anymore, but I do appreciate them trying to somewhat bring the music back.