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Post by Naos on Jul 31, 2017 17:17:16 GMT -5
"On a recent Wednesday afternoon, Chris McCarthy, the newish president of MTV, was standing at a corner of 44th Street and Broadway and gazing up at the second floor of Viacom’s Manhattan headquarters.
“When you came into Times Square, you would say, ‘Let’s go to MTV,’” he said, recalling a better time when MTV was, well, relevant.
Mr. McCarthy, 42, was looking at the space that used to house “Total Request Live,” the MTV afternoon show from 1998 to 2008 that helped make the host, Carson Daly, a star and was a must-stop destination for musicians, Times Square gawkers and advertisers eager to reach a young audience.
That was then. Ratings at MTV in the last five years have nose-dived, turnaround strategies have failed and the cable network’s parent company, Viacom, has watched its stock go into free fall.
So, what’s a media executive to do?
Apparently, bring back “TRL.”
Mr. McCarthy said “TRL” would return in October, and a massive studio facing Times Square was under construction in the hope of capturing the old magic.
“If we’re going to come back and reinvent MTV, the studio is a given,” he said. “It is the centerpiece.”
It is also the centerpiece in what Mr. McCarthy believes is the beginning of MTV’s comeback. Though many observers say that is a long shot, there have been encouraging signs in recent weeks.
Ratings for MTV’s core audience — 18- to 34-year-olds — went up in June and July, the first time the network has experienced back-to-back months of ratings growth in four years."
Source: New York Times
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Kishi KCM
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Post by Kishi KCM on Jul 31, 2017 21:40:31 GMT -5
OMG bring it on, this is bucket list goals!
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Post by JOJO SIWA DERANGEMENT SYNDROME on Aug 3, 2017 19:48:17 GMT -5
How Can MTV Make Their New 'Total Request Live' a Hit?
8/3/2017 by Andrew Unterberger
MTV has recaptured the news cycle this week, if nothing else, with the announcement that they will officially be reviving their marquee turn-of-the-century music video countdown, Total Request Live. The announcement was received with a great deal of enthusiasm and an equal amount of public skepticism -- could MTV really hope to recapture the excitement the show generated in the late '90s nearly 20 years later?
Probably not: TRL was a product of its times, as much as its times ultimately came to be a product of TRL. There's no going back to televised pop's monocultural pre-millennial impact, when teens rushed home after school to vote on and watch their favorite videos because it was the most reliable, accessible form of mass entertainment out there. As plenty of other articles have already pointed out, MTV's most formidable opponent at the moment isn't VH1 or other music and/or youth-oriented TV, it's Twitter, Instagram, Music.ly and YouTube -- and those all have a pretty big head start on whatever TRL 2.0 ends up being.
But that's not to say the program can't succeed. To a certain extent, the music-video request show is the closest thing MTV has to an evergreen format -- it existed in the decade before TRL through such proto-programming as Dial MTV and Hangin' With MTV. TRL best nailed the formula, with the right energy, the right host and at the right pop backdrop, but most of its lessons can still apply, even in a different cultural and musical context. Here's some things we'd have the show focus on to allow it to best thrive.
1. Find its teen-pop core.
Total Request Live might've been based out of MTV's Times Square studio in the late '90s, but its heart truly lay in Orlando and Disney. Without the boy band explosion -- percolating before TRL, but absolutely unavoidable afterwards -- and the ensuing surfeit of pop megastars graduating from The Mickey Mouse Club, TRL could never have had the generational impact that it did.
The boy bands might not exist in the same way in 2017 -- though with a new crop of groups like Why Don't We, Pretty Much and CNCO really starting to sprout, it might soon enough. But regardless, there's five separate solo 1Ders making relatively vital pop music, Jake and Logan Paul about to cross over from YouTube to top 40, both Fifth Harmony and solo Camila Cabello, and a quaking world of K-pop (BTS, Bigbang, T-Ara) that's just a song away from erupting onto the pop charts. (Not to mention the now-23-years-old reigning king of teen-pop, once he decides he's ready again for the spotlight.)
There's more than enough for TRL to build around here -- and if it's smart, it'll do so from the beginning, featuring these artists as front-and-center as possible, making the show inextricable viewing to the artists' rabid fanbases.
2. Find its anti-teen-pop core.
Those who lived through the times will undoubtedly recall that it wasn't just the boy bands that made the TRL era so singular. As much as the program was dominated by Backstreet, Britney and *NSYNC, it also had to make room for KoRn, Limp Bizkit, Kid Rock and other rap-rock acts who represented pop's counter-strain at the time. When you watched TRL, you didn't just watch to see if "Tearin' Up My Heart" or "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)" was gonna reign supreme, you wanted to see if "Got the Life" was ever gonna make it higher than No. 3. The marquee fight was between the boy bands, but the undercard was between them and the nu-metalers.
Now, nu-metal probably isn't coming back in 2017, and largely for good reason: Some of those videos were great, but many were unapolgetically piggish, and the oversimplified pop vs. metal fight of those days ended up split among gender and other binary lines that thankfully don't exist in quite the same way in 2017. (Neither, for that matter, does mainstream hard rock -- at least not in such a manner, for such a young audience.) Today, the anti-pop would probably come from the hip-hop world, with boundary-pushing (and oft-controversial) young rappers like Lil Uzi Vert, 21 Savage and XXXTentacion.
They don't have to exist in explicit opposition to the Zayns and Camilas of the world, but they have to provide some kind of edgier undercurrent, something to feel a little risky to the older teens -- or something they can use to piss off their younger siblings, anyway.
3. Bring back video premeires.
The days of kids watching MTV for hours on end in the hopes of catching their favorite video are long gone, obviously. But seeing a video for the first time, when it's only available in one place at one moment? That still has currency. Teens will still tune in to Beats 1 when they know Zane Lowe's gonna premiere a new Lorde song, and they'll tune in to MTV if they know the modern-day Carson Daly will debut a new Lorde video.
Doesn't have to solely be music videos, either: exclusive live content works, teasers work, album and tour announcements -- anything that MTV can tweet out an hour ahead of time and say We Have This and No One Else Does. But music videos should obviously be the crux: They don't have the importance or the budget that they did 20 years ago, but when done right (as artists like Selena Gomez, Charli XCX and Kendrick Lamar have proven this year), they can still be as buzzworthy as anything. Hell, with a platform like TRL back around, maybe it'll even inspire everyone to try harder again.
4. Emphasize the "Live" as much as possible.
Again, as important as the videos are to the TRL brand, they can't be the only draw in 2017 -- there has to be an emphasis on the studio, on the fans in attendance, and on the potential for a viral moment to capture the Internet for the rest of the day. Guest appearances will be important, no doubt, but so will an air of general unpredictability: Games, contests, and potentially dumb "Why not?" experiments that have a strong possibility of falling flat on their face will all be crucial.
Much of it will depend on the chemistry between the hosts -- a rotating cast of five has already been announced -- but it'll also just be on the producers to never let the show get too comfortable, lest it turn into rote video content any kid can program for themselves in 2017.
5. Find a skeptic voice for balance.
Part of the reason Carson Daly worked as the host of the original Total Request Live was that though he was preppy-looking enough to convincingly mingle with the era's biggest stars -- and big enough of one himself to date then-It Girl Jennifer Love Hewitt -- he always seemed like he thought himself a little bit above it all, a subtle air of superiority that carried over to his eventual Voice and late-night hosting gigs. It made sense, because TRL was a show of such fundamental over-enthusiasm that a host of similar exuberance would've made for certain overkill and exhaustion. You needed Daly there to confirm that no, in fact, the battle between 5ive and Jennifer Paige for that day's supremacy was not going to end up swinging the entire national economy.
With five hosts scheduled to split hosting duties for the new TRL, it's certainly not likely that all or even most will be able to play the voice of skepticism for the show -- it's not the obvious route to go for MTV, and Daly's brand of underplayed smugness made more sense in the '90s than it likely would today. But all you really need is one: One host to give the show the touch of the outsider, to play a part in the world of pop popularity contests but not inextricably of it. It'll go a long way to make the show accessible to those kids who are in love with pop music, but whose personality finds them naturally drifting a little further to its fringes. Get those young fans in the fold, as well as the true believers, and there's no reason the show can't become a major part of this pop era.
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Green Baron
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Post by Green Baron on Aug 3, 2017 19:54:01 GMT -5
If TRL makes alt/rock big again I will forgive it for all its sins
Avenged Sevenfold, My Chemical Romance and Green Day had TRL #1s. I don't know who their equivalents are today in terms of gateway alternative bands, but it could happen.
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BDGeek
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Post by BDGeek on Aug 4, 2017 23:42:35 GMT -5
MTV's most formidable opponent at the moment isn't VH1 or other music and/or youth-oriented TV, it's Twitter, Instagram, Music.ly and YouTube I have literally never heard of this until today. |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 4, 2017 23:50:37 GMT -5
MTV's most formidable opponent at the moment isn't VH1 or other music and/or youth-oriented TV, it's Twitter, Instagram, Music.ly and YouTube I have literally never heard of this until today. That is actually a really good thing, spare yourself from it. |
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Post by JOJO SIWA DERANGEMENT SYNDROME on Aug 5, 2017 1:17:24 GMT -5
MTV's most formidable opponent at the moment isn't VH1 or other music and/or youth-oriented TV, it's Twitter, Instagram, Music.ly and YouTube I have literally never heard of this until today. Neither had I and I usually know about these sorts of things even if I never use them. I am FB friends with a number of people from the Dance music industry and when I posted this article, most asked that question too. |
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Enigma.
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Post by Enigma. on Aug 5, 2017 3:43:28 GMT -5
This has potential, because if it's a daily thing that's LIVE on several channels, it's bound to have some impact if marketed properly. And I believe the videos were never the biggest thing on TRL, they were just the platform to everything else.
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Post by The Brazilian Guy 🇧🇷 on Aug 5, 2017 10:27:41 GMT -5
TRL was such an iconic show that I'm actually rooting for this to work out... it would be fun to have the show going back to Times Square. I remember my first NYC visit, going to the MTV Store and having to find a way to get past all the screaming girls LOL
If only the U.K. could use this as an idea to revive Top of the Pops
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mkarns
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Post by mkarns on Aug 5, 2017 10:33:57 GMT -5
Meh; if MTV wants more musical programming (i.e. rediscovering why the channel exists in the first place), I'd rather that they revive their shows and formats from the 80s and earlier 90s, updated with and to accommodate current music of course.
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EvanJ
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Post by EvanJ on Aug 6, 2017 9:27:31 GMT -5
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YourFaveIsAFlop
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Post by YourFaveIsAFlop on Aug 7, 2017 6:47:35 GMT -5
Trl only worked because it was the only game in town. I don't see how they could bring it back in a format like the original and hope it will work. I don't need to rush home at 3:30 to see that new video I love. I can stream it from my phone on the bus
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Post by Deleted on Aug 7, 2017 9:38:10 GMT -5
TRL brought the celebs tho. That and the 'you never know what could happen' aura are what boosted it far beyond a mere video countdown - in fact even back when it was at its peak, TRL started clipping the videos short to the point that you couldn't possibly watch the show just to catch your favorite song, because they either weren't going to play all of it (sometimes, not any of it) or they'd have some annoying fans in the studio pop up in the corner of the screen and scream shoutouts over half of it. It didn't matter b/c you knew all 10 of those videos were going to air in the next music block anyway...but if you missed Mariah showing up in a t-shirt with an ice cream cart or BSB making an unexpected appearance to announce that they were postponing their tour so AJ could go to rehab, you had to hear about it from a friend, then wait until that weekend or five am the next day to catch the rerun yourself. It really created this feeling that you were missing out if you didn't tune in to watch when it first aired.
New-boot TRL will do best if it recognizes that the videos will only serve as a means to an end. The real draw will be celeb access - performances, interviews, surprise drop-ins. This new generation of teens and young adults, more than ever, is used to (obsessed with, even) always being in the know about things; that is something MTV can and should exploit to its advantage. Make this the kind of show that they will watch b/c they don't want to be the person who missed out on something big and can't catch up until the next day.
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Jay D83
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Post by Jay D83 on Aug 7, 2017 13:30:58 GMT -5
TRL brought the celebs tho. That and the 'you never know what could happen' aura are what boosted it far beyond a mere video countdown - in fact even back when it was at its peak, TRL started clipping the videos short to the point that you couldn't possibly watch the show just to catch your favorite song, because they either weren't going to play all of it (sometimes, not any of it) or they'd have some annoying fans in the studio pop up in the corner of the screen and scream shoutouts over half of it. It didn't matter b/c you knew all 10 of those videos were going to air in the next music block anyway...but if you missed Mariah showing up in a t-shirt with an ice cream cart or BSB making an unexpected appearance to announce that they were postponing their tour so AJ could go to rehab, you had to hear about it from a friend, then wait until that weekend or five am the next day to catch the rerun yourself. It really created this feeling that you were missing out if you didn't tune in to watch when it first aired. New-boot TRL will do best if it recognizes that the videos will only serve as a means to an end. The real draw will be celeb access - performances, interviews, surprise drop-ins. This new generation of teens and young adults, more than ever, is used to (obsessed with, even) always being in the know about things; that is something MTV can and should exploit to its advantage. Make this the kind of show that they will watch b/c they don't want to be the person who missed out on something big and can't catch up until the next day. If you don't already work in marketing/promotions you definitely should! |
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allow that
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Post by allow that on Aug 7, 2017 21:39:43 GMT -5
So is this struggling network rebranding by... recycling? It's not just TRL coming back but also Laguna Beach (aka "Siesta Key") and apparently Undressed (remember that?!) is back soon too.
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YourFaveIsAFlop
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Post by YourFaveIsAFlop on Aug 8, 2017 8:59:40 GMT -5
But Fifth Harmony doesn't need to go on a live TV show to announce their new album. They already have direct access to fans through social media, and that's why a reboot of TRL is destined to fail. Nothing that made the show must watch TV applies anymore.
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Linnethia Monique
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Post by Linnethia Monique on Aug 8, 2017 15:37:44 GMT -5
But Fifth Harmony doesn't need to go on a live TV show to announce their new album. They already have direct access to fans through social media, and that's why a reboot of TRL is destined to fail. Nothing that made the show must watch TV applies anymore. Well the other side to that is MTV could offer some kind of incentive for artist announcements of those types. Fifth Harmony announced their album title and release date on Fallon when they performed there for the first time recently. I'm still really put off by the whole idea, but there could be some benefits when it comes to premiering live performances and content. Right now there is no "afternoon" show besides talk shows where an artist can celebrate a release of any kind. Those areas are held by morning and late night talk shows. They really could gauge the after school market especially since they aren't running up against another beast like 106 & Park. It's no longer my demographic but I could see where this could fit in to the younger one. |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 8, 2017 17:14:23 GMT -5
So is this struggling network rebranding by... recycling? It's not just TRL coming back but also Laguna Beach (aka "Siesta Key") and apparently Undressed (remember that?!) is back soon too. Wow, Undressed! I didn't watch that show regularly but I remember it being a bit of a guilty pleasure. The acting was sooooooooo bad lol, but it was cutting edge for the time. The main issue I have with all these reboot ideas is that I am not sure if MTV is just lazily falling back on nostalgia to try to reel in more viewers or if it is really going to attempt to put a modern spin on its classics. The latter isn't guaranteed but is a good faith effort to connect with younger viewers. The former will be destined to fail because younger viewers have no nostalgia for shows that were before their time. And I know the network isn't trying to pull in my 35-year old ass lol. Now that I think about it, we're maybe five years away from the entire millennial generation being out of their 'core' demographic. So the hyper focus on millennials this and millennials that needs to subside, or at least shift to recognize our very real adult status. But Fifth Harmony doesn't need to go on a live TV show to announce their new album. They already have direct access to fans through social media, and that's why a reboot of TRL is destined to fail. Nothing that made the show must watch TV applies anymore. The biggest potential pitfall of this reboot is that MTV execs are thinking just like you, in which case they are destined to fail. I will concede that a lot rides on the celebs themselves too - that's the second-biggest potential pitfall, that current singers/actors today are too boring for this to even be worth it. I am by no means certain at all that TRL will do well but it goes back to what I said about whether MTV understands the reason the original TRL was appealing in the first place; it was about more than just giving someone another platform to announce an album release. 5H is honestly not a great example to work with here because with or without Camila, their fanbase isn't that large and they're not exactly known outside of the Harmonizers for having dynamic personalities. But I'll go with it anyway. let's assume Ally is a real wildcard, the kind of person who might saunter over to the glass window and flash the crowd outside just because 'I'm feeling a little hot, you guys!' Meanwhile Normani is throwing mad Camila shade in her interview questions, Lauren is having a dance-off with a couple of fans that she pulled out of the audience - and losing - and Dinah is clearly flirting with one of the hosts (nu Carson Daly/Jennifer Love Hewitt, anyone?) Of course amid all this hullabaloo is also an album announcement and a performance but that is far from the most interesting thing that just happened on this fictional TRL day. This is all very in the moment stuff that you're not going to get from one of their team members logging into Instagram and hashtagging #harmonizers a few times a day. At the same time, this is something that can work in tandem with social media, rather than try to compete with it. People love it when things go viral; we can NEVER have too many reaction gifs. The goal should be to create excitement in the uncertainty, buzz in the excitement, and eventually, viewers drawn in by the buzz of 'what's gonna happen next?' So bring on the stars, encourage them to lighten up and let loose, and hope something meme-worthy happens. At least 95% of entertainment (arguably, all of it) is purely manufactured demand. No one is asking for a new TRL...just like no one was asking for the original TRL. The onus is on MTV to make young millennials (and whatever the generation below us is named) think they want it. Good luck to 'em. |
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Post by JOJO SIWA DERANGEMENT SYNDROME on Sept 26, 2017 21:50:38 GMT -5
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upsidedown
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Post by upsidedown on Sept 27, 2017 18:20:06 GMT -5
So I've seen a lot about their guests the first week but not much else about the format... are they still playing videos/doing a countdown?
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DJ General
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Post by DJ General on Sept 28, 2017 16:29:37 GMT -5
I can't imagine they would not be doing a countdown.
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upsidedown
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Post by upsidedown on Sept 28, 2017 17:22:36 GMT -5
I can't imagine they would not be doing a countdown. I agree, but I feel like it's a bit weird that there's nothing on their website about voting, the countdown etc |
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Post by AP on Sept 28, 2017 21:10:23 GMT -5
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Post by JOJO SIWA DERANGEMENT SYNDROME on Sept 29, 2017 3:32:05 GMT -5
Oh my. Just no. This is terrible in every possible way. |
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upsidedown
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Post by upsidedown on Sept 29, 2017 5:42:49 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2017 11:04:19 GMT -5
wohooo@   |
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Post by groovetheory on Oct 2, 2017 7:09:53 GMT -5
I want this to work too but i dont think its gonna work like it used to if its solely gonna air on TV, i think it should be live online. They should make a deal with Facebook (and Instagram) to air it live with a 360 degree camera.
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upsidedown
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Post by upsidedown on Oct 2, 2017 9:48:31 GMT -5
We'll see how this goes. I honestly don't think it's a good idea to nix the countdown. First of all, it's called Total *REQUEST* Live. I don't think millennials will give a shit about commentators talking about fashion and sneakers. It's 2017, and videos are still huge. Sure, you can watch them whenever you want but there's still something special about seeing them in a countdown on TV. Plus, stan wars are still at an all time high, so the traffic MTV could get on their sites and social pitting the fanbases against each other daily (and you know the fanbases would be on board), would be something huge to take advantage of.
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Revelry
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Post by Revelry on Oct 2, 2017 9:58:08 GMT -5
We'll see how this goes. I honestly don't think it's a good idea to nix the countdown. First of all, it's called Total *REQUEST* Live. I don't think millennials will give a s**t about commentators talking about fashion and sneakers. It's 2017, and videos are still huge. Sure, you can watch them whenever you want but there's still something special about seeing them in a countdown on TV. Plus, stan wars are still at an all time high, so the traffic MTV could get on their sites and social pitting the fanbases against each other daily (and you know the fanbases would be on board), would be something huge to take advantage of. Yup, completely agree. And they could do it in a way that allows the viewer to vote throughout the entire show and update who's in the lead and then at the end give us the rankings and then just play the number 1 video. Saves time, allows for a lot of guests, and still keeps the foundation of the show intact. |
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#LisaRinna
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Post by #LisaRinna on Oct 2, 2017 11:39:42 GMT -5
wohooo@ Queen of TRL! She's scheduled to appear on October 5th! |
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