Total Request Live (or TRL)

Remember when MTV used to be about music? Total Request Live, or TRL for short, was one of the few remaining shows about music. This show originating from about 1998 had on some of the hottest songs to date in a Top 10 format. The ten most requested music videos are played in each installment of this weekday show. Rather than start-to-finish replays of videos, most of them are usually just small samplings lasting for maybe two or three minutes. These brief plays even include fans giving dedications to others. For the most part, the show mostly featured High Schoolers and teenyboppers in Times Square.

In addition to music, Total Request Live even featured various famous persons from the entertainment world including recording artists and music groups. This further added to the star power that made TRL so liked among music fans and entertainment types in general. Many of the episodes of TRL were hosted by Carson Daly. The only other host I could remember before doing any researching this topic was Vanessa Minnillo.

TRL was discontinued in 2008. So this program lasted for about ten years while being one of the last few actual links to music from this music channel. Today's MTV is now mostly reality TV and re-runs of old shows and certain old movies. But in case anyone needed a reminder that MTV used to be about the music, TRL is a great reminder and one of the more successful music programs in the channel's history.


I've already set the mood mostly for this blog post. Now for some media. Enjoy...


^ from: joshnason.wordpress.com - Total Request Live (or TRL) was perhaps the last true link to music on MTV.


I chose this video to offer you what the atmosphere was like when TRL was on the air with enthusiastic fans. It is also fitting I mention this was in a different time of music culture. So what you are actually about to see are different flavors of TRL. Take a look at these videos. All material is provided for educational purposes.


^ "Destiny's Child TRL The Writing's On The Wall Album"


^ "N Sync - Tearin Up My Heart [TRL 1998]"


^ Britney Spears - TRL USA 2003 Part 1

These were about as good of vidoes as I could find. I wish I could find some better material, but this was the best I could find for you all. Now you have an idea about MTV's TRL.



Because part of me wants to do more topics on MTV programs, I decided to open actually two labels. Here they are:

About the Label: "MTV"

Blog posts under this label are about various programs on Music Television (or MTV). This includes past and present material featured on this channel.

About the Label: "Remembering"

As of the time of initial original blog posts, this label regards my own personal looks back on various items, trends, personalities, and more. This is also assuming all of the material is no longer with us as of the initial date of such posts.


You now have a few more things to search for in my massive blog. You're welcome. :)




That concludes this blog post. I hope you enjoyed this post and got a little retrospective on Music Television's Total Request Live.

If you've seen TRL before, what do you remember most about the show? Have you any favorite moments from the show?

Believe it or not, I wanted to blog about Total Request Live for a few years but never completed a legit blog post about it until now. That is a true reality of my blogging work. I sometimes try to blog about topics but never actually complete them or make any posts worthy of being shown in any of my blogs. So this one is a long time coming to be quite honest. I did what I could. Hopefully you enjoy my efforts. Subscribe and Follow this blog (and my others) if you enjoy my work. Thank you for reading! Take care and be well.

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