Total Request Dead

In the days before The Hills, before My Super Sweet Sixteen, before Y2K, there was a man. His name was Carson Daly. He was of an elusive age, he wore black nail polish on his fingernails, and he brought us music videos that we, the people, voted for on a show called Total Request Live.

Every day after school, we would go home and turn on TRL to watch the timeless musicians of our age, icons like 98 Degrees and Sisqo and Korn. They would visit the TRL studios, above the crowds in Times Square, high up in the clouds like the gods that they were. Carson Daly would talk to them about absolutely nothing and we would listen, rapt, unless we were screaming unintelligebly to convey our excitement or joy or fear that other people were screaming ALL THE TIME. And oh, how it hurt when they retired our favorite videos, when we could no longer shout into a camera that "I love NSYNC!!!! "This I Promise You" is the best song eva!!! I'm gonna marry Lance Bass!!!!" Now, word comes that TRL will be no more and while no one has watched the show in about seven years, the preteen inside all of us cries out in preteen angst. Memories appear in the corner of our mind -- Justin with puffy hair (see video below), Britney with hair and clothes on, the Backstreet Boys with fans, all those wonderful, musical moments celebrating our teen spirit. So pour some out for one's homies because if you ever want to see music videos on this network again, you'll have to go to MTV Ocho or something.

NSYNC's "I Drive Myself Crazy:"