Total Request Live (TRL) (MTV)
common sense media says
The latest MTV generation screams its way through.
parents & educators say
What parents need to know
Parents need to know that this is an hour-long live countdown of the 10 most popular music videos determined by phone calls and email votes from young fans. (Note: The countdown switched to online-only as of Nov. 2008.) Artists who have made it to the countdown can include those whom parents may consider controversial including 50 Cent, Britney Spears, Beyonce, Ludacris, and Eminem. Parents should watch out for images of sexuality, violence, and lyrics that may be inappropriate for their kids. Parents may want to watch the program with their kids on a few different occasions because the videos are always changing. This may help to better determine if the show is acceptable for their child to watch.
Violence:
Often lyrics will be violent; certain videos show images of fighting, killing, etc.
Sex:
Videos can contain explicitly sexual dancing or feature scantily clad women; lyrics may have obvious sexual connotations.
Language:
Profanity in songs is bleeped, but most kids can fill in the blanks.
Consumerism:
Movies are heavily promoted with celebrity interviews. Lyrics may reference name brand clothing and designers.
Drinking, drugs, & smoking:
Bars/clubs are often shown in videos.
More on Total Request Live (TRL)
Review It
Most useful reviews by all members
jchurchill
adult
adult
More dumb than anything else
The FIRST MTV generation should remember when music videos were a work of artistic output. Now that Viacom has taken over, MTV is all about commercialism. They've come a long way ... down ... since masterpieces such as Guns & Roses' fascinating and enigmatic video for "Don't You Cry Tonight" got regular, uninterrupted airplay. Today, music videos are now simply a background mechanism for the marketing. It is annoying to watch. While the videos play on TRL, badly written comments from viewers scroll across the bottom or an inset video of some kid yakking aimlessly about how great the band is gets in the way.
If parents let their kids watch this stupid, brain-jarring, simpleton of a show, then they should also have them watch the Frontline episodes "The Way the Music Died" and "The Merchants of Cool". These two programs should give them a solid understanding of what kind of manipulation they are under while viewing the 21st century MTV, what their favorite stars went through to get there, and may even save them from the level of commercial ignorance that has infected a good number of their peers.
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lilsharpayxox
adult
adult
I think that although some videos aren't always good models of behavior it is still a fun show to watch full of live musical preformances and celeb appearances
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