PopSyndicate.com

You don’t have to go through this alone.

I honestly don’t know how I feel about the end of MTV’s TRL. I suppose I’d give a rat’s ass if I actually watched in on a regular basis. I always seemed to have something better to do, like my job. No, TRL catered mostly to teenagers and some college students that strategically scheduled their classes around its airing. In both cases, it would seem MTV believed this target group to be collectively afflicted with Attention Deficit Disorder, because the videos never ran for more than two minutes! And given the “format” of the show, in which viewers voted on the videos they wanted to so, chances were that you’d see the exact same snippets of videos, in almost the exact same order, for the next few days. On some level, watching TRL was like watching Dragon Ball Z, where two enemies spend a week’s worth of episodes powering up for super moves to use against each other. No, the show offered no entertainment value for someone of my advanced years (FYI, I just turned 28). Not that it didn’t serve some purpose; I always thought it was a pretty clear barometer of the degradation of popular music, and in real time, no less! Think about it, from day to day, you could see popular music dying by degrees, from the emergence of Britney Spears, to the current reign of acts like Miley Cyrus and The Jonas Brothers!  Now, I understand there’s an audience for these “artists”, and I can be respectful of TRL’s passing. I can only imagine what their viewers are going through. But I want to help. Here are just a few ways to help you through “TRL Withdrawal”. You don’t have to face this alone.

Get A Pet: TRL offered a steady stream of attention whores to feed into our need for gratuitous hero worship. Depending on the animal, pets can be notorious attention whores, and serve as a partial replacement. To say nothing of the attention they give back. Show a dog or cat the same amount of love you used to show when a Britney Spears video came on, that animal will damn near take a bullet for you! (maybe not the cat, they’ll just lap up your blood for a while, then move on.)

Take Up Gaming: Yes, it is cool to be a gamer. People actually make careers out of just playing the games! Used to be, you had to become a designer, and learn a whole bunch of technical crap you couldn’t care less about. And nowadays, games are being developed to include popular music. You got your Guitar Heroes, your Rock Bands, your Dance Dance Revolutions, etc. Just let go of your fear of looking like a goofy bastard while playing these games and it’s smooth sailing from there.

Ask Your Parents About The 80s: I now we’re all enjoying the throwback music coming out now, but some of you young whipper-snappers may be enjoying it without any real context. Pop music is at its best when it’s reactionary to what’s going on in the world. I don’t feel like pop music reacts to anything anymore. It’s just kind of there, and we’re just meant to take it and like it, no questions asked. Even if you’re reacting to something trivial, just react!!

Ask Your Grandparents About The 60s: If only to be shattered by the knowledge that you missed out on a time a time when casual sex and recreational drug use weren’t so bad!

Start Watching 106th and Park: ‘Cause why should us black folk have all the fun?!?