‘TRL’ brings ‘Bandstand’ to new generation
NEW YORK (AP) - As host of
MTV’s “Total Request Live,” Carson
Daly is at ground zero every day of a
booming new teen-age culture. It made
him interested in talking with someone
who stood there before.
Daly called the ageless wonder him
self, Dick Clark, to set up an appoint
ment when he was in Los Angeles
recently.
“Cafson Daly! You’re the man!” the
former “American Bandstand” leader
greeted his 26-year-old heir apparent,
before settling down to chat about what
happens when hormones and the hot
lights of television intersect.
After just a year on the air, “TRL” is
the force behind an MTV ratings renais
sance. More than one million young
sters tune in at 3:30 p.m. each weekday
to hear their favorite music.
The program’s format is simple:
viewers vote on their favorite videos,
and “TRL” counts down the top 10
every afternoon. Fans “shout out” trib
utes, either on camera from Times
Square or the studio audience, or
through phone calls and e-mail.
Most “Total Request Live” fans will
stare blankly at any mention of
“American Bandstand,” the daily, then
weekly, house party for teen-agers that
aired nationally from 1957 to 1989.
At the heart of both shows is the
energy and excitement of young music
fans. “TRL” does today what “American
Bandstand” used to - it lets kids know
what their peers are wearing, what they
are listening to and how they talk.
Aside from the music itself, the
most obvious difference between the
two shows is the direct impact MTV
fans have on what is played every day.
“It gets my blood pumping,” said
Dave Willey, 17, of Hicksville, N.Y., as
he sat in MTV’s intimate studio to watch
a show one day this fall. “Britney
Spears, she’s so hot.”
“We like it because it’s live,” said
Steve Demko, a college student from
New Jersey who came in to Times
Square with his buddies, Chris Sorber
and Brian Mieczkowski, to stand on the
street and look up at the studio.
“Total Request Live” caught the
wave of young fans who have made
Britney Spears and the Backstreet Boys
stars, a new generation eager for its own
heroes. Since the audience determines
the “TRL” playlist every day, the show is
guaranteed to reflect what’s hot minute
by-minute.
Because “TRL” serves a wide con
stituency, a typical show careens from
style to style in a way few radio stations
would dare: the blue-eyed soul of ‘N
Sync bumps against the corrosive metal
of Korn, which segues into the rap of
Warren G.
Young fans are hungry for variety,
said Tom Calderone, MTV’s senior vice
president of music and talent.
“It’s always going to change,”
Calderone said. “It’s not going to be
stale.”