If you are big into boy bands like myself, Paramount+’s Larger Than Life: Reign of the Boybands must be a documentary to add to your streaming schedule. Those with a Paramount+ subscription can relive the fun times of fangirling your favorite music of the ‘90s/’00s as well as look back at Total Request Live, a must-watch MTV show of the millennial years. Boy bands like *NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, and 98 Degrees remember watching TRL as well, recalling “Of course, you want to be No. 1.” Let me just say as a millennial that I can totally relate to this.
It was a sad day when MTV dumped TRL in 2008. With its TV premiere back in 1998, MTV’s Total Request Live featured the ten most requested music videos voted by fans through their phones or online. It was the ultimate after-school show you had to race home to tune into. Not only to see which music video hits the Top Ten spot but to see your favorite pop musicians take to the stage among screaming fans. In the Paramount+ documentary Larger Than Life, 98 Degrees singer Nick Lachey gets real about boy bands caring a lot about their music video's place on the countdown and I can totally relate:
If any group is telling you they didn’t want to be No. 1 on the countdown, they’re lying to you. Of course you wanted to be No. 1. We took notice of where we were on the countdown every day.
Millennials like myself were always crossing our fingers that our favorite boy band would land the top spot. It may have been a competition to these musical pop culture icons, but fans were also hanging onto hope their favorite music video would be featured on TRL as well.
It’s safe to say you can actually thank TRL for the rising popularity of boy bands. As the internet wasn’t huge during Total Request Live’s run, it was through the MTV video countdown that teens discovered the newest works of musicians so they’d never miss a beat. There was even an occasional time when the MTV series made up the rankings to bring more attention to a song like “The Bum Bum Song.” Plus, music videos were a great way to help you love your favorite music even more whether it was a boy band’s sensational choreography or the story presented in the video.
While teen audiences got their fair share of music videos from their favorite songs, TRL was also a major competition among boy bands. Backstreet Boys singer AJ McLean got real about how much the music video countdown series meant to their growing success:
Every video we put out was No. 1 or No. 2, No. 1 or No. 2. And then *NSYNC came out and you had 98 Degrees. It was just this battle.
The competition among boy bands was seemingly fierce because of Total Request Live. Groups like Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC, and 98 Degrees became household names among teens because of their iconic music videos and stage performances on the show. Each band brought its unique style and charm to the MTV series. Whether it was the Backstreet Boys’ vocal harmonies in “I Want It That Way,” the high-energy performance of *NSYNC’s “Bye Bye Bye,” or 98 Degrees’ smooth love ballads in “I Do (Cherish You),” each boy band brought their A-game with the competition only motivating them to crank out more memorable music videos that would bring them to the top.
If only today’s teens had any idea how important TRL was to millennials. Without music streaming services, music videos and radio tracks were all we had before a boy band’s CD was fully released in stores. *NSYNC’s Chris Kirkpatrick had his own interpretation of what Total Request Live meant for musicians:
Every day, right when kids got home from school, there was our video on national TV and the Backstreet video and the 98 Degrees video. It was like, ‘All right, who's going to be No. 1 today?’ It fueled this giant energy of competition and TRL was the gasoline.
Even though TRL is no more, it doesn’t mean all hope is lost for musicians to rise to the top. Music videos still show significance on social media, streaming platforms, and viral memes. Plus, social media influencers help bring awareness to musicians whether they perform cover songs, try to dance like them or share their reactions to their music. At the same, it doesn’t mean that I don’t miss the days when your favorite music video would show up on TV and would stay in your head rent-free.
It’s not until you watch Larger Than Life that you realize just what an impact shows like TRL made on a boy band’s success. Even if the music industry doesn’t need the MTV music series for a band to become big, millennials and pop groups will still never forget what TRL did to make boy bands the superstars they are now. You can watch the music documentary now on your Paramount+ subscription.
