End of an Era: Ten Years of TRL

Despite the fact that MTV hasn't played a full length music video since 2005, its flagship music video program, Total Request Live, has remained on the air up until its final episode last night. TRL, which was created in the hopeful pre-9/11 climate marked by the rise of teen pop, has been on the air for ten years. To commemorate its run, MTV aired the TRL finale featuring Carson Daly, Beyonce, and the top ten most important music videos of the era. Of course, in traditional TRL mode, the videos were NOT shown in their entirety. I guess that's what YouTube's for, right? Britney topped the list, just in time for Circus to leak in its entirety all over the net. Kid Rock's inclusion makes me happy. I'll bet Kanye will be PISSED when he finds out MTV dissed him again.

10. "Hey Ya!" - OutKast
9. "What's My Age Again?" - Blink 182
8. "Yeah" - Usher & Co.
7. "Crazy In Love" - Beyonce feat. Jay-Z
6. "Bawitdaba" - Kid Rock
5. "Dirrty" - Christina Aguilera
4. "Bye Bye Bye" - N*Sync
3. "I Want It That Way" - Backstreet Boys
2. "The Real Slim Shady" - Eminem
1. "...Baby One More Time" - Britney Spears

Kanye West Arrested
Rappers are routinely arrested for drug related incidents, but Kanye West is never content being like other rappers. The "Stronger" star was arrested yesterday after getting into a scuffle with a paparazzi in which he broke the photographer's camera. The incident occurred at 7:51 AM outside the security checkpoint at LAX. West was reportedly headed for Honolulu. "Flashing Lights" indeed.

Estelle Returns to iTunes
On August 31, it was reported that in an effort to boost album sales and revenues, Atlantic records pulled Estelle's "American Boy" from iTunes digital shelves. This move came after Kid Rock saw success with sales of his album Rock N Roll Jesus without letting the hit single "All Summer Long" be available on the digital music store. Apparently this didn't work for Estelle. Album sales of Shine actually dropped 16% before rising 9% last week. "American Boy" which peaked at #11 dropped to #57 without the help of digital downloads. You can now find Shine being advertised in the middle space of the iTunes store banner.

Girls Aloud Win 2008 Popjustice Twenty Quid Prize
In parody of the annual Mercury Music Prize, British pop blog Popjustice holds an "awards ceremony" of their own where readers and writers of the blog meet and argue about the best British single of the past 12 months. Girls Aloud have won three of the past five years and added another win to their belt with "Call The Shots". The Aloud single beat out the likes of "Bleeding Love" and "Dance Wiv Me" to claim the prize.

Past winners:
2003: Girls Aloud "No Good Advice"
2004: Rachel Stevens "Some Girls"
2005: Girls Aloud "Wake Me Up"
2006: Girls Aloud "Biology"
2007: Amy Winehouse "Rehab"
2008: Girls Aloud "Call The Shots"

BREAKING NEWS:
Diddy Bothered By McCain, Hates Alaska

P. Diddy decided that he needed to do his civic duty and vent about the current state of political affairs. Diddy, who sometimes goes by his "government name" Sean Combs, says he respects McCain, but is bothered by him. Why would you pick someone from Alaska? "What is the reality in Alaska? There’s not even no crack heads in Alaska. There’s not even no black people? There’s not even like no…crime? " Those are really the only reasons he gives why Palin shouldn't have been selected. He mumbles about a few other things but doesn't finish his thoughts. Does spinning around make his argument more valid? It just makes me nauseous.




I vote yes to what Kid Rock has to say about all this. "I truly believe people like myself, who are in a position of entertainers in the limelight should keep their mouth shut on politics. Because at the end of the day, let me tell you what I'm good at: I'm good at writing songs and singing. What I'm not educated in is the field of political science. And so for me to be sharing my view and influencing people of who I think they should be voting for...I think would be very irresponsible on my part. So I'll just keep my mouth shut on that."

A Love/Hate Relationship: iTunes And The Music Industry

Last week, Estelle's "American Boy" featuring Kanye West, already a UK #1, sat just outside the top 10 and was poised to make its entrance this week. That, however, did not happen. Instead, "American Boy" plummeted from #11 to #37. The reason for the sudden drop is digital download sales? "American Boy" was the eighth most downloaded song in the country before August 19th when Atlantic Records pulled its parent album, Shine, from iTune's virtual shelves.

The decision came after seeing the relative success of Kid Rock's Rock 'N Roll Jesus. The album has been kept off iTunes, yet has sold 1.6 million copies. If it had been made available digitally, how many of those 1.6 million albums would have been downloads of just one song, say, "All Summer Long", the album's biggest hit? It's impossible to know for sure, but what is certain is that both Atlantic Records and Kid Rock would rather sell a $14.00 album than a $.99 single.

The record industry is facing record lows year after year as online piracy continues, burned CD's and mixes flourish, and other forms of entertainment compete for people's time. Initially, iTunes seemed like the solution to this growing problem, giving consumers a legal alternative to Napster or Limewire. In five years, the Apple music store has sold more than five billion songs and since the beginning of the year has overtaken Wal-Mart's spot as the largest music retailer. Ken Levitan, Kid Rock's manager, sees things differently. In a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal, Levitan commented, "In so many ways it's turned our business back into a singles business," and that iTunes is "part of the death knell of the music business."

Atlantic's choice to keep albums of iTunes is a bold move designed to boost revenues and keep an album's artistic integrity intact, but it carries big risks. Will consumers who were willing to purchase "American Boy" off the Apple store turn to illegal means to get the track? Will consumers be willing to spend money on an entire album if they only know there is one song on it they like? Levitan is sure the risks are worth it. "Check some of these artists that have hit singles, versus their album sales, then compare it to what Kid Rock is doing." "I Kissed A Girl" by Katy Perry has sold 2.2 million downloads compared to her album, One Of The Boys, which has managed a mere 282,000 copies sold. M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes" is up to 888,000 downloads while Kala has sold only 272,000 copies.

As a whole, iTunes sold 844 million songs last year and only 50 million digital albums. It's easy to see why keeping music off iTunes seems so attractive to a record industry in decline but not giving the consumer what they want is always dangerous. Maybe artists should just release a bunch of hit singles from an album and then release a bunch more hit singles and then put them all together on one album. Oh wait, they do. It's called Super Deluxe Ultra Platinum Reloaded Edition Rerelease.