MTV, where has the music gone?

MTV, the acronym for Music Television was launched in 1981 with the primary objective to play music videos. It began with music being its main focus but today MTV features more reality shows than probably any other network and almost no trace of music. Since the beginning, MTV has revolutionized the music industry. It has made it possible for new musicians to become household names such as the legendary Michael Jackson. TRL or Total Request Live started in 1998 at its Times Square studio and continues to run over 10 years later. In 1999, the show introduced a live studio audience which I been a part of numerous times. Tickets for TRL are free; all you have to do is request them. Being a part of the audience is a fun experience. I’ve gone about 4 times and you get to see what goes on behind the scenes and see the VJ’s and the celebrities. I’ve met Mariah Carey, Christina Milian, Ciara, my personal favorite Chad Michael Murray and others. TRL is now almost the only show on MTV that is about music, but even with its top 10 video countdown only about a minute of each video is shown. Nowadays MTV consists of a variety of reality shows. Its most famous has to be MTV’s The Real World. First broadcast in 1992, The Real World is the longest running program MTV has had to date and is now about to enter its 20th season in Hollywood. While most of the reality shows on MTV such as The Real World, The Hills, Laguna Beach, Made, Life of Ryan, and True Life are some of my favorite shows to watch MTV sure is lacking in the music department. With the name of the network being Music Television I think music needs to be put back into the picture and hopefully as time goes on it will be.

XOXO, GOSSIP GIRL

Josh Schwartz, creator of the highly popular, “The O.C.,” is at it again with his new teen drama, Gossip Girl. The show displays wealthy and privileged Upper East Side high school students and their families go through their everyday and not-so-everyday lives which are shy of uneventful. The show is based off of the series of books, Gossip Girl by Cecily von Ziegesar. Serena Van der Woodsen, played by actress Blake Lively, is the shows main character, a privileged prep-school teen who has changed her attitude and become a kind and down to earth girl since coming back from a mysterious trip to boarding school. Her best friend Blair Waldorf, played by actress Leighton Meester, is the complete opposite. Blair, the typical privileged princess is the schools resident mean girl and leader of the in crowd. Serena’s new boyfriend, Dan Humphrey played by actor Penn Badgley, is from a completely different world, Brooklyn. Dan goes to school with Serena and all of her prep-school friends but is not in the same social scene, until he met Serena that is. He is a loner and is still not completely accepted by her friends, mostly why Gossip Girl refers to him as “Lonely Boy,” but he and Serena have something special and they try not to let anything get in the way of it.

The show has a different aspect to it being that it is actually narrated throughout by “Gossip Girl,” an unknown person, who attends school and parties with the characters. “Gossip Girl” has a blog about them telling their every move, which all of the students at the prep-school read. The show portrays these characters in many serious situations such as relationships, sex, drugs, and alcohol, but in a different light another main focus of the show is fashion. The people on The Upper East Side such as Serena, Blair, their mothers, classmates, and others treat everyday like a fashion show by dressing to the nines. The fashion on the show has become as well known as the fashion on Sex and The City. In its first season it has achieved great ratings and has become a favorite to many teens including myself. So if you have nothing to do on a Monday night at 8 o’clock turn on the CW11. You’ll be sure to occupy your time with some juicy gossip.
XOXO, Danielle