Working in the field of public relations, we constantly strive to engage our clients’ audiences in new and unique ways. Social media is more important now than ever before, and a prominent way for companies to achieve engagement. These online communities weren’t always available, so what did companies do prior to the digital age? How did old-school communities evolve?
First, how is a community formed? I mulled this over recently, as I watched VH1’s Rock Doc: The TRL Decade. I grew up watching Total Request Live (TRL), a show of the top ten music videos, voted by fans for the fans. Everyday, I rushed home from school to die-hard fans (i.e. girls sobbing over N’Sync or Jay-Z) shutting downTimes Square just to watch their favorite musician on TRL.
Carson Daly, TRL’s first host, summed up the show perfectly when he said, “I will miss the community that was TRL.” This community filled up the streets ofTimes Square, traveled cross-country, spent 30 minutes calling into the show to talk to celebrity crushes, and most importantly, voted time and time again to see their favorite music videos. Talk about a die-hard community.
As a loyal member of this community, I never thought about the cultural influence of the show. What started in 1998 with just one host and a TV monitor, eventually exploded in the 2000s into a phenomenon, defining a generation; one that Daly feels “will never happen again.”
Before the time of Twitter, TRL fans interacted with their favorite celebrities by calling in, sending comments, videos, etc. Some lucky audience members even filmed 15-second shout-outs that played during the videos. Today, YouTube replaces this outlet, allowing users to upload videos and share commentary. Instead of ranting over the phone to a friend about how poorly an artist lip-synced on the show, for example, I would now post my frustration on Facebook with a status update.
TRL was the pre-cursor for what social media has become to Gen-Y. Fans began to explore the possibilities to connect within a digital community, whether they voted for their favorite videos online or posted in the Britney Spears message board on the TRL webpage.
Ironically, TRL VJ alumni believe social media is the reason the show ended. Fans no longer needed to watch the show to participate in the pop-culture community. Do I think digital evolution is negative? No. The TRL era is something I will always appreciate. The creators of the show were able to organically produce a community fan base without Facebook updates, tweets, and blog posts, which I believe will never happen again.
