No iPod, No Problem: In Honor of Rich Cronin

The desk in my bedroom from High School. I wrote my of my songs from 2001-2005 that seat.

Last week I missed the 90s so much that I bought a portable Compact Disc player online. I fielded a few comments from friends about my choice. “Don’t you have an iPod?” they asked, “What’s a CD?” some joked, but hard-knocks aside I stand firmly beside my decision.

What music consumers aka the public-at-large forget is if you buy a physical CD and not the digital iTunes version of the album, then that CD is meant to be listened to on a CD player. That’s the only way to gain the optimal listening experience, since the CD was made for a CD player and not an MP3 player.

I haven’t wanted to grow up, hence my desperate attempts to rekindle what once made me tick a decade ago. At the age of 13, I was going into my final year at the Anshe Emet Day School, I was in the 8th grade, and had just told the other kids in my class that I started writing songs. That’s how I spent the summer of 2000.

They looked at me with prodding eyes. I felt defaced and demoralized. My mental strength was weakened by their disapproval, but that didn’t stop me. I kept writing, I kept singing, I took the stage and belted my heart out for all of them to hear. They’re disapproval shattered. They were embarrassed. I rested my case.

Fast-forward a decade later, I’ve recorded three albums with new music in the works. I’ve received a B.A. in Journalism and a minor in music theory and history. What are those kids from my 8th grade class doing? Well, I can’t say for sure. I know a lot of them are looking for jobs, have jobs, are in law school, or still trying to get a B.A. from a city college somewhere around Chicago.

Washington, D.C. has treated my lyrical soul well enough. In fact, after the horrible nightmare that was 2009 for myself and my family, 2010 is shaping up to be that of a whirlwind fantasy come to life.

It’s times like these, when I know how lucky I am to be where I am in life, that we must remember where we came from and why we’re here.

A decade ago I would bop my head to whatever pop track MTV’s Total Request Live shoved in my face. Quite frankly, they didn’t have to shove it in my face though. I loved it. I breathed it. 90s pop was my lifeline. After all, it was a weekend spent watching a Backstreet Boys special on Fox Family Channel that spawned my love for songwriting. That was twelve years ago.

In honor of 90s pop music and those who fed my creative mind with material to take and improve upon, this post is dedicated to Rich Cronin of LFO who passed away overnight due to complications with Leukemia.

To commemorate Rich and my childhood, I’m going to use my Compact Disc player every day for a week. No iPod.

The End of Music on MTV

This piece will be published in an issue of the American University student-run-bi-weekly magazine AmWord. Stayed tuned for more details about this publication.

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When you think of Times Square in New York, a few staples come to mind – the Naked Cowboy, the ball dropping on New Years Eve, bright lights and big ads – those are the pictures etched into your memory. But the one thing teenagers have all come to love for the past decade is nearing an end. Total Request Live has been canceled.

Tourists and teenagers started flocking to the sidewalks outside MTV’s Manhattan studios in the fall of 1998. Those sidewalks, once crammed daily with screaming teenagers will be empty soon.

When MTV debuted in 1981, it was a music station. It launched at 12:01 A.M. on August 1 with the words said by John Lack, "Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll.” And then, the first video aired.

“Video Killed the Radio Star” by British New Wave group, [the] Buggles, was aired that summer night in 1981. From then on, music videos became “it” thing and tool for future musicians to promote their music.

The show peaked in popularity in 1999 with 757,000 viewers tuning in daily, according to Nielsen Media Research. The artists who found the greatest success during the 1990s capitalized that on that. Pop music superstars Britney Spears, ‘N SYNC, and rapper Eminem were great at it.

Eminem, was asked how he felt about the station’s decision to cancel the show. He said, “I’m going to miss TRL. Where else will I be able to start feuds, defend my honor vigorously and act like an angry teenager on national TV?”

MTV has come a long way since its conception. A long, long time ago – if you can believe it – the station played music. But, those days are also coming to a close. There has been shift to reality based programming, leaving the television jukebox that once existed to be put on pause. The show’s cancellation just proves that the stop button has been pressed. The music has ceased.

Recent years have shown views that if you want music, you watch TRL. Once the final episode airs on November 8, it will be an end of an era. If teenagers aren’t being granted their daily dosage of their top ten favorite pop songs on an after school television, where are they going to get it?

The shows Executive Producer Dave Sirulnick told the Associated Press that MTV made the final decision because they, “…want to close this era of TRL in a big celebratory way, and 10 is a great number. This feels like the right time and let’s celebrate it and let’s reward it.”

So, is this the right time to celebrate and reward a show that’s brought the most popular songs to life through video for the past decade? If the reward is a lack of music on a station that was named “music television”, maybe it’s a blessing in disguise.

The future of music on MTV is up in the air now. Ex-MTV Video Jockey Dave Holmes still doesn’t see the point in the stations choice to cut the show from its programming. “I don't understand how it doesn't make sense to at least keep it on,” he said in an exclusive interview with Defamer.com. “I mean, it's MTV's last music show, it's like their little clubhouse.”

If MTV knows what’s good for them, they’ll put music back in the programming rotation. They got it right in 1981, so they can do it again. This is just one of those cases where people realize they miss what they have once they don’t have it anymore.

But for now, we have to face it – the MTV generation is over. The music is gone. They might as well just take away the “M”. It doesn’t stand for anything anymore.

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