Beavis, Britney & Backstreet

It was a good day in the constant battle to torment a 16-year-old brother: I caught him watching "TRL."\nQuickly he changed the channel, ashamed to be absorbing the "whoosh" being screamed from the adolescent, brace-faced girls in the crowd. Yes! I finally caught him watching Britney & 'NSYNC, the pop stars that he claims to loathe as he bumps the Trick Daddy from his Pathfinder.\n"TRL," the show at the forefront of MTV's music dynasty, has captivated nearly every kid from the little blonde Backstreet fanatic to the middle school Abercrombie-wearing kids who think Puffy and Eminem are gods. With its way-cool host Carson Daly, "TRL" is just one of MTV's successful spots that have catapulted it to the top of the ratings for the coveted teenage viewing market.\nAll this before the cable network turns the big 2-0.\nWhile major networks turn a higher profit and have a more diversified viewing audience viewing audience, MTV has undisputedly conquered the world of music, buying out any form of real competition from the Box (now MTV2) to CMT.\nOnly BET, with its hip-hop rip-off of "TRL," "106 & Park," even dares to brave the cable music world.\nAlas, for those of you closet Christina, Jessica and Britney fans, all good things must come to an end, and no one seems to know that better than MTV. While MTV is like totally pop land right now (just check out the "Mandy" show), they have ridden the wave of every trend since their birth.\nNot too long ago they were lost in the grunge world of Nirvana and shortly after they jumped on the 20 inch rims of gangsta rap, becoming down with rappers like Snoop Dogg and Tupac Shakur. The future is only as certain as the realness of Britney's boobs and with A.J. from Backstreet in rehab, maybe pop music is on its way out.\nWith loyalties only to the trends of the moment, MTV moves with the culture of its audience, entertaining boy bands while they sell albums but quick to kick them out on their gelled heads when the next trend comes into play. Just ask the New Kids.\nMTV has become an icon for my generation and those following because of their grasp of the music trends, their shows that push the envelope and their variety of entertainment from the "Celebrity Deathmatch" claymation that I hate to the "Real World" that I love.\nIn the past 20 years MTV has been the first at many things. The first to push artists Michael Jackson and Madonna into superstardom. The first music channel to host its own movie and video awards ceremonies. The first channel to make cartoon characters that cussed and drank (and then the first to be dumb enough to take it to the big screen). MTV was even the first to jump headfirst into the reality television market, now airing its tenth season of the "Real World."\nMTV has put together successful combinations of programs that fit the needs of their young adult market. It has become a staple in the plans of both teens and twenty-somethings.\nWhile admitting to love for 'NSYNC might not be the best way to look cool on a college campus, I am the first to admit that I am definitely on the MTV pop bandwagon. I like to catch "TRL" when I can, I do think Carson is hot and until an angry boy threw them out the window, I owned nearly every boy band album of our time.\nLast year when "Real World" Hawaii ended and Amaya, the ice princess that I loved sang, I cried. When "Singled Out" with Jenny McCarthy and then Carmen Electra was cancelled, I boycotted. And the first time I saw former VJ Simon Rex, I realized I was finally in love.\nBut MTV is much more than pop and entertaining television shows. MTV's "Choose or Lose" voting campaign sent young adults to the polls. When Pedro from "The Real World" died from AIDS, MTV was at the forefront of making a statement about HIV and getting the information out to their viewers about the deadly virus.\nWhen Kurt Cobain committed suicide, MTV was the first to educate teens about depression and suicide, offering help in every way from counseling hotlines to education for parents. \nWhile many connoisseurs of music speak in disgust about the sugared boy bands that filled MTV, the history shows that MTV has only reflected the likes of the times and will change when the majority of their viewers switch the tunes in their Discmans. Like it or not, MTV is central to the music world, artists claim to have truly "made it" when their video is on "TRL" or is brand spankin' new on Ananda's Hot Zone.\nMTV should be celebrated for what it is: an icon of the generations that have mourned Nirvana, become distraught over Pac and Biggie and embraced Backstreet.\nHappy 20th MTV, thank you for supporting Britney, for canceling Jenny McCarthy's show, for letting us know Pedro (and Puck and sexy Eric Nies), for telling Beavis and Butthead to do America and for following music in every direction it has headed.\nJust cancel the "Mandy" show and bring back my Simon Rex, or better yet send him over to Indiana, and I promise I will stay loyal through the next cycle, even if it is grunge again.