The music countdown show format is about as old as cable television itself. It's evolved tremendously over the decades, though -- with this generation of teens becoming the sole benefactors of the YouTube era. However, it wasn't too long ago MTV's TRL, or Total Request Live, show revolutionized the concept.
Call it good timing or extreme luck to have a show like that appear at the rise of bubble gum pop acts like The Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, *N Sync, 98 Degrees, and more, but you can't argue the show was pretty fun to watch -- even as a guilty pleasure. It didn't take long for BET decided it needed it's own flagship countdown program to put a heavier focus on the hip-hop and R&B scene.
In 2000, the network launched 106 & Park --- which is a very uninspired title, even if the show was originally filmed on East 106th Street and Park Ave. in Harlem, New York (It's now moved to a new location thanks to Viacom owning it, yet for some reason it's not called "Viacom's Bitch-Ass Countdown". I take it they didn't like my suggestion?).
Due to my personal boycott of everything BET from, erm, my childhood to 2006, I barely have any memories of the early years when the show was hosted by A.J. and Free. (Don't ask me why I didn't watch BET.. It just never appealed to me. Like it's some legal obligation of mine to watch that crap simply because of my skin color. Negro, please.)
For whatever reason though, they left the program. BET later replaced them with Terrence J. and Rocsi -- who I guess won some bull shit "New Faces Contest". Whatever. Either way, about the same time I started paq-land.com (beginning of '06) is about the same time these two doofuses started on the show. So, since then, I've probably watched way more BET than the average person with a working brain should. I should sue for irreversable brain damage, but I'd lose because I voluntarily tuned in, haha.
Maybe I'm just getting too old for this, but as noted on the site over the last couple of years, I pretty much HATE this damn show. The only reason you'll ever see me watching this is to complain about it even more.
I've seen old clips of A.J. and Free hosting and they seem like tolerable people and just overall cool folk. It's a stark contrast to what we have to put up with these days. Terrence and Rocsi are like that annoying couple you knew back in high school that just made you want to throw up in your mouth a little bit. For starters, Rocsi has the most annoying voice I've heard in a hot minute. It sounds like she just swallowed a bunch of thumb tacks and washed those down with a Big Gulp of rusted nails while trying to do an impression of Fran Drescher from The Nanny. To make matters worse, I don't even see what the big deal is with her in the looks department.
It's not that I don't dig Hispanic bitches -- I love gettin' my Reeses swirl on; I just don't dig her. How in the world did she get the cover to the June 2007 issue of King? I guess they just love to throw skinny, short bus lookin', Marge Simpson-sounding-ass skeezers on the cover and hope it sells, I guess? I fully expect to anger a boatload of dudes with my opinions, and I don't care. Get better taste in women, wipe your ass, and shut the hell up. Next.
Terrence just tries too hard. I mean, look at him. He just seems like a fake-ass dude to me. From the clothes he wears to how he carries himself seems kind of suspect. I can't stand the fucker. If you want to have some fun, make a drinking game out of how many times he says "It's a recession, y'all" and I promise you will be passed out drunk by the 3rd video on the countdown. Speaking of overly used phrases, count how many times in one week Rocsi mentions some variation of "That's a good look". And I thought Ashanti saying "Baby" 400 times a song was bad...
Another issue I have with 106 is the music that appears. Granted, I fully understand that the show is not aiming for my demographic (smart people), but I get sick of watching either tired-ass R&B videos or horrible rap videos day in and day out. It's like the dumb kids who actually vote this garbage on have no real taste in music. In TRL's defense, even at it's peak in the late 90s/early 00s in the midst of a pop invasion, respectable videos from bands like Korn, (the then cool) Limp Bizkit, and Linkin Park easily made it a good position, if not topping out at number one.
On 106, it's always the same shit. If it's not Soulja Boy, Beyoncé, Bow Wow, Plies, or some other random flavor of the week it's not going to be shown. I have the audience figured out so much I can tell you if a new debuting video will be on the countdown or not. These mindless sheep hate to try anything new and would much rather vote on some retarded vile from DJ Unk over Lupe Fiasco or Gym Class Heroes.
This is what I was alluding to when I said Soulja Boy is killing these young kid's minds with his crap. They really don't know any better. I'd say the only way for a new artist to break into the top 10 is to make some dumb dance song (i.e., The G-Spot Boyz' "Stanky Legg". And yes, that's the title. I can't make this shit up myself; I'm not that funny.)
Besides the questionable tastes in music, they try to liven things up a bit by having special segments on certain days like "Wild Out Wednesday" (W.O.W.) and "Freestyle Friday". As long as I've been putting up with the show, I can never make it through a W.O.W. segment. It usually features dance crews from across the country gettin' jiggy with it for about a minute in a competition the viewers instantly vote on. Folks, I hate America's Best Dance Crew on MTV. I can never watch an entire episode of that, so what makes you think I can sit through about 5 minutes of the same shit (sans Lil' Mama)?
Freestyle Friday would be entertaining if the show wasn't pre-taped. Then the guys battle rapping might slip up and cuss on national television. If you don't know, the two MCs have to keep it squeaky clean or suffer a DQ, which in effect defeats the entire purpose of battling another guy in a rap. You guys might say "well, that means he's a good lyricist then". Um, no. If I see two guys go at it on the mic, I need to hear some foul stuff. While there have been some funny lines on the segment I've heard, I barely get hyped to see it and don't even care if I'm off taking a crap while it's going on and miss it.
106 & Park is a 90 minute snapshot of Black pop culture. The only problem is, it doesn't look flattering. As The Boondocks pointed out in season 2, BET really doesn't care how we're portrayed on national television. The network as a whole is pretty slack and really deserves it's own article, but given this show is the number one rated program on it, I can't help but place a majority of the blame on 106's shoulders. It comes on at 6 in the evening so it's a prime slot for kids and teens because they're all home from school/extracurricular activities by then. Of course they're going to watch it and get brainwashed. Oh yeah, the network heads know exactly what they're doing.
I don't give the show much longer, though. While these kids now are under 106's voodoo, they'll grow up and realize better music exists. I have that much faith in them still. I'm predicting the show will be on the chopping block just like TRL was after it overstayed it's welcome in 2008.
