Posted by Andrew Unterberger on 01/26/2012 at 5:52 PM Videos

The Popdust Files: documentaries, mariah carey, trl, upcoming movies, vh1

Pop fans between the ages of 15 and 25, prepare to relieve a crucial part of your musical youth—”The TRL Decade,” VH1′s RockDoc look at one of the most pivotal TV programs from the last 20 years of popular music, is airing over the weekend. The doc looks at the ten-year run of MTV’s video request countdown Total Request Live, which became familiarly and then officially known as TRL. Within months of its 1998 debut, the show became a must-watch among teenagers, made a star out of host Carson Daly and helped make the teen-pop boom of the turn of the century—Backstreet Boys, NSync, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, and so on—the center of the Top 40 universe.

“The TRL Decade” will feature interviews with such key players as Daly, NSync’s Lance Bass, Kid Rock and KoRn—don’t forget the bands of nu metal and the rap/rock revolution were nearly as indebted to TRL for their fantastic success as any of Max Martin’s acolytes—and will look back on the show’s enduring influence, as well as some of the more surreal moments from its decade-long run. (We only hope Mariah Carey and ice cream will be involved somewhere.) You can even watch some preview clips of interviews with some of the show’s subjects—including Daly recounting how he snubbed Lady Gaga back in the day (“How was I to know that you were gonna be in an egg later in life?“) and Kid Rock sharing the code he had with the Beastie Boys for some of the cooler BSB and NSync members (“GGBB—Good guys, bad band”)

Watch ‘em below, set your DV-Rs for VH1 on 9:30 this Sunday, and feel impossibly nostalgic for a time when Carson Daly was considered cool enough to date both Jennifer Love Hewitt and Tara Reid.

[EW]