This Is What MTV’s ‘TRL’ Top 10 Looked Like This Week In The Year 2000

For most millennials, ’10 years ago’ will almost always certainly refer to the year 2000. They can be 50 or 60 years old and ’10 years ago’ will still signify the days when Carson Daly and Damien Fahey were the daily afternoon hosts of TRL on MTV.

Obviously, the year 2000 was 26 years ago and not a decade in the past but that’s just how millennial’s brains work. Which is why the MTV TRL top 10 from this week back in the year 2000 both seems like it happened in another lifetime and in the not-too-distant past.

Here’s What The MTV TRL Top 10 Looks Like This Week In The Year 2000

Since today is as good as any to take a leisurely walk down memory lane, let’s run it back with what the Total Request Live ‘Top 10’ looked like during this week back in the year 2000, starting with Beyoncé back when she was simply a member of Destiny’s Child and had yet to become one of the biggest recording artists in music history.

10. ‘Say My Name’ by Destiny’s Child

From Destiny’s Child’s second album, The Writing’s on the Wall (1999), this song had extreme staying power on MTV‘s TRL. It also spent 32 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100.

After dominating the Total Reqeust Live top 10 for what seemed like forever, ‘Say My Name’ would go on to win the 2000 MTV Video Music Award for Best R&B Video. These days it live sprimarily on YouTube where ‘Say My Name’ has racked up 436 million views, the 4th most of any song in this top 10.

9. ‘Forgot About Dre’ by Dr. Dre feat. Eminem

This was the second single from Dr. Dre’s 2001 album which marked a return to rapping of sorts, after spending years in the recording booth. While this is a Dr. Dre song to be sure, this track is emblematic of how rappers often say it’s a blessing and a curse to have Eminem on a song because he completely steals the show. Bar for bar, this might be Eminem‘s best cameo on any track.

After its release, ‘Forgot About Dre’ would win the Grammy Award for ‘Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group’ in February 2001 at the 43rd Annual Grammy Awards. These days, the song has 283 million views on YouTube and still has some of the best instrumentals of any rap track of the era.

8. ‘The Bad Touch’ by The Bloodhound Gang

At #8 is ‘The Bad Touch’ by The Bloodhound Gang which has 537 million views on YouTube making it the 2nd-most watched video of any on this list, a testament to its staying power throughout the years. It was originally a massive hit in Europe before catching on in the USA thanks to MTV’s TRL.

To this day, you’d be hard-pressed to find any elder millennial that couldn’t sing this entire song word for word from memory at the drop of a hat. The video had controversy, to be sure, but that only made it more popular at the time.

7. ‘Adam’s Song’ by Blink-182

‘Adam’s Song’ appeared on Blink-182‘s third studio album, Enema of the State (1999). Co-written by Mark Hoppus and Tom DeLonge, the song tells the story of youth depression, loneliness, and the dark places that can lead to. I lost my brother two years before this song came out and to this day I can’t listen to ‘Adam’s Song’ without tearing up, which isn’t exactly what you’d expect from most Blink-182 songs.

The music video was directed by Liz Friedlander who has also directed music videos for Alanis Morissette, U2, Megadeth, Avril Lavigne, John Mayer, Celine Dion, R.E.M., 3 Doors Down, and others in addition to a ton of hit TV shows.

6. ‘Break Stuff’ by Limp Bizkit

‘Break Stuff’ by Limp Bizkit and the #4 song below represent how MTV’s TRL used to feature an eclectic group of songs every show. It wasn’t just one genre these days like we deal with in music streaming services.

The song has 299 million views on YouTube, a testament to its staying power, and the music video has cameos from Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Tony Hawk, and others. It seems fair to say this was when Limp Bizkit was still riding their high though they’d fallen off some after the Woodstock ’99 debacle when this song was played and arguably kicked off the fires and mayhem, only to release the music video on May 2, 2000.

5. ‘I Turn To You’ by Christina Aguilera

Of all the songs on this TRL top 10, this is the one I probably care about the lease. It has 95 million views which means it doesn’t really have any staying power compared to Christina’s other hits. Christina’s version was also just a cover of an All-4-One song and they probably made as much on her covering it and with the subsequent music video as they did on any of their own songs, so at least some people got paid.

4. ‘Make Me Bad’ by Korn

From Korn’s 4th studio album, Issues, ‘Make Me Bad’ peaked at number seven on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart so it was doing better on MTV than it was on the charts. When it was released, this track got a TON of airplay from MTV and MTV2 but really didn’t make its way out of MTV too much. That said, it’s still a banger.

3. ‘Oops!…I Did It Again’ by Britney Spears

With the third-most YouTube views of any song on this list is ‘Oops!…I Did It Again’ by Britney Spears which I’d argue is either first or second when it comes to lasting cultural impact and staying power. This was one of Britney’s biggest hits and she was/is the Princess of Pop.

Released on April 11, 2000, this song hit #1 on the charts in 20 different countries. It won the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance and went 4x Platinum here in the US of A.

2. ‘Thong Song’ by Sisqo

When Sisqo cooked up ‘Thong Song’ he knew he had captured lightning in a bottle. Every burned CD in the year 2000/2001 had this track on it. 99 out of 100 millennials couldn’t name a second Sisqo song but they could tell you every lyric to ‘Thong Song’ word for word. ‘Thong Song’ hit #2 on the Billboard US Rhythmic chart and #1 in the UK and New Zealand.

1. ‘Bye Bye Bye’ by NSYNC

I’m dead serious when I say that if you want to have fun pregaming a night out just go fire up this music video and see where the algorithm takes you. We did this a few months ago and it was an incredible blast from the past.

With 604 million views, it is the most popular song on YouTube from the MTV TRL Top 10 back in the year 2000. *NSYNC went all out for this music video too, as they did with many of their videos. Though it was so high-production value it almost felt as if they made the song specifically for MTV at the time. All things considered, the Backstreet Boys never had anything come even close to this.