MuchMusic’s new YouTube channel Much Rewind is a time machine back to the glory days

Since MuchMusic died in 2006, after Bell Media began gutting Canada’s answer to MTV, fans have been begging the company to digitize and release its archive of over 45,000 tapes. But a mix of issues—mainly record label disputes around fair-use rights—has delayed the rollout. Now, Bell has finally launched Much Rewind, a YouTube channel that will slow-drip VHS-era content from MuchMusic’s golden years straight into Canada’s nostalgic veins.

Given the copyright minefield around streaming live performances from Much’s former 299 Queen West studio, the channel is starting with vintage lo-fi interviews, where VJs vamp through tech glitches and stars deliver surprisingly candid hot takes. Rumour has it that Tupac’s last interview—as well as one of Kurt Cobain’s final appearances—may be hidden somewhere in the largely unseen archive.

Related: This director mortgaged his house to make a documentary about MuchMusic

New videos will be added weekly, but for now, viewers can fall asleep with laptops balanced on their stomachs to six grainy interviews: Missy Elliott dripping in outfitted yellow Adidas, teenage Christina Aguilera sporting barely there brows, aloof Eminem wearing an audibly wind-breaking tracksuit, newly solo Gwen Stefani flanked by dancers who stay frozen in place, extra-salty Noel Gallagher chatting rubbish about the Spice Girls, and high-schooler Aaliyah wearing thick shades and talking about convicted felon R. Kelly’s “positive influence”—a moment that now lands as deeply chilling.

The launch of Much Rewind follows a 2021 revival of the brand via TikTok. Arguably, Much originally sank when, like a fading Hollywood star, it began chasing a younger audience instead of growing up along with its loyal fans. Much Rewind, by contrast, seems aimed at the Gen Xers and millennials who lived through MuchMusic’s heyday—and at their younger counterparts raised on curated clips of a romantic past.

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Still, even if all we have left of the iconic Canadian media outlet is a haunted house, at least its ghosts are fun to hang out with.