I
have an experiment to conduct. Starts with this…
The
Super Bowl. Specifically, consider halftime performers. Can you
name three of the past five halftime performers? I have a funny
feeling that most people will have more success when it comes
to naming folks that sang the National Anthem than they will of
names from halftime performers.
But
that’s just a funny feeling. In truth, the Super Bowl halftime
performer role may simply be the Kobayashi Maru of show business
for musicians. It also might just be, bar none, annually the biggest
performance slot in the world.
This
thought crept into my head as the game approached recently. It
seems as if every year, there’s a great deal of fanfare given
to the halftime performer. It starts even before the official
announcement, with fairly well-publicized whispers and leaks hitting
the news and making the media rounds. Once the NFL-logo-seal-of-approval
is stamped on it, hype shifts to another level as we’re promised
do-not-miss level excitement of a hitherto-unseen brilliance.
And as the smoke is drifting away, the notes still ringing in
the atmosphere, that same hype machine brands that very performance
as the greatest that ever was.
And
yet, we don’t remember it.
Oh,
sure, Prince and U2 have delivered exceptional efforts in the
Super Bowl shadow. But you never just randomly think of them.
Seriously, Prince at the halftime of the Super Bowl or Prince
during the George Harrison tribute of a Rock & Roll Hall of
Fame induction show? Which one comes to mind more often and more
easily?
For
every great one, there’s something like Bruce Springsteen and
the E Street Band being swallowed up and largely a shoulder shrug.
It’s not that the effort, from a tremendous group—and, should
be noted, a group quite accustomed to stages of this size—was
poor in quality. For Springsteen, more a case of wrong place and
wrong crowd. Bad match for a live show of roughly thirteen minutes.
We
can also note, there have been some simply brutally horrendous
shows, which we need not mention specifically here.
As
to our quiz, I’m sorry if you answered Lady Gaga. With the February
2024 event over, she was eight Super Bowls ago. Katy Perry was
ten. If you said Lady Gaga or Katy Perry, in addition to being
wrong you’re assisting me in making my point. Even when great,
they just aren’t memorable. Even when they ride in on a gigantic
lion or jump off the roof of the stadium, they don’t stay with
you.
There’s
this collection of thoughts that occasionally come up surrounding
an event. Labels are attached that scream do not miss. They’re
supposed to be what everyone will be talking about. And then,
repeatedly, time after time, nobody is.
I
think that element of it all that upsets me the most is the after-event
presentation of claims that it was the best ever. Often at the
Super Bowl halftime, two minutes in, you’ve already forgotten
what song is playing. You already know the full quarter of an
hour is going to be a mess. And you already know there will be
claims it was perfect and legendary. People will be calling it
an immediate classic.
Ugh.
Why
is that upsetting? Because not-too-long thereafter, nothing.
Maybe
it’s impossible for anything to live up to such intense spotlights,
such incredible coverage, such a whirlwind of activity in all
areas. The pregame shows last weeks. Just the focus on the performers
singing before the game generates thousands of hours of collected
reporting in newspapers, on radio and on television. In fact—the
game—even the game itself annually gets swept away by the raging
floodwaters of spectacle.
Let’s
finish with another experiment, since I believe you may be reading
some of these words in disbelief.
Consider
the Super Bowl. Specifically, winning teams. Can you name the
past five Super Bowl winning teams?
I
already know the answer.
And:
(1) You can’t. (2) You’re ticked you can’t, since one team won
more than one (and actually, three of the five so you only need
to come up with three names). (3) You’re forgetting the Los Angeles
Rams.
Another
assist in making my point. But next year, whoever is playing,
whoever is performing, it will absolutely be a do-not-miss that
you won’t remember. (Copy, paste, repeat.)