The changing of tastes

I guess it's more evidence that youth is being served.

I’d be down with this one.

While Donald Trump may be extinguishing war in the Middle East and other far-flung parts of the world, this humorous attempt at domestic tranquility succeeds because the culture war is alive and well here.

Last month we learned that the coveted gig of Super Bowl halftime performer would go to Puerto Rican artist Bad Bunny, a “reggaeton” singer whose selection drove everyone in America over 50 to Google just who the heck he was. (And seeing photos of him in a mini skirt, they were sorry they did.) Despite his vow to not perform again on the mainland in protest of President Trump’s immigration policies, apparently money and the chance at a huge captive audience talk louder. Nor is he a stranger to the Super Bowl stage: in 2020 he was part of the ensemble supporting headliners Shakira and Jennifer Lopez.

It’s an interesting choice because Bad Bunny performs in Spanish, and on a Saturday Night Live appearance after the announcement he also did the monologue in Spanish, telling the audience at the end in English they had four months to learn what he had just said.

In a way, though, this is what the National Football League wants as part of its effort to make football a global game. Each year an expanding number of games are played overseas, and while their effort at establishing a spring/summer league in Europe didn’t pan out, the game is extremely popular there. They’re playing to a youthful global audience as opposed to its core constituency of middle American Boomers and GenXers who grew up watching the NFL in the era of Terry Bradshaw, Barry Sanders, William “the Refrigerator” Perry, and John Elway, among many others.

It’s interesting to me that the “modern” Super Bowl halftime show is a relatively recent creation, given the sixty-year history of the NFL’s championship event. A halftime show with one featured artist wasn’t a thing until 1993, when Michael Jackson was selected to perform in it. Prior to that, there were halftime shows which played to a theme or featured a group - in the 1970s it was oftentimes “Up With People” - but not one where it was devoted to a single performer singing his or her songs.

But after the King of Pop, and the next decade or so, Boomers and GenX had their moments as musical icons like Diana Ross, Aerosmith, Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, U2, Prince, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Bruce Springsteen, and The Who, among others, were tapped to perform. There were also a couple country-themed shows in there as well.

The whole reason MJ got the gig in the first place, however, was in response to counterprogramming from the Fox network in the previous season, when they did a special episode of In Living Color during the Super Bowl halftime. They found out that a lot of people tuned out the CBS halftime salute to the 1992 Winter Olympics and flipped over to watch the Wayans Brothers and crew instead. Two snaps up!

This year the counterprogramming is slated to come from Turning Point USA, which revealed last week that they would do an “All American Halftime Show” with artists to be revealed in due course. A lot of people have suggested Lee Greenwood of God Bless the USA fame, with others wishing for Staind singer Aaron Lewis (as a solo artist), the Motor City Madman, Ted Nugent, or fellow Detroiter Kid Rock.

The Creed idea came from Jack Posobiec, who was talking about a show they did at Thanksgiving 2001 in Dallas. (How did I miss that? Must have been eating the leftovers or in a tryptophan coma at the time. Either that or playing cutthroat UNO, which was a Swartz family tradition.) Having a few of their CDs buried in a box someplace (My Own Prison, Human Clay, and Weathered) I’d be down with that. I’ve been feeling rusted and weathered, barely holding together of late myself.

But wouldn’t something like TPUSA is proposing be the Boomer and GenX revenge? If you figure the Super Bowl halftime runs about 45 minutes in real time, you could easily get four artists doing two songs apiece. Given that last year’s Super Bowl was already 24-0 at halftime and well on its way to a blowout, the Turning Point organizers may want to run an extended version and keep their audience. After all, a large percentage of the people who watch the Super Bowl do so for the commercials, anyway. They can watch most of the spots on video, and even if TPUSA peels off just 10 percent of the Super Bowl audience, that’s 12-13 million people.

And wouldn’t you rather have 12 million people seeing a message of faith, family, and freedom than something they can’t understand anyway? I can always see what the score of the Super Bowl is online, so unless my Detroit Lions are playing and dominating, counterprogram away TPUSA.

In the meantime, though, you can Buy Me a Coffee, since I have a page there now.