I know the only bitching I recall for the Shakira Jlo *** shaking competition was from prudes and their opinions don't matter anyhow. Model every show after that one and I'll probably hang out in living room longer at halftime.
Highest rated Super Bowl ever.
- Thread starter DesotoCountyDawg
- Start date
I'm gonna confess something here: I paused the tv at halftime to go outside for a few minutes, and when I came back in I vienna-sausage-fingered the remote and went back live. I saw the last 10 seconds of the show, maybe. I was gonna go back and watch, never did.
Some people like to switch up targets. Then there are other people who just love to hit the same outrage target over... and over... and over again.
That Shakira/JLo show was one of my favorites of all time. Of course, 'mute' is my favorite button of all time.
That was the only problem I had with the halftime show this year... there was nothing to watch. Even the one female they had on there had on like a full body suit. Disappointing. You want to put a rapper up there, fine, but the people deserve some twerking, dammit.
Correct. If people are going to get big mad at the halftime show, they owe us at least the courtesy of half naked women.
Yup. Just like with TV and other entertainment, the music market is much more fractured than in the past, which is largely a good thing. It means more people are getting more music tailored to their individual tastes.
There just isn't a super star today that is transcendental, like say a Michael Jackson, and would appeal to the vast majority of people. The closest I can think of are maybe Taylor Swift and Beyonce, which obviously are not going to be what most guys want to watch.
A quick google search shows the highest grossing tours in 2024 were Taylor Swift, Coldplay, P!nk, Luis Miguel, and Bruce Springsteen.
The most streamed artists were Taylor Swift, The Weeknd (don't know who this is; assume I would recognize a song?); Bad Bunny (same); Drake, Billie Eilish, Ariana Grande, Kaney West, Peso Pluma, Travis Scott, and Bruno Mars.
Certainly some of those seem like a better option than Kendrick Lamar to me, but most of them seem worse.
ETA: Knowing that you can't make everybody happy, I think the goal of the halftime show should be simple. Combine the most exciting current live performers that appeal to both men and women with enough scantily dressed women that people complain but not enough that the FCC fines them.
I thought the same thing when I saw it, "Hey, way to go whatever your name is, I love America too!"... but then I've read a few tweets explaining that I'm an idiot and that he wasn't being patriotic, he was making a statement about how this country is racist and was built on the backs of black men. If that's what he meant with the show, it totally went over my head.
Or maybe the tweeters were idiots and Kendrick Lamar really is super patriotic. Now I don't know what to think about him. Which I guess puts me exactly back where I was on Sunday before halftime when I had never heard any of his songs.
Yes, because every halftime show is basically the same genre. Last 5 are:
- 2025: Kendrick Lamar with special guest SZA
- 2024: Usher with special guests Alicia Keys, Jermaine Dupri, H.E.R., will.i.am, Lil Jon, Ludacris
- 2023: Rihanna
- 2022: Eminem, Dr. Dre. Snoop Dogg, Kendrick Lamar and Mary J. Blige
- 2021: The Weeknd
When can we get back to the good ole days where we have to complain about Janet Jackson showing her titties?
I took the halftime opportunity to put my toddler to bed. After my 4-5 repertoire of songs was done I returned to the den. I was surprised the show was already over; missed the whole thing. I was a tad interested, only because my stepson had mentioned something about dissing a pedo.
This thread (and the other) is funny to me. We have people bltching about the show, people bltching about people bltching, and the same players turning it political.
My guess is I wouldn't have cared for it. But, I'm also not the target audience. Prince and Tom Petty will always be my favorites, actually held off the pee break for those, but in my early 40's I'm too old to be greatly influenced by the machine. Unfortunately, I'm not immune to advertising, but I'm not the one any of this is intended for any longer.
That said, people are allowed to bltch about it, hate it, and share it here. That's why we all keep coming back.
Nothing you're saying is wrong; I'd only add that the Super Bowl Halftime Show itself further complicates who the performer will be. My understanding is that the artist isn't paid in any way so I'd guess some just are not going to do that. Not to mention if the artist is on tour.
Hear me out:
Super Bowl LX -- JOURNEY
And not the little Filipino guy, Steve Perry comes back and kicks *** on DSB, Wheel in the Sky, Separate Ways, Open Arms, and a special rendition of Oh Sherry before Neal Schon goes ape shiit and breaks his guitar over Perry's head after being forced to play a solo for that song.
And in general, the Chiefs have just become the brand that people love to hate, like any dynasty. Eagles are pretty popular too. Only way to have been bigger was maybe if the Lions had made it or something.
Funny you mentioned The Weeknd. He was the halftime show in 2021.
Coldplay and The Boss have also done the Super Bowl (from johnson's list)
I thought the same thing when I saw it, "Hey, way to go whatever your name is, I love America too!"... but then I've read a few tweets explaining that I'm an idiot and that he wasn't being patriotic, he was making a statement about how this country is racist and was built on the backs of black men. If that's what he meant with the show, it totally went over my head.
Or maybe the tweeters were idiots and Kendrick Lamar really is super patriotic. Now I don't know what to think about him. Which I guess puts me exactly back where I was on Sunday before halftime when I had never heard any of his songs.
I complained about the nipple cover. I will go on record for that.
For the average person that takes entirely too much effort to interpret being its halftime of a sporting event.
I'm gonna guess that the network knows that a large portion of the viewers couldn't care less who the halftime show is and they basically cater to the portion that does care about it. To me halftime is the time to get a fresh drink, enjoy some good food and shoot the shiat (when you're younger it's also a great time to ogle some of the female guests). My interest in ANY halftime show = my interest in watching marching bands.
Well, you must be rayciss then, because that's exactly what's being run around.
Back in the old days (80's and back), when everyone listened to the radio - music was much more "for" everyone. Like if I had the radio on, I might hear AC/DC, then the Doobie Brothers, then Kool & The Gang, then The Cars. All good music. If you went outside popular music in any direction - you bought your own cassette tapes of Dio, Dokken, Run DMC or 2 Live Crew... which I also did. But you could always go back to the radio and hear the familiar hits.
Point is, like you said - Michael Jackson (Prince, Rolling Stones, whoever) were all mostly on the same radio station and familiar to everyone back then. Nowadays you have way more homogenized radio stations: country, hip hop, oldies, whatever, and that's all you get unless you go searching out all genres.
It's too bad, really, because I always liked all kinds of music, and still might if I ever heard it all. But it's too easy to listen to my own playlists now, so when the first time I've literally ever heard a Kendrick Lamar song is at the SB halftime show... it doesn't hit the same.
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I miss the brief point in time when In Living Color had a halftime show and we flipped as quick as we could to not miss a single second of it. Have no clue what act was halftime then.
I recall flipping back and forth from The Bud Bowl to something else, I just can't recall what the something was.
I remember I posted in that year’s Sixpack Super Bowl halftime show sucks thread about how I like The Weeknd and thought it was a great show, and I got downvoted into oblivion. I think it is the most disliked post I’ve ever had on this site.
Okay, I'm wide awake now. But if this is all true and really what KL was trying to do, it makes me wonder: as a grownass man with years of fairly extensive real world experience, a decently-functioning brain, and at least a partially clear-eyed view of the world... if I missed every single bit of symbolism on that list... is it really reaching an intended audience? And who the hell IS the intended audience for all that deep thinking?
Some interesting 2024 factoids.... I have not heard 1 song from any of the below. Kendrick released his top album "Damn" in 2017. "Not Like Us" was released in 2024 and apparently "diss" tracks are the thing that sells the most (how petty and disappointing is that).
Top 5 highest selling albums of 2024:
Top 5 highest selling albums of 2024:
- “The Tortured Poets Department” by Taylor Swift: 3,491,000 sales
- “Hit Me Hard and Soft” by Billie Eilish: 570,000 sales
- “Days Before Rodeo” by Travis Scott: 493,000 sales
- “Short N’ Sweet” by Sabrina Carpenter: 484,000 sales
- “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess” by Chappelle Roan: 472,000 sales.
- “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” by Shaboozey: 912.7 million streams
- “Not Like Us” by Kendrick Lamar: 823.5 million streams
- “I Had Some Help” by Post Malone ft. Morgan Wallen: 822.9 million streams
- “Beautiful Things” by Benson Boone: 800.5 million streams
- “Lose Control” by Teddy Swims: 785.8 million streams
Not really picking on you directly - but a good place to respond. Most people are going to go into halftime shows expecting mindless entertainment. If you were expecting Shakira to shake her *** or Hank Jr sing "Are you ready for some football", you really aren't going to be in the frame of mind to pick up on an entertainer known for all sorts of deeper meanings in his music and performances. The people that picked up on it were waiting for it. The people that were there for shallower stuff didn't. Hell, I like Kendrick a lot and I really wasn't in the mood to think too hard bc it's the damn Super Bowl and time for me to zone out. I was bored with it real time.
But maybe the retrospective look back was the point and he got his message across the way he intended: "oh you mean Uncle Sam and the flag imagery wasn't patriotic?!? [rabble rabble rabble]"
When is the Kendrick posse going to start drawing guns on the drake posse? That's what rappers with heat on each other do, this is more like a junior high blast book of "yo mama" jokes.
Then the pearl-clutchers would have changed the cry to "think of the children having to see that!"
