Another halftime show has ended in controversy. During the recent Super Bowl Halftime Show, Madonna and several Musical Acts of today performed. Madonna performed several classics and a new song as part of the show, and many people had opinions on how good, or bad Madonna was. But the focus after the game has been on British singer MIA who decided to remind the audience how many points the New England Patriots were leading by at halftime—either that or she was telling the audience that she was the star. Regardless, this is now the second big musical halftime production in 9 years that has ended in controversy. The first one, when Janet Jackson showed a little too much of her body to MTV’s initial approval, ended up forcing MTV to all-reality TV and sending a lot of shock jocks (including Howard Stern) to either early retirement or satellite radio. In this instance, both the NFL and NBC immediately condemned the middle finger, but the aftershocks are still yet to be felt. Perhaps the biggest effect of this incident may be the end of the Big Music Name Halftime Show.
Ever since Ms. Jackson got nasty in Houston, the NFL and network TV has tried to tow the line between playing it safe and entertaining the audience with legendary names in music. Some have worked well (Bruce Springsteen and Paul McCartney are examples) and some have not panned out well (like Tom Petty and The Black-Eyed Peas). Madonna has had more positive feedback than negative in this version, and personally, I think she would have been nice without the additional singers. When the best guest singer was last seen at last year’s Grammy’s dressed up as a big parrot with rejects from Jim Henson singing a song called, “F**k you”, you need to dump the back-up crew.
If you want to make a statement, the Grammy’s or the MTV Music Awards is the place to do it, not in front of over a billion people watching a sporting event. This is exactly what the NFL did not need, and the knee-jerk reaction will probably be the reason next year’s Super Bowl Halftime show will feature Up With People (and nobody wants to see THAT).
Of course, some people are defending MIA’s right to “Express Herself”, and many of these people are the same ones who will crucify any larger than life leader (they have been probably piling on the deceased Joe Paterno in recent weeks, but that’s for another post). My response? The NFL watched the rehearsal and did not see MIA do that in practice. MIA decided to wait until the real show to pull her attention-getting stunt. That was premeditated.
Here’s an idea: it’s time to end the Practice of Using Big Name Music Acts as the Super Bowl Halftime Entertainment. If you want to have a music act, why not a marching band, like they do it at many halftime football games? Why not invite the reigning DCI World Champions to be the Halftime Entertainment? Many who are musically inclined (especially with Bands) will stick around, while those who aren’t will take a break to watch something else. Do we really need to keep audiences in their chairs for four hours straight?
You know the day is coming when some musical act will lie about their intentions and use their halftime show as a protest of their own. That will probably kill the Halftime Show altogether. Also, not everyone will be completely satisfied with the Big Name Choices for Halftime and will have already made up their minds before the show, no matter how good or bad it was. You could see it in last night’s comments on Facebook and Yahoo!.
In the end, the NFL can tell me to take my opinions and go away. But, I’m just offering a little advice. It’s time the NFL did away with the Big Production Shows and just focus on the Game.
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