I guess I’ve written about Super Bowl halftime shows a lot.
Truly truly entertainment by committee. It’s so interesting to see a show that A LOT of people had to give thumbs up to beforehand.
The halftime show has one goal, which is: for you to watch it (aka to keep you from switching the channel)
It doesn’t matter how many people thought it was good or bad or whether you thought it was too this or too that, it only matters that you (and lots of others) watched. Then powers-that-be can take that number and charge more for ads next year.
Sure the Super Bowl halftime show gets advertised (ironically) as musical expression, self expression, culture, history, unity, etc…and true, that’s in there too. But that’s not why the show exists. If the show has all of those things but no eye balls, the show goes away.
And the interesting thing is the show only has to be good enough for people to watch it ONCE. The show doesn’t go on the road. They don’t have to do a good job tonight so the people will hear about it in the next town over and come out the following night.
It only has to be good enough so people will endure it.
It’s a low bar. And the NFL has a way of at least hitting that.
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Drop me an email: gabe@gabethebassplayer.com