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List of Super Bowl halftime shows
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Super_Bowl_halftime_shows

I liked Springsteen's


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Quote:

Quote:

It looked to be like they were lip synching the whole thing.




Yep, that was the first thing I said to my friends. They didn't see it right away but I certainly did.

The musical world is a big place and thankfully there's still a pretty large market for different styles of music but for the biggest stage in the world, the producers wanted the biggest bang for their Superbuck and felt this is now the mainstream.

The point of this thread wasn't so much to critisize the show as to point out that very few of us (if any) have even heard of these performers outside of Madonna herself. Yet, to perform with her at the Superbowl they have to be monster big names in their own right but I have no clue who they are. You know that the young people are pointing to the screen and saying wow, look who that is standing off to the right! Oh yeah, doesn't he look cool in that outfit and talking about his latest hits while I'm sitting there with my thumb up my nose going who the are you talking about? On a certain level I find that disturbing. Musicians are nothing if not plugged into what's happening NOW, baby!

It's now our turn to join our parents and be left in the "what is hip" musical dust. Sigh... All we can do is the same thing our parents did and say, just wait, you're turn's coming.

Where's my Brubeck book?

Bob




Bob, you despair over nothing. Brubeck hasn't been 'hip' to popular culture since what, the 60's? So in effect, you've been in the musical dust for decades.

Pop music has very few examples of musical virtuosity in it, no matter what era you look at. You could take the groups that were popular in your high school days and the people that were 20 years your senior at the time looked down their nose in despair at how poorly they sing, how it's all a bunch of repetition and gyrations, etc. etc. etc. Frankie Valli - is that really singing? Hurts my ears at my 45 years of age.

What is beautiful about today's age, is that you CAN still be popular in your own circle. What does it really matter anyways if you are enjoying making music? If you touch one person's heart with a turn or riff, that's what counts, does it not?

Who cares if the young people can tell who is who on stage? It really doesn't matter. 20 years ago the superbowl halftime show wasn't the blockbuster production that it is now. Had it been, who knows what offal would have been on the show 20 years ago, or 30 years ago?

A great deal of those popular acts will be in the dust as well; one or two hit wonders in a world where YouTube videos of unknown bands can hit millions of views and garner a pretty decent monthly income based on Google Ad revenue. No record company involved.

We can't say that it's all spectacle now, where in the past it wasn't. Simply isn't true. Spectacle has ALWAYS been part of entertainment; that we may not understand or appreciate it now, doesn't mean it hasn't been there in the past. Think of all the doowop-ish bands with all the cool moves. So much of that music sounds like it's the same record on repeat, but man the dance moves were cool. That's musical talent? No, that's spectacle.

Forward to the late 60's with Hendrix lighting his guitar on fire. Really? And Pete Townsend smashing up guitars into amps and what not. That's musical talent? No, that's spectacle.

Forward to the 70's with KISS and Gene Simmons having his tongue surgically extended; fake blood and sparks and platform boots. Spectacle.

80's. Flock of Seagulls - haircuts were spectacle

90's. Paula Abdul - squeaky voice, but she could do the dance moves - spectacle

2000's. I'm drawing a blank here - This is when I quit listening to the radio for the most part, except for podcasts in the mid 2000's where I mostly listened to unknowns.
2010's. Lady Gaga - spectacle

Now, with each of these eras, yes, there was some musical talent that shone through, but the spectacle always accompanied the music. Scale has changed, growing larger, but so have television sets done the same. Pretty common to have at least a 40" diagonal wide screen with 1080p video quality.

What's popular has rarely been associated with what is truly musically interesting or challenging.

Despair ye not and go kick out some cool B3 licks.

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I just noticed this thread, and I also am pretty negative about all that newfangled stuff.

Here's a tune and video that I cobbled together last year the week before the Packers went to Dallas and clobbered Pittsburgh. It is hopelessly corney and dated... just like me, like all my relatives in Wisconsin, and (sigh) like you-all and PG Music. But it has Fergie in it!

But for what it's worth: Cheesehead Polka


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Springsteen was the best in my recent memory. I've become immune to wild outfits and outrageous dancing. It's not even sexy any more. The music was boring.

The commercial with Elton John was pretty good - no coke for you!


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I liked the Chevy truck ad. The rain of frogs was a great finishing touch!


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I loved the line regarding the missing people, "they were driving a Ford".


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I like the "this is the best day of my life" car ad and the Elton John one.



Josie

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Quote:

I loved the line regarding the missing people, "they were driving a Ford".




Yeah, but they were towing Chevy's! Here we go.

Later,

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I though the Audi commercial with the vampire party was pretty good. Enjoyed that one the most, I think.

Mike


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Speaking of stars of yesteryear Bob, check this out:

http://www.wcr.com/page.cfm

World Classic Rockers. I would call them the ultimate cover band. All these slightly second tier former members of some of the biggest rock bands ever are now doing corporate gigs. I heard about them because a friend has a Journey tribute band and is a killer singer. He somehow got hooked up with WCR to do two Journey songs. They pay him $300 per song but he has to get himself to the gig. The last one was in the Bay area and he lives here. They have specific people who come on to do just 2 or 3 tunes in the exact style of the original star. Similar to the Vegas show groups I used to work with back in the 70's. He's not a regular yet but he has done 3 gigs I think and they're thinking about using him on a regular basis. Not too many vocalists can really do Steve Perry well. The problem is even they don't work all the time and he doesn't have their money. He would have to give up all his other gigs in order to be available for them and he's not sure if it's worth it yet.

To get back to my original point, regular gigs for regular experienced players like me are definitely drying up. Groups like WCR are sucking the air out of the market. And that's for rock stuff, jazz stuff is turning into a complete blackout on the local level.

Scott, I totally agree with you, of course there's still other things going on in musical styles we can relate to it's just the "new" mainstream as reflected by that show is getting bigger while our stuff is getting gradually but inexorably smaller. I haven't had a chance to perform any B3 licks since before Xmas. Our audience is not going out like they used to.

This of course was totally predictable and inevitable, I've seen it coming for years but it still sucks to now be living it.

Bob


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Quote:

PG has clearly aligned themselves with a certain type of user base that is unique and supposedly sustaining; a user base that hasn't posted a truly mainstream pop tune here in forever.





I have been playing piano for over 50 years but am new to performing and have just realized that the majority of listeners, at least at small gigs, are only interested in music from the 50's to the 70's. It's not just my crowd in my campground but whenever I go to a bar with live entertainment the only thing that gets the clientel going is the same kind of music. Could this be because there has been very little music with good melodies/lyrics combinations after 1980? Perhaps there is nothing new under the sun? Take a look at Bob Norton's playlist to see what I mean.

Tony

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Just look at their ages, Tony. People are only interested in what they grew up with from around age 15-25. That means the big demographic that advertisers want to reach now are people aged 30-45. Do the math, what years were they 15-25?

Btw, I just read the ratings for the Superbowl show and they estimate 210 million people watched it and the consensus is it was one of the best shows ever if not the best.
It just shows the younger generation simply sees things differently than we do. Nothing new there.

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Quote:

People are only interested in what they grew up with from around age 15-25.




using the Billboard "Hot 100" archives (use the arrow buttons under the banner)

http://www.billboard.com/charts/billboard-200#/charts/hot-100?chartDate=1958-08-10

you can view the top 10 songs by week back to August 1958. It is quite obvious that I have never been a "top 40" listener. But I do stop recognizing names at about age 25. Funny.

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