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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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