Super Bowl Instant Replay (and it isn’t the Pats Winning Again)

There were plenty of news reports about many major acts having turned down performing at halftime of the Super Bowl yesterday before Maroon 5 finally said Yes.  Couple that with my NHTE 253 interview as well as this occurrence less than two weeks ago and it stirs up memories of the blog below that I wrote two years ago.  The result is an instant replay.  Unfortunately.

In the first half of yesterday’s game Jim Nantz repeatedly referred to “the year’s biggest moment in music” coming up at halftime, in reference to the performance that would be put on by Adam Levine et al.  And he did so on the very network that was running ads about next Sunday night’s Grammy Awards show.  Ummmm.

So, it warrants resurrecting this entry again, with the hope that maybe next time they’ll refocus their perspective.

Yes, throw a yellow penalty flag.  I too am going to be among those in the long line of writers using last night’s Super Bowl as fodder for content today.  Mind you, I will stick to the topic of this weekly blog, which is music-related.

I go out of my way to point that out because it boggled my mind as to why two co-hosts on a national sports talk radio show this morning would have a deep discussion about the halftime show.  One of them is a former National Football League player, so I’m not sure why he felt it necessary to join his partner with an analysis of Lady Gaga’s performance instead of telling us what the Atlanta Falcons did wrong and/or the New England Patriots did right in allowing the greatest Super Bowl comeback to occur.

In my case, how could I not write something about a repeated occurrence on the broadcast that irked me from both a music industry and promotional standpoint?

I might have missed such earlier references, but, in the second quarter alone "Music's biggest moment of the year" was said at least four times in promoting the ensuing halftime show.

Hold on – I know there’s a football game going on here, but, “Music’s biggest moment of the year”?!  Says who?!

For starters, in addition to the game and (ugh) the commercials, isn't the halftime show a big part of why people watch?  Do they really have to hype it even further in order to compel people to not walk away?

Moreover, by using that expression, what does that say for the Grammys?  It’s obviously a subtle dig since they're not on the same network, what with FOX having shown the game last night and CBS carrying the awards show this coming Sunday night.

For that matter, the CMAs have become quite a big moment each year in music, so much so that a morning TV talk show even used that angle in an interview they did with me a few months ago!

And, whether warranted or not, wouldn't NBC try to stake a claim to “The Voice” – perhaps at the time of their season finale – being "music's biggest moment of the year"?

Heck, in these turbulent times, how do we know that an outspoken recording artist like U2's Bono won't organize a major coming-together like the days of "Live Aid" or "Farm Aid," etc.?  Surely that would be "music's biggest moment of the year."

For now, let’s leave the Super Bowl as having been football’s biggest moment of the year and let the halftime show, the Grammys, the CMAs, reality performance shows, pinnacle live events, and other goings-on peacefully coexist on the music landscape, since music, after all, should be used to unite people, and not to drive ratings for a sporting event.

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