geez, and I was psyched to go see Chicago\Earth Wind and Fire next month. Did not know how embarrassingly out of touch I was. I wonder if anyone will remember what a Coldplay or a Bruno Marrs was 40 years from now....
I agree with you entirely - so I fear you missed my point.
Look, we are all prisoners of our own youth. That's why we all believe that "the best music ever made" was created during our own impressionable years (12-25). We also tend to think that the best television shows and movies were made "back in our day." Everything made after that is inferior to varying degrees.
Guess what? Your parents felt the same way about Chicago and Earth, Wind and Fire when you were young. It didn't compare to Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett's classier music of yore.
Therefore, if someone of a certain age wants to see bands from their youth, that's great! That's how it should work!
It's just that bands like the Who for example, which was the halftime show a few years back, are no longer culturally relevant to people who did not grow up in the era in which they were regularly producing popular music. As such, it makes no sense to force millions of young people to listen to them whenever those acts mean nothing to almost all of those younger fans.
And I say that as a guy who actually LIKES the Who - or liked them when they were in their prime! Also, I am not a fan of any of the acts that performed last night. They just don't do anything for me. However, this isn't about me or my preferences, it's about satisfying the majority of your audience and you do that by having acts perform which are popular to today's generation, not a bunch of arms folded senior citizens who are going to hate everything that doesn't come from their era anyway.
We had a long run there where all of the acts were simply old men (and some women) who were WAY past their respective primes and they performed like it. That would be fine for a concert where the audience is more targeted (and older) or on PBS or something like that. However, that is absolutely not the right approach for the Super Bowl, which has a much more generalized audience.
The Baby Boomers have dominated the cultural landscape for too long as it is. It is time to step aside and let the young people have their day just like you had yours for decades upon decades.
It would have been ridiculous for say, Bing Crosby to perform at the 1982 Super Bowl because he was 30-40 years past his prime and was no longer culturally relevant. Similarly, it would be absurd if Beyonce and Bruno Mars and Coldplay were to perform at halftime of Super Bowl 80.
In fact it would be embarrassingly out of touch, just as it has been for years when old former star after old former star was struggling though a performance on the highest rated television show in the country each year. That type of event now belongs to a younger crowd - or at least it should. .
