It’s been suggested by a co-worker that Super Bowl halftime shows should reflect the tastes of the viewing audience. But what is that preference? Country? Hip-hop? Pop? (As usual with my threads, I’m not entirely sure where this should go).
Whether or not you like the NFL has no correlation with the kind of music you like. The NFL has wisely chosen to focus on pop music that lends itself to spectacle. Personally I’d like to see them go with Skinny Puppy.
I think the question sort of missed the point. The halftime show is not for the NFL fans - they’re going to watch the game anyway - it’s for everyone else. In fact, I believe a better question would be: what genre of music is popular with people who don‘t care about the NFL. That’s going to draw the most viewers overall.
I’m a 45 year-old white guy and the Dr. Dre halftime show seemed to fit my demographic the most, though ymmv, and I’m not saying I’m the majority of football fans. Prince was my favorite halftime show of all time. My opinion is that much of the audience is fragmented and there is an old white portion that would prefer country and heritage rock acts (with a large overlap who thinks supporting civil rights is “too woke” and “rap is crap.”). While you have to figure a lot of fans look like the players and skew younger to probably bro country and mumble rap.
While I’m not 100% and haven’t asked for obvious reasons, I think my co-worker leans somewhat toward these opinions (about the music, anyway), since she said they haven’t had a country act in forever.
This seems to make a ton of sense to me. My kids have very little interest in football, but will watch for the halftime show, because she likes pop and hip hop.
Don’t they start every Sunday night football game with a country artist? Isn’t that sufficient?
Yes, Carrie Underwood does a song that’s about two minutes long that no one pays attention to. Whether that’s sufficient is debatable.
American Football is the most popular spectator sport in the country and almost any genre of music would be popular with football fans.
If it were up to me, I’d try to rotate among genres of American music, and seeing that they haven’t had a country artist since 2003 (Shania Twain), that’s what I’d do next.
I’ve been a football fan all my life and I don’t watch the halftime show. A waste of time.
I missed the 2003 Super Bowl halftime show in February 2004. That was Super Bowl XXXVIII. Justin Timberlake, Janet Jackson’s, and the wardrobe malfunction. Wish I hadn’t missed that.
But at my age and having watched 51 Super Bowls (since Super Bowl VI, Cowboys 24-3 over the Dolphins), the halftime shows are a waste of time.
I think your coworker may deem the tastes of the football-viewing audience to be far narrower than it really is. American football in the United States is not a niche enterprise and the audience crosses almost every American demographic grouping.
Enough of Carrie Underwood and Beyonce, real football fans* know what they like.
*especially if you count Bengals fans as real.
I agree; I sit at home and watch the halftime show, amazed at the choreography, lighting, stage, special effects and large group of dancers in the typical show (even if the music isn’t to my tastes). And the whole thing has to be designed to roll in in a short time, after the pause in the game and obviously before the halftime show can begin (and then to remove everything after the halftime show is over).
This is correct. The answer to “what genre of music is popular with American Football fans?” is “all of them”.
After the Jackson/Timberlake fiasco, the Super Bowl went very conservative (other than Prince - which was the only good show from this list) with these acts: Paul McCartney, Rolling Stones, Prince, Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen, The Who. You couldn’t pick a more “middle-aged Dad” set of acts if you tried.
They finally got a little more adventurous after that, and the show has gotten a bit better. I thought last year was good, as was the Shakira/J-Lo one in 2020.
As for Country (which seems to be where the OP’s co-worker is coming from), it is a bit surprising that you have to go back so far to find even a single performer that would qualify as a country artist. There is something to the idea that you can’t really cram too much into such a short show, but a combination of a number of country stars hitting the hooks/chorus of their hits could make a good show.
Obviously they would love to have Taylor Swift (whether she counts as country or not), but rumors are she has said no a number of times.
This, exactly. Football fans are going to watch the Super Bowl, regardless of who’s in the halftime show. The Super Bowl is the one NFL game that has very large numbers of people watching who are not particularly fans of football, both in the U.S., and worldwide.
I strongly suspect that this is the real story here. It sounds to me like the OP’s co-worker’s thought is, “I’m a football fan, and I like country music, not this urban/hip-hop stuff. I know a bunch of football fans, and they’re all country music fans. Why don’t they have country stars for the halftime show, because that’s what football fans actually like?”
Yeah, during halftime I’m usually outside throwing a football around for a few minutes. Living near San Francisco, our weather supports that.
I’m old enough to remember when there was no music (other than the star spangled banner) at football games. And I prefer it that way.
The super bowl is not a normal football game. The halftime concerts are ridiculous, but of course I’ll watch, its the last game of the year 
It really annoys me that the music chosen has been hip-hop almost every year lately. How about a good rock show? There are some bands that are hugely popular and still touring like Foo Fighters, Pearl Jam, the Killers.
At halftime many everyday fans will leave the television at halftime for food, the restroom, yadda yadda but on Super Bowl Sunday a certain part of the viewing audience is there for the ads and the halftime show.
I have football viewing ADD and cannot handle the pace of viewing a single game so I generally just check in every 45 minutes or so unless it’s close at the end. That may be because I’ve watched so many games solo over the decades.
Just go back to marching bands and be done with it.
I’d be fine with that; just no “Up With People,” please! 