As a kid, I watched a lot of sports on TV. Afterwards, I\u2019d go outside and be the hero in my own game. I hit a rubber ball over the granary for a walk-off homerun. Or I threw and caught the winning touchdown pass. Tom Brady never did that.<\/p>\n
I watched the first Super Bowl, which wasn\u2019t even called that yet. That was between Vince Lombardi\u2019s Packers from the NFL and Hank Stram\u2019s Chiefs from the upstart AFL. Bart Starr vs. Len Dawson. Max McGee had two touchdowns. Don\u2019t ask me what I did yesterday.<\/p>\n
During the first Super Bowl halftime, two men took off in jetpacks from the fifty-yard line and jetted above the stadium. The eleven-year-old me just assumed jetpacking was in my future. Maybe that\u2019s coming. It would be handy to check the fields.<\/p>\n
Since, I\u2019ve watched almost all the Super Bowls, sometimes with loud, imbibing friends. This most recent I watched with Pam on the couch. Pam likes football about as much as a hangnail, but the Super Bowl Is a cultural phenomenon.<\/p>\n
The halftime show has grown to be its own super event. Each year, one of the biggest stars on Earth performs an amazingly choreographed fifteen-minute production. As the players head to the locker room, a giant stage magically appears filled with dancers. \u201cWhere\u2019d that come from?\u201d<\/p>\n
The earliest Super Bowl halftimes had college and high school marching bands. The first big name performer was Al Hirt in New Orleans in 1970. That was the first Vikings Super Bowl. The Vikings were in three more. We don\u2019t want to talk about that.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a trip through time to see the list of the Super Bowl halftimers: Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, Shania Twain, Paul McCartney. Prince singing Purple Rain during a rainstorm in Miami was an extraordinary thing.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s highlighted performer was Kendrick Lamar. I\u2019ve heard of Kendrick, but not much. I had to look him up to see that he is an \u201cAmerican rapper, Pulitzer Prize winner, and one of the most influential hip-hop artists of his generation.\u201d<\/p>\n
He sang really fast. Rapping isn\u2019t exactly singing; it\u2019s more speaking rhythmically. As Lamar began rapping, sitting on the hood of a Buick GNX, I realized that my not-so-good hearing wasn\u2019t getting all the words. We turned on the captions. That helped, but the captions were racing to keep up and still missing words that were coming rapid-fire.<\/p>\n
It was dazzling and spectacular. The dancers were athletic and flew about the stage. I was just impressed that Lamar could remember all that as he poured the lyrics out. I enjoyed the pageantry, but I wasn\u2019t getting much of what was going on. I assumed the costumes and props and lights all meant something.<\/p>\n
Friends were watching, too. A couple texting buddies weighed in. \u201cI\u2019ve never felt so old and white in my life,\u201d one said. The performers were all young and Black, and this was obviously leaning into Black culture. That\u2019s a bit of a foreign land to me, but I enjoyed experiencing it.<\/p>\n
Another was complaining that the game was dull, and now the half time was, too. I reminded him that \u201cSixty-nine-year-old white guys probably aren\u2019t the target audience.\u201d The game was dull; it reminded me of the Viking Super Bowls. At the end of the halftime show, Pam slipped away.<\/p>\n
The next morning, I set out to see if I could learn about the parts of the halftime show that went over my head. The first thing I saw was from the Star Tribune\u2019s music critic Chris Riemenschneider:<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2019The revolution\u2019s about to be televised,\u2019 Kendrick Lamar shouted at the start of Sunday\u2019s Super Bowl halftime show. \u2018You picked the right time but the wrong guy,\u2019 he added. Au contraire. Lamar\u2019s appearance as the first rapper ever picked as a solo halftime headliner in the NFL\u2019s big game was big-time overdue. Having him be the guy to finally do it, though, proved to be a perfect choice.\u201d<\/p>\n
It turns out that Lamar\u2019s next gig is in Minneapolis at U. S. Bank Stadium. Maybe some of us can meet at Meyer\u2019s Bar and carpool up there.<\/p>\n
The reviews I read were all positive. And there was lots of symbolism as I suspected. The lyrics were sewn together from Lamar\u2019s hits. Certainly, there was commentary on Black life in America, and likely some political digs at you know who.<\/p>\n
Then there\u2019s Lamar\u2019s very public feud with Drake, another current star. The song \u201cNot Like Us\u201d spins from that. It\u2019s a \u201cdiss track.\u201d I have no idea what their feud is about. But I\u2019ll borrow from Rodney King: “People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along?” That line pops into my head often lately.<\/p>\n
Lamar was joined part way through on the ever-shifting stage by fellow rapper, SZA. It was the first time two performers at the Super Bowl had the current number one and two hit songs. This is the popular music of our time. You can probably tell I don\u2019t have any rap albums. Are there rap LP\u2019s?<\/p>\n
Occasionally I hear grumblings from old guy friends about rap or hip hop or funk. These are peers who all grew up listening to rock and roll. Not that far back in history, parents worried rock and roll would cause juvenal delinquency, or worse, sexual deviancy.<\/p>\n
When I was young, every wedding dance included alternate sets of \u201cold time\u201d music between the rock and roll. A few polkas and waltzes gave the oldsters a chance to hit the dance floor. I have wondered when the Super Bowl is going to have a polka band perform the halftime show. When will old time get its due? \u201cLadies and gentlemen! Welcome to Super Bowl Sixty halftime. Let\u2019s give a warm welcome to the Leon Olsen Show!\u201d<\/p>\n
Last summer I was in Detroit. On a free afternoon, we went to the Motown Museum. Motown music was an important tributary to the rock and roll river. Some of my favorite songs came from there. Black music has been part of American music, going back to slavery. I imagine there\u2019s a pretty direct through-line between Motown and rap.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m just thankful to live in a country where so many cultures flow and blend together. Diversity is getting a bad name in some quarters right now. Don\u2019t fall for that. If you have any sense of our nation\u2019s history and purpose, you know diversity is our secret power.<\/p>\n
If you can\u2019t appreciate our diversity, well, that\u2019s un-American. If you feel that way, you\u2019re \u201cNot Like Us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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