Despite rock ‘n’ roll music being blasted through the stadium speakers each Sunday and acting as the backdrop for nearly every professional football game ever played, it seems that once again, hard rock and metal music are being denied a spotlight at the Super Bowl halftime show.
On Sept. 26, NFL, Pepsi and Roc Nation announced that music superstars Shakira and Jennifer Lopez would be performing at the 2020 Super Bowl halftime show. This pairing seeks to bring in more ratings than ever, with Shakira and Lopez being world-famous pop culture icons. The duo will make for an entertaining concert and will at least be better than the years prior, given the artists’ talent. However, this move marks the 10th consecutive halftime show in a row performed by a pop or hip-hop artist, and for a corporation that is constantly promoting their appreciation for rock and metal music, this announcement certainly says otherwise.
Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider expressed his disapproval with the decision via Twitter. “Once again the great heavy music that rocks the stadiums week after week, game after game is completely ignored. I guess we don’t shake our ass enough!!” Snider tweeted.
While some may look at Snider’s comments and laugh him out the door, as he comes across as a jealous two-hit wonder singer just getting angry for attention, he does make an excellent point. Go to any pro football game, what songs are constantly blasting over the loudspeakers? “Enter Sandman,” “We’re Not Gonna Take It,” “We Will Rock You,” “We Are the Champions,” “Thunderstruck” and “Welcome to the Jungle.” None of the bands behind these anthems have ever played a halftime show. Actually, the only rock acts to play the show were Aerosmith in 2001, when they appeared alongside “legends” NSYNC and Britney Spears, and The Who in 2010.
Now, Twisted Sister is not a Super Bowl band. They are not popular enough. But what about Metallica? AC/DC? Queen? Guns N’ Roses? Or even more contemporary bands like Foo Fighters or Green Day? These groups are what people would call stadium bands. Their songs are usually anthemic in nature, meant to be sung along to. Yes, Justin Timberlake and Maroon 5 can sell out stadiums, but they are not stadium bands. Timberlake’s catalog is mainly club music while Maroon 5 has a secure hold on Starbucks’ everywhere. It is interesting that the NFL has a group of go-to metal songs for their football games all season, yet when it comes to the most important game of the year, the stadium suddenly has a pop concert with an extravagant light show meant to entice young people to watch.
Now, it is naive to think that rock music has the kind of popularity and resonance with the public that it had in the 1980s or even early 2000s. American music has been dominated by bubblegum pop and club music for a while now and, while artistically relevant and masterfully crafted, they are not stadium material. Besides, live rock music performances are already shunned in favor of hip-hop at the Grammys, MTV Music Awards, Billboard Awards, etc. The Super Bowl is a venue clearly engineered for a rock group, yet fans are subjected to the same thing they hear everyday on the radio. Furthermore, rock music is not a dead genre, it is alive and well, just not as popular as it once was. Rock music of today is a descendent from early 2000’s groups like Linkin Park and Avenged Sevenfold, which were spawned from the grunge era of Nirvana and Pearl Jam, who were an evolution of Poison and Iron Maiden, who followed The Eagles and Led Zeppelin.
On Oct. 8, Disturbed lead singer David Draiman came out saying that he would “be honored” to sing the national anthem at this year’s game, giving rock and metal music at least some representation in a venue made popular by the genre. If his cover of “The Sound of Silence” is any indication of what is to come, it would be monumentally epic to hear him perform that iconic song. So please, NFL, give us rock fans one thing at least, and then we can all enjoy J.Lo and Shakira together.
