JPF Home Page Forums General Messages General Message Forum Superbowl "performances"

CRUMUDGEON ALERT!!!Can't believe no one has beaten me to this! What was your take on what we were "treated" to Superbowl Sunday? Christina Aguilera BUTCHERS the national anthem followed by the train wreck that was the Black Eyed Peas.I was stuck in bed with a stomach virus {could't keep anything down}
I'm not sure what made me puke more, The virus, the dreadful commercials, or the wretched musical "performances". However, I thought the soundman's use of the SUCK button was MASTERFUL!
At least the game was good and the dreaded Steelers lost!

Glad to see someone else felt the same way as I did. good assessment Bob.

MAB

Just watched a couple of them on line (I did not watch the game). I did like the Doritos/Pug commercial:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpjaOUjUPUc&feature=player_embedded

Hi Bob

I just watched some of the commercials I thought last years commercials were better. I think if I paid millions of dollars for a 30 second spot it better be outstanding.

Schantell
Redlady

not to mention the lack of cheerleaders to look at for those of us who dont give a dam about football....

Tom

I didn't get to see the game until midway through the 3rd quarter.

So I missed the halftime show.....

But I asked a bunch of my students today (20-22 year olds) what they thought of it and they were unanimous in their agreement that it was really cool.

Yeah, the cycle of life continues

Scott

Yup, all the music, except for that Glee star's rendition of ATB was, IMO dreadful. Quality of music AND sound sucked big time.

One neat thing. This is the first year I've been grabbing the HD signals over the air via a digital antenna, meaning i actually got to watch Fox's US commercials. I prior years, no matter how you got the signal, Canadian feeds substituted Canadian commercials for the US ones.

Was hoping for a new "Clydes" commercial...one actually centered on the Clydesdales. Guess it was not to be.

I've actually forgotten the words to some of my songs while performing for free and after a few beers. But Christina has no excuse for this. Her singing was way below what she normally brings to the table. As for the Black Eyed Peas. I think their song Tonight's Gonna Be A Good Night and their perceived trustworthiness as to not having a wardrobe malfunction type performance were the reasons they were chosen. Unfortunately Fergie doesn't know that she just doesn't have the chops to cover the songs she performed. While Where Is The Love is a favorite of mine - I thought that the Super Bowl halftime show was not the venue for it. And lets be frank, the Black Eyed Peas aren't the level of artists that past Super Bowl performers are. So a letdown was unavoidable. Usher did well as usual. Too bad he only did part of one of his songs and had to share the stage on it with TBEPs. This example shows how so many of today's popular groups are more a result of successful marketing. And when they are in a situation like TBEPs, their flaws become all too clear.

Didn't get to watch because I was working. Just my two cents worth-was not sad I missed it. I have downloaded 1 song of TBEP because it's good to exercise to. Their live performances always sound like *%)@ to me.

So what does it say about me that I really enjoyed it?!

WE were all seriously entertained at our house.
Yes: they had sound problems. That was a shame.

But it was a big production, they used dancers with cool light-up light-changing outfits who made shapes on the field and reminded us marching band FANS here what Halftime is SUPPOSED to be: A Field Show!!

LOL!!

I thought Fergie sounded good with Slash.
Better than Axl (lol - waiting for the rotten tomatoes my way)

So......... hm hm, what does it say about me.... THAT I'M STILL THINKING YOUNG?! LOL!!!


And yes, there's NO EXCUSE for botching the lyrics to the NATIONAL ANTHEM. That's gonna haunt her.

And Christina just- - - skipped!! - the high note and sustain on "land of the FREE" -- Wha-huh?? Why not sing in a lower key so she could sail that note? I'm not a big listener of hers - what's her range? Is it just - out of her pocket range-wise? She also lost the melody line completely toward the end.

Any *thoughtful* explanations on that?

Urgh, I can do it better:
http://soundcloud.com/lindaofficial/linda-sings-the-star-spangled-banner/

Not to toot my horn here but I wouldn't have botched it.

The other singer from Glee has a beautiful voice, but a couple of vocal habits (little gulpy sounds before the word) that got annoying. My kids said "That's part of her 'sound'" - well - as a vocalist - THAT sound, can be trained out.


Anyway. My review.



Linda

Didn't bother to watch any of the performances, but I do remember the great job "The Who" did last year(?).

Halftime was dreadful
tim

Linda: I would venture to say your horn on this cut is worth tooting. Your version was emotional, sincere, clear, clean -- and I loved the clean trill at the end. Christina sucks compared to you.
Ott

It's never ceases to amaze me that somebody, anybody from the label or management, a peer, or there FAMILY would tell them how bad they are live. Is greed so huge or are those with the say that absolutely clueless?

Instead they get there own commercial as well, top of the charts every single month, grammies and the biggest stage of the year to perform on.

Christine is good, period. But pop music which is 90% hip hop based has always sounded awful live. Hasn't anyone realized this in the last twenty years? Doesn't Will I Am "God" who is a very talented producer with ears listen back to that and say
"We suck" and if Stevie Wonder was on the scene we would be blown off the face of this earth.

Scott- I think it's 22 year olds that are signing the contracts

Sit in front of Earth Wind & Fire live like I have a half dozen times and LEARN the difference people lol

What took me aback even more than the shoddy performance was how completely insipid, vacuous, and devoid of substance their SONGS were!{I'm starting to sound like a music critic!}

Christina is a monster singer with great range and vocal technique. If she blew it, she blew it. She's a human being. But dang, she can flat out sing.

Kevin

well we know that Christina remembered more of the national anthem than Jennifer Simpson would have......


Tom

That would be JESSICA Simpson, or her equally talentless sister Ashley.

I agree with Kevin about Christina having pipes. Thats the problem, all these pop divas see fit to show off their vocal gymnastics instead of showing the song it's proper respect. They seem to think it's about THEM. In this case it came back to bite her because she was so busy with the histronics that she forgot the words.

Agreed Bob
Tim

Suprised that Christina didn't use a telepromptor, could have saved the day. I sure would like one of them light up suits though. Wonder how it would look on a 59 yr old victim of a basin shaped pelvis (beer belly).

The end results of a lot of hype, spin and jive. I enjoyed Fergie's and Slash's part and Ushers amazing leap into a split, oh-dang pulled a hamstring just thinkin about it.

I'm with Linda, go back to the marching bands for back up bands. After all, the show is all about teamwork. This halftime show had a lot of "I's" in their spelling of TEAM.JMHO

Christina is a BEAST of a vocalist...I'm a HUGE fan!!! I didn't see her sing the Star Spangled Banner, but if she fudged it, it's quite possible she's suffering from some kind of cold or sinus infection like the rest of us this time of year. My voice has been sucking lately too, I'm not up to par.

Fergie is a BEAST as well! You should hear her sing "Barracuda" by Heart...she nails it and then some! I don't think "Sweet Child of Mine" was a good choice for her though. I did like the rest of what she did, and she wailed at the end. She looked GREAT as always and had a great stage presence. I think the Black Eyed Peas is a good group. I wouldn't listen to them all the time, but they do have talent and I can see why they're so popular.

However, no one could have been a better match for SLASH than ME! I would have done "Sweet Child of Mine" justice as I have the rock voice for it! I should have been the one rubbing all over Slash! In fact, I think I ought to do a collab cd with him like Allison Krauss did with Robert Plant..."Polly Rocks Slash's World" or something like that!

Are you sure "twilight's last reaming" wasn't a Freudian slip?

Joe

Ecxept that Slash merely pantomined to a sampled version of the original recording of "Sweet Child". Sorry kids, from the performance, to the songs themselves,to the presentation,to the sound mix, it was a FAIL of EPIC PROPORTIONS!

This performance was terrible. The Moody Blues last year were even worse - they looked like they had dug them up, brushed them off and stuck them on stage.

Tom

lolol tom and bob--well said!!!!!
tim

I agree with Linda, I thought the half time was the best in many years. (Prince in the pouring rain was the last good one). Fergie can sing with anyone. Her duo with Heart put her against the best rock female singer ever (Ann Wilson) and she excelled and flawlessly performed the power vocal portions of Barracuda. There were some glitches, but the use of color/lighting was excellent, the mix of songs (their hits which kids LOVE) was satisfying for their fans and having Usher out (another LEGIT talent) as Slash for the GnR duo with Fergie added a nod to other fans of other types of music. I thought the energy was great, and it was fun.

If you can't understand why it was great, it probably explains why you think the youth music of today sucks as well. You're just becoming a stereotype of old foggies not liking current music no matter what that music might be. It wasn't perfect, but the vocals were live for a change and they were jumping around switching positions on stage, choreography, pairings, songs and lighting/costume schemes. I am not even a Black Eyed Peas fan, but they did a great job delivering the fun and energy they were hired to do. I don't care much for their full songs, but the hooks (which is all kids care about lyrically... verses mean nothing to them) and music production was more than adequate.

If you want any chance of success in commercial music and you hated that half time, you may want to refocus on simply enjoying music you make and like and forget about chasing any commercialism for the masses. The BEP's are the center of popular music today.

Linda, I am with you and Polly as well.

Brian

Guilty as charged, and I gave up on mass appeal years ago.
Now you kids get off my f'in lawn!

Moody Blues? Did I miss something?

I would like to see and hear high school marching bands do the National Anthem at all the sports games. Bring as many as will be good for set up time, depending on space too, and lets all hear the anthem as intended. We don't see another style flag made when a new one is presented. So why do we need a new style of song for our anthem at every presentation?

Give the kids the spotlight and lets hear those horns and crash cymbals again! Let the artist do their own version on the albums, for their own fans to enjoy.

For the halftime show, you're not going to please everyone, no matter who it is. So, it's a time to see what other folks are into if it is not anyone's style. It's entertainment, if we let it.

I found the whole half-time show entertaining. It was a helluva show. Lights. Sound. Music. Explosions! Dancing girls. Choreography. I watched the whole thing.

Liking something or not is "subjective" "Sucking" is not subjective. It's just a matter of knowing it or not.

They suck live, as does most "not live" music, it's not just about the TYPE of talent they do have. But a question of sound,sonics timing and pitch. In the studio where Will is a wiz those things all work out to there favor. Live they do not. And live music when you hear it done correctly is actually BETTER than recorded music.
Haven't we noticed that? Haven't you noticed the difference before a show starts when they play pre-recorded music 2 tracks stereo it sounds okay pretty good, then the band like Genesis comes on LIVE and they blow you out of your seat..

Individual instruments being mixed LIVE. It blows track singing off the planet.

Again sit in front of Earth Wind & Fire, see what being great live is about then try to find a word to describe what that half time show was. Perhaps Entertaining? Okay perhaps for many, so if you left your stereo on and shut off the TV screen, what are you left with. Sound,sonics,timing and pitch... Music right?

Being entertained can be anything from silly to stupendous.
But hearing great musicians live fill your lungs with sound and music, your heart soul are lifted like nothing else you've ever known and your mind, well it's just blown... That's entertainment too being great live and also great music.

Hey I LOVE the Rolling Stones but cannot dig them live, They play everything way TOO FAST, "Start Me Up" first always. And they do it three times the tempo.. That KILLS Charlie Watt's great GROOVE, kill that and you kill the song and the band. "Respectable" all of it, then it makes the drug induced guitarists have to play there licks faster which does not benefit them And the rushing of the singing..

But it's like "hey man, the stones live cool bro, toke up" LOL
Nobody give a crap, it's entertainment man and it's the Stones. But that's why "The Who" blow the Stones off the stage 100% and The Stones know it. Seeing QUEEN live with Freddy Mercury made me a true Queen fan. See enough shows and you start to actually pick up on these silly things like who's great live and who is not. lol...

The most astonishing LIVE Music and lets face it, is Rock and Jazz/Big Band or great R&B/Disco and of course classical or symphony music is the best LIVE music to hear. Anything else as well. Blue Grass, Ethnic World Music.. as long as there great musicians to start out with

Everything else is a track act meant to be off a turntable music. DJ's turned producers Music that sounds good in the club and in the car and off the Boom Box, not in a massive football stadium.

That's what the Black Eyed Peas are as are so many others on the charts, that is undeniable no matter how old you are or what you like.

Now what I wouldn't give to sit 10 rows back from The Benny Goodman Orchestra. One horn alone just blowing away another entire group live, never mind having Krupa in your band.

I thought the halftime was a great LOOKING show, and probably sounded good to the people who were there, too. And a decent effort by the Peas, who are primarily a studio group.
It's the TV mix that sounded like a TV Sports guy was mixing it

Yes, Christina is a hella singer but she DOES NOT NEED to show us how many notes she can put in each word of the Star Spangled Banner, okay? I counted 16 in the word "wave" alone.

And I love a soulful rendition of the anthem, folks. She wouldn't have to sing it completely straight. Just serve the song, please.

Brian, you and I disagreeing musically is nothing new. To each his own. The only bone I have to pick is the statement"at least they really sang for a change" Who out of The Who, Springsteen, Prince, Petty, The Stones, U2, and McCartney didn't really sing? Not to mention, unlike the Peas, actually played musical instruments instead of a tape loop?

You know what's funny, my wife saw this as well as she is a HUGE football fan. Besides her face upon hearing that sour set she was wondering why people were running all around the stage with old style Apple Monitors on there head.

So in a post/discussion on facebook or somewhere she mentioned that about the TV/Monitor heads. Well in comes an email from one of the persons who was in the show wearing one lol...
They nicely explained that it was a "Tron" thing. So NOW we know

So it also confirms what most of us already know here, ya never know who's reading what you write. But I had to smile and tell my wife, think about this person wearing that box on her head, then looking all over the internet excited for anything on it like Feedback then finding it! lol

I agree, I saw a big band (can't remember who) perform at a dance in a huge airplane hanger. Those metal buildings aren't exactly built for acoustic sound, but to hear "In The Mood" bouncing off those metal walls with no mikes or amps was an experience I'll never forget.

Either that Brian or the new music todaqy is just no good- I don't know that just because I prefer my erea of music makes me a stereo-typical old fogie- if thar was true then why are all the 60's and 70's songs piopping up in so many of the moviesx today- plus the poularity of the groups like floyd and zepplin amongst the kids today--disagree with you on this one- we had the best music-and it still is
Tim

Yep. I am. I don't care much for vocals that are altered by electronics. Singing live don't mean much when you are not hearing the actual voice.
The half time show was wasted on me but I am sure my Granddaughter loved it but then again she likes the beatles, Pink Floyd and Aerosmith as well.

I did like the Lighted suits and all the choreography but I doubt the BEP's had anything to do with all that.

I'll add overall I think the half time show was OK. As good as most

I always have A Lot To Do besides Watch The Tube..even on Superbowl Sunday...so if it wasn't THE GAME, I wasn't always in-the-room..heh!

DID get a Song outta the First Commercial I viewed ("Bikinis Don't Lie") & learned last evening her name is Brooklyn Decker...& she's in a To Be Released Flick this weekend, "Just Go With It".)

STILL Scratchin' My Head WHY the Bowl needed TWO diffo artistes singing the Nat'l Anthem..in a Row? 1st Gal needed a LOT of Background Singers to cover her inadequacies..JMO..& when I saw Christine singing it 2nd-time-around..(& LIKED what I heard)..I left to get some snacks prepped. Sorry I missed Whatever She Did Wrong, but Her Version DID sound pretty decent, what little I paid attention-to.

Halftime..waal, I thought Fergie did an Admirable Job among all the Otherwise-to-me "Forgettables" performing there. Choreography was, frankly, Great/Yeah, the Color-Changing Suits were a Kick..but certainly Not Anything Particularly-New.

Musically, I was made-aware that it's NOT my generation that's being pitched-to anymore..& so I didn't feel particularly-guilty taking a bathroom break & headin' to the Kitchen for Further Munchies & a glass of wine.

Commercials-wise, Bud Light had a Winner with the spoof on Room Redecoration Motifs...& I liked the "New Bug" VW Commercial/Don't remember much of any of the Other Ones, alas..but at My Age, remembering ANY of 'em is No Small Feat.

DO remember it was a pretty Good, Oftentimes CLOSE Game..which is REALLY what that program WAS all-about.

Best Wishes & Back to CurmudgeonLand,
Stan

My wife and I enjoyed the peas....I know alot of people hated it, but we think they are FUN .... not musically amazing, but entertaining...isn't that what it's about these days? When people are kinda down...you have to give them FUN ! lift their spirits ! I am in the liked it camp

Stan, the first singer {someone from the T.V show "Glee" sang "America the Beautiful" not the national anthem, {and I'm pretty sure she lip-synched it} C.A stumbled over one verse and ommitted another on the national anthem.