I’ve observed the loudly negative reaction to a Puerto Rican rapper named Bad Bunny being named the performer at halftime of the upcoming Super Bowl with…not amusement, actually. More of a headshaking, “There they go again” kind of thing. The reaction of America’s right to anything cultural is obnoxious because it’s rooted in white supremacy, obviously…but it’s also tiresome and just plain boring.
I do note one specific “talking point” I’ve heard a lot about this: people demanding how can this guy be the halftime show at the Super Bowl?! They’ve never heard of him! Surely the NFL could pick an actual huge star! The fact that Bad Bunny actually is a huge star can’t be explained to these folks. They haven’t heard of him, and that’s all that matters.
That’s the part that actually does amuse me, because what you have here is people being genuinely rocked to their core to realize that popular culture has left them behind. And they do not like this.
Oh, my sweet summer children.
The reason this amuses me is that a lot of these people are my age and generation: It’s Gen Xers, suddenly being confronted with the same reality that our parents had to confront way back when. I remember my parents expressing consternation with some of the heavy metal music I used to listen to during the 1980s. (Music that you can now hear in the aisles of grocery stores, by the way…which is a major reason my general feeling on “the kids and their music these days” is simply, “the kids are alright”.) I doubt either of my parents had any idea who Nirvana was, and the first time either of them heard of Kurt Cobain was when he died.
And I’ll bet the same was true of their parents when they were listening to the Four Aces and Bill Haley and Buddy Holly and the Beatles.
This is one of those “the wheel turns” moments, isn’t it? “How can there be a gigantically huge star playing the Super Bowl and I haven’t heard of them?!”
Sweetie. Sit down. Let me hold your hand.
This is the way it’s going to be. Get used to it.
And you know, that’s fine, isn’t it? Our job can be to wave the flag of the stuff that went before, the stuff of ours that the kids still need to discover. Somebody’s got to be around to explain what hair bands were all about, and why “Smells Like Teen Spirit” was so huge, and other stuff, too.
And besides, doesn’t the halftime show usually suck, anyway? That’s what I’m told, every year. I dunno, I never watch the Super Bowl anymore, and even when I did, see the title of this post. Jesus could have made his Second Coming entrance at the Super Bowl halftime show and I’d have missed it, because I was off relieving myself and getting another drink and putting more wing dip and chips on my plate.
(In terms of Bad Bunny himself, I don’t know anything at all about him. I had to confirm his name for this post. I was going to refer to him as Brown Bunny, and that’s not just wrong, it also refers to a notoriously bad movie.)
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“Meh, who cares, halftime is when you use the bathroom and get more food anyway”
I’ve observed the loudly negative reaction to a Puerto Rican rapper named Bad Bunny being named the performer at halftime of the upcoming Super Bowl with…not amusement, actually. More of a headshaking, “There they go again” kind of thing. The reaction of America’s right to anything cultural is obnoxious because it’s rooted in white supremacy, obviously…but it’s also tiresome and just plain boring.
I do note one specific “talking point” I’ve heard a lot about this: people demanding how can this guy be the halftime show at the Super Bowl?! They’ve never heard of him! Surely the NFL could pick an actual huge star! The fact that Bad Bunny actually is a huge star can’t be explained to these folks. They haven’t heard of him, and that’s all that matters.
That’s the part that actually does amuse me, because what you have here is people being genuinely rocked to their core to realize that popular culture has left them behind. And they do not like this.
Oh, my sweet summer children.
The reason this amuses me is that a lot of these people are my age and generation: It’s Gen Xers, suddenly being confronted with the same reality that our parents had to confront way back when. I remember my parents expressing consternation with some of the heavy metal music I used to listen to during the 1980s. (Music that you can now hear in the aisles of grocery stores, by the way…which is a major reason my general feeling on “the kids and their music these days” is simply, “the kids are alright”.) I doubt either of my parents had any idea who Nirvana was, and the first time either of them heard of Kurt Cobain was when he died.
And I’ll bet the same was true of their parents when they were listening to the Four Aces and Bill Haley and Buddy Holly and the Beatles.
This is one of those “the wheel turns” moments, isn’t it? “How can there be a gigantically huge star playing the Super Bowl and I haven’t heard of them?!”
Sweetie. Sit down. Let me hold your hand.
This is the way it’s going to be. Get used to it.
And you know, that’s fine, isn’t it? Our job can be to wave the flag of the stuff that went before, the stuff of ours that the kids still need to discover. Somebody’s got to be around to explain what hair bands were all about, and why “Smells Like Teen Spirit” was so huge, and other stuff, too.
And besides, doesn’t the halftime show usually suck, anyway? That’s what I’m told, every year. I dunno, I never watch the Super Bowl anymore, and even when I did, see the title of this post. Jesus could have made his Second Coming entrance at the Super Bowl halftime show and I’d have missed it, because I was off relieving myself and getting another drink and putting more wing dip and chips on my plate.
(In terms of Bad Bunny himself, I don’t know anything at all about him. I had to confirm his name for this post. I was going to refer to him as Brown Bunny, and that’s not just wrong, it also refers to a notoriously bad movie.)
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