Exalting Mediocrity (a Super Bowl thread)
Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2012 6:16 pm
I witnessed something fairly interesting last night during the halftime show of the Super Bowl.
I belong to a bowling league that meets every other Sunday night. It is a couples league, and the bowlers range in age from about 45 to 65. We finished early last night, and everyone was done by the time the Madonna show was starting on the television at the lanes.
The television is a flat screen, maybe 42”, mounted high on the back wall of the building.
All of the women bowlers were crowded around the TV, watching the Madonna production, quite transfixed by the program. All of the comments were positive – not effusive, but positive.
The men were all standing further away from the screen, half watching and discussing, mainly, the football game. The reaction to the music production was, figuratively, a collective rolling of our eyes. Most of the verbal comments were either neutral (e.g., “nice production”) or negative. The consensus among the men was, basically, that the producers spent millions of dollars to put on a glorious production, the purpose of which was mainly to distract the viewers (listeners) from noticing the fact that Madonna is truly a mediocre, aging performer. And the music itself was pretty lame, as well. The only positive note, I suppose, was that she is just as good and just as attractive now as she was 25 years ago. But since she was mediocre and homely 25 years ago, that is nothing to rave about.
She has no range as a singer, and whether lip-synching or not, her voice is always electronically enhanced because with simple amplification its mediocrity would be overwhelming. Honestly, you can go into any bar on Karaoke night and after an hour or so, identify at least a couple female vocalists who are at least as good as this walking self-promotional event.
Truly, halftime of the Super Bowl is the most visible platform in all of American pop music (The Grammy’s is more extensive, but the SB captures millions of viewers who won’t watch the Grammys). It boggles the mind that someone (or probably some committee) decided that she was the best they could come up with for this singularly powerful event.
As for the game, the consensus in my neck of the woods was that we are glad New England and the Brady Bunch lost. The fact that it was the Giants who beat them is pretty much irrelevant. It was a good, entertaining game, with the desired result. Since the Steelers weren't playing, that's the best one can hope for.
I belong to a bowling league that meets every other Sunday night. It is a couples league, and the bowlers range in age from about 45 to 65. We finished early last night, and everyone was done by the time the Madonna show was starting on the television at the lanes.
The television is a flat screen, maybe 42”, mounted high on the back wall of the building.
All of the women bowlers were crowded around the TV, watching the Madonna production, quite transfixed by the program. All of the comments were positive – not effusive, but positive.
The men were all standing further away from the screen, half watching and discussing, mainly, the football game. The reaction to the music production was, figuratively, a collective rolling of our eyes. Most of the verbal comments were either neutral (e.g., “nice production”) or negative. The consensus among the men was, basically, that the producers spent millions of dollars to put on a glorious production, the purpose of which was mainly to distract the viewers (listeners) from noticing the fact that Madonna is truly a mediocre, aging performer. And the music itself was pretty lame, as well. The only positive note, I suppose, was that she is just as good and just as attractive now as she was 25 years ago. But since she was mediocre and homely 25 years ago, that is nothing to rave about.
She has no range as a singer, and whether lip-synching or not, her voice is always electronically enhanced because with simple amplification its mediocrity would be overwhelming. Honestly, you can go into any bar on Karaoke night and after an hour or so, identify at least a couple female vocalists who are at least as good as this walking self-promotional event.
Truly, halftime of the Super Bowl is the most visible platform in all of American pop music (The Grammy’s is more extensive, but the SB captures millions of viewers who won’t watch the Grammys). It boggles the mind that someone (or probably some committee) decided that she was the best they could come up with for this singularly powerful event.
As for the game, the consensus in my neck of the woods was that we are glad New England and the Brady Bunch lost. The fact that it was the Giants who beat them is pretty much irrelevant. It was a good, entertaining game, with the desired result. Since the Steelers weren't playing, that's the best one can hope for.
