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You are here: Home / Economics / Free Markets Solve Everything / Popcult Open Thread: *Best* Part of the Superbowl!

Popcult Open Thread: *Best* Part of the Superbowl!

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Yeah, TaMara posted this last night — but it’s a long Monday, and if this doesn’t pump you up a bit, you might be clinically dead…

So, for the NFL’s Miami celebration of Latinx culture, superstar Shakira (who is Colombian) brought out Puerto Rican reggaeton singer Bad Bunny, and superstar Jennifer Lopez (whose parents are Puerto Rican) played with Colombian singer J Balvin. (Yes, I had to google.) Bonus points, callbacks to Shakira’s Lebanese heritage, and her anthem for the South African World Cup. Not to mention a subtle reference to kids in cages, also King Kong, plus Bruce Springsteen, and pole dancing!

… According to data crunched by Twitter, Jennifer Lopez and Shakira’s smoking-hot rendition of “Waka Waka” was the most-tweeted moment during the halftime slot.

And for the one-two knockout punch, JLo’s pole-dance routine during her performance of “Waiting for Tonight” was the second-most tweeted spectacle…

Ecleen Luzmila Caraballo, at Remezcla:

… They are the first two Latinas to headline the halftime show together. As we noted earlier last year, Gloria Estefan was the first to ever do it (sola, por supuesto) in 1992. Shakira’s mentor paved the way for her and her counterpart and now, in celebration of the beginning of a new year and decade (we’ve all collectively decided January didn’t count), J.Lo and Shaki did the same for generations to come.

J.Lo used the spotlight to show off her excellent pole dancing skills (once again putting the Oscars to shame) and pass the performing baton to her daughter, Emme. The 11-year-old shared her talent on stage alongside mom with a unique spin on “Let’s Get Loud,” in which the Nuyorican mother of two whipped out the Puerto Rican flag in all its glory by way of (faux?) fur and came as close to a political message as the night would get with children in lit-up cages.

“Born in the U.S.A,” Emme bounced off her mother’s vocals throughout the bridge…

And speaking of ‘suspiciously brown people’…


Look, when the alternative ‘entertainment’ is the kind of sad, defensive jingoism Dave Roth mocks…

… When Fox has the broadcast rights to the Super Bowl, as it does this year, you had better believe those horns are going to be in play. This year, as in past Fox years, you’ll hear some patriotic tootling and snare drum rum-dum-dumming playing under footage of various NFL personalities reciting the Declaration of Independence as they walk through historic buildings, or while surrounded by troops and first responders and military hardware, or while towering over youth football teams. In 2008, Michael Strahan and a bunch of New York firefighters in their dress uniforms did their part while standing over the still-raw pit at Ground Zero. Usually it takes a long time for a tradition to become a tradition, and even more time after that for it to become opaque and abstract and rote in the way that traditions do. Fox’s determination to make Super Bowl Sunday a celebration of America skipped a bunch of those steps. It started out confusing and overdetermined and then pretty much stayed that way…

After two decades of leveraging and re-leveraging the actual thing that has value here—a game, in this stupid and beautiful and preposterous sport, that people really do want to watch together—this is the celebration we’re left with. More than that, there’s the sense that it can only get bigger, broader, bloatier, that the people invested in staging it can only ever do more. Not because the show isn’t big enough, and certainly not because anyone is demanding more of this politics-of-no-politics pomp, or more fife-and-drum goonery, or more and more desperate reiterations of those first panicked gestures towards purpose and togetherness. The audience is less important than the gestures, and the gestures long ago supplanted and replaced the message they sought to convey. It can only get bigger, and only ever becomes more uncanny as it grows. The same could be said of the NFL in many ways, but all of this delusion and desperation together produces something wildly abstract and stilted; there’s an uneasy but undeniable comedy to the way it all expands without ever quite growing. All this trouble, for all these years, all because some powerful people were frightened that doing less would look like admitting defeat.

Reader Interactions

80Comments

  1. 1.

    Ridnik Chrome

    Denying disaster aid to Puerto Rico is one of the very worst things Trump has done as president, and considering how much other horrible shit he’s done these past three years, that’s saying something.

  4. 4.

    Betty Cracker

    I was cooking during the halftime show so missed most of it, but the kids pointed out that J-Lo is 50, and that kind of made and ruined my night at the same time. :)

  5. 5.

    Amir Khalid

    I liked the Shakira/J.Lo double bill, but the Superb Owl halftime show still seems way OTT to me. Wouldn’t it be cheaper to have the fans stand up and sing You’ll Never Walk Alone, or the team anthem of their choice?

  6. 6.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Is J-Lo political? What state does she live in?

    @Betty Cracker: some fun stuff on twitter about that last night, the only ones that come to mind now are: J-Lo is older than Lev Parnas and Ted Cruz (admittedly, funnier with pictures).

  7. 7.

    Eural Joiner

    I was struck, once again, with the massive cultural gap between the SB in general – half-time show, commercials, messaging, etc. – and the unmitigated rot in our national political offices. This is “America’s sport” and, yes, there is a heavy dose of jingoist chest-thumping but there is also a very large corporate backed dollop of multi-cultural, multi-racial, and progressive messaging as well. (I was struck by the ad for the movement founded by a former player after his AA brother (?) was shot by a plain clothers officer at a traffic stop – it’s all of Kapernick’s protest packaged and sold by the corporate media with nary an outcry from Trump and company).

  8. 8.

    Barbara

    I went out to dinner with my husband and came back to watch the last half of the fourth quarter, which is my usual way of watching football IF the game is still close.  I caught up with the halftime show later.  This kind of spectacle isn’t really my thing, but I like Shakira and she truly seemed to be in love with the performance and jazzed to be there, so it was fun.  Also love that they somehow worked in Led Zeppelin.  That was unexpected!

    It’s amazing to me that so many missed the fact that JLo was in a movie this year as a pole dancer.  It got mixed reviews, but her performance was praised.

    Next year, no doubt, they will veer back in the other direction of bland ho hum, so everyone can hit the john or the kitchen secure in the knowledge that they will not miss much.

  10. 10.

    West of the Rockies

    Those darn Latina women, taking jobs from American dancers and singers, and making God-fearing evangelical men think bad thoughts!

    The horror… The horror.

  15. 15.

    opiejeanne

    @Amir Khalid: Most teams don’t have anthems here, unlike soccer teams.

    I suppose for the Seattle SeaHawks it would be “Thrift Shop” by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis.

  17. 17.

    Brachiator

    I will have to watch the halftime show again later. I have always loved Shakira, but turned away from the performance when JLo showed up. She is okay, but oddly enough I enjoyed her early acting career more but never much paid attention to her musical career.

    It’s fun to read about the subtle political aspect of the performance and how idiots are rattled.

  19. 19.

    Mary G

    I think JLo, Shakira, and their dancers demonstrated better physical conditioning than the football players, and I am obsessed with how fast JLo managed a costume change. Also the right wing tut-tutting over women being sexy is a bonus.

    Still not as good as Prince in the rain in 2007, though.

  23. 23.

    opiejeanne

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I was entertained by the halftime show, but missed a chunk of it and looked up just in time to see the kids in cages.

    AT one point I was focused on the costume change effected by J. Lo, going from the black “biker” costume to the all white and sparkly one, and I wondered if she was wearing the white one under the black one, because there was something white and sparkly around the crotch and especially in back when she was in black. The white one seemed to be more than peeking out when she was seen from the rear, and I wondered if it was a feature, not a bug.

  27. 27.

    opiejeanne

    @Gin & Tonic: The Angels baseball team ownership tried to be like the Red Sox for some unknown reason, and used to play “Build Me Up, Buttercup”, until it became aware that a lot of fans referred to losing a game as being “butter-cupped”.

  28. 28.

    Brachiator

    @Ridnik Chrome:

    Denying disaster aid to Puerto Rico is one of the very worst things Trump has done as president, and considering how much other horrible shit he’s done these past three years, that’s saying something.

    And this is also made worse by some apparent corruption and incompetence on the part of Puerto Rican officials, the lack of effective federal follow-up, and Trump’s indifference now that the situation in Puerto Rico is not making big headlines.

  31. 31.

    opiejeanne

    @Mike J: Ha! I love that there is so much love for the team here. The grocery store clerks all wear ‘Hawks t-shirts during the season, gigantic 12 flags drape the sides of commercial buildings, and I saw a very old lady (probably 5 years older than I am) wearing a tee that said “Beastmode”.

    When I had my appendix out three years ago, day before Thanksgiving so our season was over, everyone working in the hospital, nurses, office staff, everyone was wearing Seahawks gear, except the surgeon. When I went back two weeks later to hear what he had to say, he had a ‘Hawks tee on.

  33. 33.

    opiejeanne

    @Amir Khalid: Oh, right.  Thanks I should have remembered that. It was a walk-on song for an Angels pitcher about ten years ago, Scott Kazmir. Duh. Baseball teams have walk-on music now.

    Didn’t see Godzilla.

  35. 35.

    Gin & Tonic

    Kind of a funny story. Back in 2014, when Ukraine’s President Yanukovych left his residence (known as Mezhyhirya) in a bit of a hurry in the dark of night, the public very shortly afterward began conducting self-guided tours, and there was a lot of news about his extravagant furnishings and other spending habits. I particularly recall some chandelier valued at $12M, imported from Finland or someplace, according to invoices found on the premises by some of the tourists.

    Well, my wife visited Mezhyhirya today, and it actually turns out that all those fancy imported furnishings aren’t so fancy and weren’t imported, and the invoices were fraudulent. The furnishings were locally made, often painted gold (with the paint obviously chipping and flaking by now) and the values were wildly exaggerated.

    The zoo animals appear to be real, though, so there’s that.

  38. 38.

    dnfree

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: as a “white old”, I liked the show except for the very up close and personal crotch shots. We have a new 65” TV, and the camera angle more than once left me contemplating bikini wax jobs. I didn’t think that added to the message of female empowerment, but as I say, I’m old. And I don’t know who decided on camera placement and which camera to use when.

    Edited to add that I still like marching bands at halftime, so I know my opinion is suspect.

  42. 42.

    trollhattan

    I thought Shakira killed–the woman has stage presence galore and is a legit dancer. Am more fond of J-Lo the actress than J-Lo singer, but what are ya gonna do? The show was an appropriate match for the host city.

    Halftime seemed like an hour. If I’m a player that would drive me nuts. “Hey, we went into the locker room with momentum!” “What’s ‘momentum?'”

    Not that momentum was spotted in half the first. WTF was that “Let’s burn the clock and go get some Gatorade” strategy?

  44. 44.

    Paul T

    I wouldn’t know any of their music or recognize them in the street.

    But, I’m so proud of them today.

  45. 45.

    trollhattan

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    What does constitute a “good” halftime show? Not sure I know–Bruno Mars and Prince were pretty good, most of them blur into the background and besides, bathroom break!

  47. 47.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @bemused:

    The women. I didn’t hear any men saying that anything one way or the other.

    There were only two men and they were at the other end of the room with one of them shouting at the other because he didn’t have his hearing aids in. This is my life.

  48. 48.

    zhena gogolia

    I didn’t realize that was Lopez’s daughter. That means she’s also Marc Anthony’s daughter (a far greater singer than Lopez, although she is a wonderful dancer).

  50. 50.

    bemused

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    Kind of amusing the men didn’t comment.

    Some older women may have thought that it was just too much for public viewing. I remember a couple of women were visiting at our home back in the late 80’s when the movie “Dirty Dancing” was on cable tv. They were horrified at the dance moves and we younger ones giggled in the kitchen.

  51. 51.

    opiejeanne

    @bemused: Dirty Dancing was too much for them? I remember it was sexy, yes, but not particularly dirty. I don’t recall a lot of crotch grabbing or pelvic thrusting.

  52. 52.

    Jerzy Russian

    I did not watch any of the game on TV or computer, but I did catch some of the pregame things and much of the first half on the radio.  I recall that at the pregame, there was mention of the “6 branches of the military”.    I was scratching my head wondering what branch #6 was, and it probably refers to the National Guard.  For a moment there I thought it was the Space Force, which in this current timeline is dumb enough to be possible.

  54. 54.

    gwangung

    This was being passed around on Facebook about the halftime show:

     

    As I’ve been thinking about the varied reactions to the halftime show, and how differently equipped religious leaders are to understand or interpret contemporary happenings, I realized the following:

    The halftime show was an exercise in high context/low context.

    I am not Latinx, so come at this from outside the community. I’m sure I’ll miss something here. But here is the context that I had in mind when I watched the half-time show.

    HIGH CONTEXT

    POLITICAL – It is deeply political to:
    -portray children in cages in a country that cages children.
    -have Spanish spoken and sung on the night’s biggest stage in a country that elected a president who declared Mexicans rapists and murderers
    -have belly dancing on stage by a woman of Lebanese descent in a country where the government is systematically trying to prevent migration from majority-Muslim countries
    -dance like Latinas – all the hip movement are pura Latina. Is it considered sexy? I guess so – but it’s considered talent and culture.
    -at one point have all Puerto Ricans on stage in a country that has maliciously attempted to prevent sending sufficient aid to its own colonial subjects
    -and have women “of a certain age” be the stars, when often older women are relegated to the margins.

    CULTURAL – Latin America is mezclada.
    -Anyone who has followed Shakira’s career knows she is Lebanese-Spanish-Italian Colombian.
    -Shakira’s style pays homage to Afro-Colombian dance as well as belly dancing and other Latin American forms of dance.
    -A lot of Latin American dancing involves moving one’s hips. I’m not sure if it’s considered sexual, per se, or just… the way one is supposed to dance.
    -Puerto Ricans are incredibly proud of their unique identity. That’s it. That’s all you have to know. They are 100% unique, proud as hell, and very much integrated into the Spanish-speaking and Latin American world.
    -I think Latin Americans are also deeply embodied. In contrast to my experience of white America, Latinxs live fully in their bodies. I suppose that draws upon the erotic in that we are all erotic beings, but it’s more integrated than separated/stifled. Please go visit Puerto Rico and watch los viejitos (the old people) dancing on the Paseo de la Princesa. It’s a thing, the dancing, the hips.

    TALENT –
    -Shakira actually plays multiple instruments.
    -Shakira won’t sing in a language until she has learned it, so the bulk of her work is in Spanish, with some Arabic. She can speak/sing English, Italian, Portuguese.
    -Jennifer Lopez began as a dancer. On stage. She is an incredible choreographer. She was a Fly Girl.
    -JLo helped make the Latinx pop music phenomenon in the U.S. She is hugely influential in music, dance, and in Hollywood.

    You know where I learned a lot of this? IN SEMINARY/DIVINITY SCHOOL. I’m serious. I knew all this before I even met my Puerto Rican spouse. And that’s why it’s important to get a theological education at a school with a diverse student population. Imagine going to a master’s program and not knowing any of this.

    LOW CONTEXT

    White Americans tend to be more low context. Like, what you see is what there is. And so if folks don’t know very much background or backstory, like how integral to understanding the United States in its fullness it is to honor the cultural contributions of Shakira and Jennifer Lopez, I can see how people experienced the half-time show as sexually inappropriate instead of a showcase of some of the best talent of this generation.

  55. 55.

    namekarB

    What I enjoy about the Super Bowl is that I can go to the grocery store during the game and leisurely shop without the normal hustle and bustle. Kind of peaceful. I just never could get in to the whole sports thing especially America’s version of a Roman Colosseum and “My gladiators rock and your gladiators suck.” I’m probably destined to be a hermit or something. Having said that, I did, however, somewhat follow the Women’s World Cup and learned more about football (soccer) rules than I ever knew before.

  56. 56.

    Nicole

    Man, that was fucking awesome.  Thanks for posting it, Anne Laurie!

    I’m really glad I saw it AFTER I came back from going for a run, or J-Lo and her gorgeous half-century-old body would be making me feel like a total slug, instead of a partial one.  They’re both amazing performers.

  57. 57.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Amir Khalid: to have the fans stand up and sing You’ll Never Walk Alone, or the team anthem of their choice?

    Leave it to our resident Liverpill Untied fanatic to elbow his team’s signature song into the discussion. Yellow card, Amir!

    (FTR for a few seconds I thought I heard attendees sounding off with the theme from “Seven-Nation Army”, a fixture at home games of my Baltimore Ravens, & I wondered if I had fallen into a foggy region between timelines…but upon further review, realized it was Chefs fans with the soundtrack to the “Tomahawk Chop” originally made (in)famous by Atlanta Braves fans…)

  60. 60.

    Hoodie

    The show was one of the more entertaining ones I can remember.  Oh, and I now totally get TBogg’s Shakira obsession.

  61. 61.

    bemused

    @opiejeanne:

    That’s why we were giggling at them. I get it though because these aunties would be over 100 years old now, rarely saw a movie with any sexy scenes at the time and most likely didn’t think it quite proper, out in the open like that. OTH, we did walk in on them a couple of times, laughing and telling quite naughty jokes to each other and they quickly shut up. Even though we were adults, they didn’t want us “younger” ones to hear them tell dirty jokes!

  64. 64.

    Aleta

    I watched this clip on @riotwomennn twitter (from a @Johngcole link)  The Trumpettes’ gala at Mar-A-Lago    (TW: it’s real)

    but it felt like Altman’s Nashville.   Norma Jean (Ronee Blakely) post hospital … the dreams of Sueleen Gay (Gwen Welles*)  … and Winifred/Albuquerque (Barbara Harris*) …  singing It Don’t Worry Me.   Haven Hamilton must be somewhere on that stage.

    The price of bread may worry some
    But it don’t worry me
    Tax relief may never come
    But it don’t worry me
    Economy’s depressed, not me
    My spirit’s high as it can be
    And you may say that I ain’t free
    But it don’t worry me

    *both actresses gone too soon

     

    For some reason I thought Henry Gibson wrote It Don’t Worry Me but now I see the credit is Keith Carradine’s.

  65. 65.

    BC in Illinois

    As a certified white septuagenarian, who considers anything from 1980 on to be “my kids’ music,” I have long been accustomed to the realization that the musical shows of the present day are not for me. But we had our chance.

    One of the highlights of my concert-going life was in summer of 1969 seeing the Who in concert, in Columbia, Maryland, a week before Woodstock. All of “Tommy” plus most of “Live at Leeds.” I can still close my eyes and be transported to my place on the hill that day.

    One of the lowest points of my concert-watching life was Super Bowl Halftime 2010, when Pete Townshend and Roger Daltry of the Who gave an unwatchable performance. They were the only surviving members of the band, they were both mid-60s at the time, and they should have turned down the gig. I can still close my eyes and remember thinking, “Oh, you guys . . .!” The performance is on YouTube. I couldn’t watch it all the way through.

    Let the kids have fun.

  67. 67.

    Elizabelle

    @gwangung:   Again, really interesting.  You go, Shakira.

    FWIW, that site’s commenting policy.

    Pajiba Comment Policy
    Don’t Be an Asshole. Do Not Insult Other Commenters.

  71. 71.

    Elizabelle

    @Gin & Tonic:   LOL.  There were 32 comments.  Well mannered, every one of them.

    One commenter spoke of a co-irker (maybe a play on co-worker).  I liked that.

  73. 73.

    jimmiraybob

    @MattF: The outrage from the Breitbart Boys is a highlight. Icky females!

    I suspect that they want it but, for all the reasons that you can imagine, just can’t get er done.

  75. 75.

    Mnemosyne

    @Baud:

    Apparently conservatives are Big Mad at Beyoncé and Jay-Z for not standing during the National Anthem — does that count?

  76. 76.

    carolann

    @bemused: Fifteen years ago, one elderly lady of my acquaintance was still on about how lewd Elvis Presley was. Some people really are that offended by humans with functioning hip joints.

  79. 79.

    Gin & Tonic

    @James E Powell: Funny story. My daughter did marching band in high school (well, all my kids did.) She vowed not to do it again. Four years later she ended up at Ohio State pursuing her Master’s in music performance. She not only did not join the marching band, she never watched them perform and in fact never set foot in the football stadium until commencement.

  80. 80.

    SteverinoCT

    @dnfree: But did Springsteen have a costume such that he had to have a bikini wax to slide?

    From what I read at the time, his miscalculated how slippery the stage was and almost crashed into the cameraman.

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