CMU School of Drama


Tuesday, February 05, 2019

Maroon 5's Controversy-Free Super Bowl Halftime Show With Travis Scott, Big Boi and Drones

Pollstar: For all the drama baked into the runup to the Super Bowl LIII halftime show with Maroon 5 and featuring Travis Scott and Big Boi, the biggest surprise may have been how few surprises there were.

The appearance of SpongeBob Squarepants and Squidward Tentacles in tribute to the cartoon’s late creator, Stephen Hillenburg who died in November, gave fans a long-awaited treat with a clip from the show’s classic “Sweet Victory” episode. The animation sequence featured meteors descending upon Atlanta and Mercedes-Benz Stadium and concluded with Scott from a emerging from a pyrotechnic fireball to perform “Sicko Mode.”

3 comments:

Cooper Nickels said...

I think the media has missed the mark on how people reacted to the Sweet Victory part of the half time show. People were not excited to see it or happy that they were listened to, because they were supposed to play the actual song, and they did not. The internet is really disappointed with how Maroon 5 paid tribute with this. It is interesting to me to see how the media has misinterpreted this when everyone is being pretty vocal online about how Maroon 5 did them wrong. The internet can be a fickle audience to try to play to, and really whatever you do is going to make a lot of people angry. I find it strange that Maroon 5 tried to appease them and pander to what they wanted without fully doing what they had promised. Of course people are going to react how they did. It was just a tease.

Emily Stark said...

Call me a bad Atlantan but I didn’t actually watch the Superbowl this year. So I was definitely surprised to hear about the craziness of the Superbowl half-time show. I love that they mixed medium by having performers, drones, and animation as part of the show. It’s unbelievable how much content they were able to fit into a 13 minute show. I’m glad they finally had at least one half-time show without too much controversy. I think the selection of artists only appeals to a certain audience, as I only really know of a few of the performers, but it seems like it was well received and that the show was a success. It’s always hard when large national events are shrouded in controversy. I commend the performers for not letting their political beliefs and controversial opinions get in the way of their performances. I truly believe that opinions should be shared, but the Superbowl half-time show is not the place to share them.

Willem Hinternhoff said...

This article is absolutely biased in favor of this super bowl halftime show and frankly, at this point, I don’t really care. Every year, people talk about the super bowl, and whether the halftime show lived up to expectations. And every year, half the people say yes, and the other half say no. I didn’t even turn on the television during the Superbowl this year, and frankly, I couldn’t care less. It sounds like this year was underwhelming in all facets. Also, in addition, I support their decision to include underrepresented artists like hip-hop artists, however, if you are gonna put them in front of literally the entire country, make sure that you are not going to have to censor every other word, as that is not enjoyable for anyone to watch. Also, this article argues that Maroon 5 isn’t “punching above its weight,” which I would argue it is, not based off of ticket sales but by quality. Their last album came out two years ago, to at best, middling reviews.