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Super Bowl Halftime Show
Last week, we talked about the Super Bowl Commercials. This week, let's talk about the Super Bowl halftime show.
Before we jump into this discussion, let me establish my credentials on the subject.
I am a Band Nerd.
I played in both junior and senior high school band and orchestra for six years, went to two years of band camp and I played a few years in college. Plus, I've played in rock, salsa, R&B, and country rock bands ever since.
I wear my band nerd title proudly.
So proudly, in fact, that in high school, we always appreciated that the football team put on their exhibition game before our marching band performance. And then, when we finished playing and marched off the field, the football team put on another exhibition game to calm our audience down.
Super Bowl Halftime Show
So it should come as no surprise that I have an opinion about the Super Bowl halftime show we all watched a couple of weeks ago.
Believe it or not, I won't debate whether the show was good or bad. I've read many opinions about that, and I think most of them come down to how much you like Usher, Alicia Keyes, and the others who performed. If you're interested, Rick Beato posted a great video about the show. Read it HERE.
I will say that I appreciated that Usher brought out his hometown marching band on the field, because if I was a kid playing in that band, that would have been me. But instead, I want to talk about the song selection. Specifically, Usher's song, “Yeah!”
Instead, I want to talk about the song selection, specifically Usher's song “Yeah!” which he performed with Lil Jon and Ludicrous.
The song was released as the lead single from Usher's 2004 album Confessions.
“Yeah!” topped the US Billboard Hot 100 chart for 12 consecutive weeks. It was the longest-running number-one single in 2004, and it went platinum thirteen times.
“Yeah!” won “Best Rap/Sung Collaboration” at the 47th Annual Grammy Awards and was nominated for Record of the Year. As of February 2024, the song has sold over 13 million copies in the U.S. alone.
So, chances are that you know the song, like it, and turn It up and dance to it every time it plays on your car stereo. But have you ever listened to the song? More specifically, have you ever listened to the words?
The beginning of the song is about a guy in a club talking about the woman who's hitting on him. It's a bit vulgar, but so what?
But it doesn't take long before it gets a little more intense and a lot more misogynistic:
“If you hold the head steady, I'ma milk the cow
I won't stop ‘til I get ‘em in their birthday suit
So gimme the rhythm and it'll be off with their clothes
Then bend over to the front and touch your toes.”
And what if these now naked women won't do what the singer wants?
“I left the Jag' and I took the Rolls,
If they ain't cutting, then I put ‘em on foot patrol.”
And why are they doing this? Because as the singer says,
“We want a lady in the street but a freak in the bed.”
Super Bowl Halftime Show
Let's be clear here: for the sake of this blog, I don't care if you're a totally woke Lefty or a reactionary right-wing Conservative. Songs about rape have no business being celebrated on Super Bowl Sunday. And excuses such as, “Oh, I never listen to the words,” or “C'mon, it's just a dumb song,” or “But it was such a big hit, everyone loves it,” are about absurd as “sticks and stones can break my bones…” or “She never actually told me to stop,” or “I was just following orders.”
Because as Maya Angelou said, “When people show you who they are, believe them.”
Great read, BT.
Agree. Great observation Bruce. Roger Goodell and Co. should have a bitter taste in their mouth.
Like you I grew up playing music. Was signed in 1979 out of CBGBs – a place and time not for the faint of heart. That Usher song is disgusting and I agree with every thought you have about it. We are a lost culture.
You called it for what it is – degradation of women. Where is MeToo at this moment? This is a global stage, and we were ‘put in our place’ by the nature of this song. Let’s hope Usher figures out new lyrics if he realizes the ugly message he is communicating does not resonate with everyone.
I did not watch the show because they fail to inspire me. I have always enjoyed the majesty of the marching bands knowing that the young people in those bands are having a life memory moment. I wonder if they will ever make it back to the football field. Kudos on enjoying the band moments.
Thanks for addressing this issue, Bruce. The lyrics imply women are only sexual objects to be tossed aside the moment they don’t perform what you want sexually. Not okay. Too often today’s youth (and adults) are learning these messages of disregard for a partner from our culture and music is part of our culture.
When speaking in schools across the country, students will ask why they are expected to perform a certain way sexually even when they don’t want to or they will ask how to say, “No” to a partner. No person should feel pressure to do anything sexually they’re don’t want to do.
Too true, I’ve never heard of Usher or his rap….And, I’m confident that he has never heard of those who have improved the well-being of mankind in the past or today. He’s only appreciated and in-turn wealthy because his audience is ‘intellectually challenged’, and I’m being kind…As we all know today, the Wright Brothers invented cough drops!
Bruce,
Re your comments on Usher’s “Yeah!”…
…and the people said, “AMEN!”
The brilliant late U.S. Senator from New York, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, coined the phrase, “defining deviancy down,” to describe the steady lowering of the bar for what we – society – consider acceptable. As our standards are lowered, behavior that once was considered, and treated as. deviant is redefined as acceptable.
William F. Buckley, on launching National Review, declared an intention not to make history but to halt it. The magazine, he asserted, “stands athwart history, yelling Stop!”
Thank you for caring enough to call out the Halftime Show and Usher for the “Yeah!” lyrics.
And “I don’t listen to the lyrics”…really? I often find lyrics going through my head that I wasn’t aware I even knew. Song lyrics can be an insidious poison…especially to young minds, like an earwig burrowing deep into the subconscious.
So, if not yelling, “Stop!” at least we should be working to “define deviancy up.”
I’m with you, brother!
Nelson Griswold
The half time show like most was unmemorable. A shame since Alicia Keys is a real talent. Generally a waste of time.
Killed the half-time show during the first few minutes. About as interesting as watching paint dry!
Bruce… you are absolutely right. In 2024, he should not be performing that song WITH THOSE LYRICS. Anywhere. I put those caps there because I think it would be okay for him to update the lyrics to be less offensive. Artists create alt versions of songs all the time. Would it be that hard for him to write replacement lyrics that don’t cross that line? I’m kind of surprised/not surprised that you are the first person I am seeing bring this up. I will say I just watched it again with closed caption to see if the lyrics were softened at all. I do think they left out the part about “putting them on foot patrol,” but most of the rest of them are in there. I googled to see if anybody else was complaining about this and the only complaint I see is about the audio quality (which might have been intentional so as to make the lyrics less intelligible. I think he answer… and it’s an uncomfortable one… is that these “rules” are not enforced with any consistency.
It’s like the toothpaste you can’t put back in the tube Seth. Once you hear it, you can’t unheard it.
True. My problem is, I can rarely make out the lyrics of contemporary songs. I’ve heard this song countless times… even used part of it in a trailer once, but of all the ones you sited, the only ones I could have quoted prior to reading your article is “we want a lady in the street and a freak in the bed,” which I don’t find offensive because it doesn’t imply anything non-consensual. And I never thought of Usher as being particularly hard core. It’s quite possible that nobody gave this much scrutiny because of that rep. But considering that “Baby It’s Cold Outside” once flirted with cancellation, I’m surprised nobody… other than you… had anything to say about the use of this song at this event.
Brilliant as usual