New Music Review: Is the NFL a Record Label Now?

Something interesting happened with the Super Bowl this year…and it wasn’t the Eagles throttling the Chiefs. The NFL put out the halftime show, and other tracks from the Super Bowl, as singles. Sometimes artists put out a track they do at the halftime show as a single, but the NFL is putting out the entire halftime show, live with audience reaction, as a single. I find this very interesting and shows how the NFL with Apple Music are positioning the Super Bowl as a musical event on the same level as it is a sporting event.

Past halftime shows were meant mainly for the stadium audience and they were on TV as an after thought. Historically, there were marching bands and family singing groups. Then the NFL wanted to bring in more viewers with cool halftime moments. This led to pop acts and ageing rock bands, which reached a climax with Prince’s monumental performance in the rain. The NFL loved the buzz and how acts would bring in casual fans. However, the buzz on acts dropped year over year, which led to panic in NFL offices as they saw casual fans walking out the door….then Beyoncé happened.

There was some buzz and a sense of a halftime comeback with Bruno Mars, but Beyoncé kicked down the door and changed the halftime show forever. Beyoncé taking over Coldplay’s set with her rendition of Formation, complete with over 50 African-American women dancers dressed in Black Power uniforms lit the internet on fire and had buzz going for weeks after the game. The NFL was swimming in money like Scrooge McDuck and now it was cool for current big acts to come perform.

Pepsi decided to take that moment one step further with a hip hop halftime show complete with 50 Cent, Snoop, Dre, Kendrick Lamar, Eminem and Mary J Blige. This was Super Bowl LVI and the hype was off the chart. This show did really well, which led Apple Music to join the party as a sponsor with the next Super Bowl. However, Apple didn’t just want to sponsor the Super Bowl, they wanted to make the halftime show its own event. What better way to usher in the Apple halftime show era than to have one of the biggest artists ever do her first live show in years…which led to the Rihanna halftime show. Some thought there was not enough energy, while most thought it was a spiritual experience…put me in that category. Viewer numbers were off the chart and Apple made the halftime show a stand alone program you could watch on Apple TV. Now the halftime show was totally seperate from the game and was made for TV entirely. In essence, it became a 25 minute concert.

This has all brought us to Kendrick Lamar and SZA. Much like the Rihanna show, they were getting artists at the top of their games. Kendrick and SZA have never been more popular than they are now and both have huge followings. For an in house halftime show, it was pretty low energy with some highs, but as a concert it was fantastic. Kendrick hit some tracks off the new record, had some classics with SZA and then shut the door with the biggest track in the world Not Like Us.

The historic aspect of this show is that it has been released as a new single. That’s right, you can purchase the halftime show as a single. It has all the audience reaction, Samuel L. Jackson hype, as well as Kendrick and SZA with excellent production value. With this release, the NFL and Apple have made the halftime show a 100% musical product totally outside of the game. This is how the NFL and Apple can continue to make money far after the show from casual fans. My daughter has listened and watched the show countless times to see her favourite artists Kendrick and SZA. She could care less how much energy was in the stadium. She gets to see her favourite artists perform.

I expect this trend to continue and halftime shows will become less and less about the game and more and more about being shown on Apple TV and purchased as a single. Gone are the days of the halftime show being an extension of the game or a chance to take a break before the second half. The NFL is now a music hit maker and is looking for its next single.

Listen to Kendrick’s and SZA’s Halftime Show