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How to improve the Super Bowl halftime show following the Adele debate
Singer Adele performs on stage during her North American tour at Staples Center on August 5, 2016 in Los Angeles, California. Kevin Winter/Getty Images for BT PR

How to improve the Super Bowl halftime show following the Adele debate

Adele doesn’t want to perform the Super Bowl 51 halftime show. She reportedly told her crowd this while performing in Los Angeles on Saturday. “First of all, I’m not doing the Super Bowl,” Adele said in between songs. “I mean, come on, that show is not about music. And I don’t really — I can’t dance or anything like that. They were very kind, they did ask me, but I did say no."


The NFL and its Super Bowl halftime show sponsor Pepsi have since denied that they ever offered Adele the gig. Their joint statement reads: “The NFL and Pepsi are big fans of Adele. We have had conversations with several artists about the Pepsi Super Bowl Halftime Show. However, we have not at this point extended a formal offer to Adele or anyone else. We are focused on putting together a fantastic show for Houston and we look forward to revealing that in good time."

Regardless of who said or didn't say what to who, Adele’s on-stage comments raise some important questions that have been silently swirling around the Super Bowl’s halftime show anyway. Who would say yes? And why would they? What is the Super Bowl halftime show really about?
First of all, Adele is right: the Super Bowl halftime show is not about music. Maybe once upon a time it was. There is one example that will stand the test of time: the late great Prince performing "Purple Rain" as it poured down rain in Miami for Super Bowl XLI. Nothing is ever going to rival that live music moment in Super Bowl halftime show history. Everybody else is playing for second place. Although, there have been some good second place performances as recent as last year's Beyonce and Bruno Mars Super Bowl 50 performance (oh yeah, Coldplay was there, too).
But even with Prince included, the Super Bowl halftime show is about performance more than the music itself. We should take this one step further: the NFL should make the Super Bowl halftime show more about the stage and not a specific name brand performer.
Believe it or not, the Olympics are setting the example for NFL and Pepsi right in front of their faces, every two years, with its extravagant opening ceremonies. Not to say that the Super Bowl halftime shows are lacking extravagance. See: Katy Perry and her left shark. But what the Super Bowl is lacking that the Olympics has right is showcasing the hosting city.
This should still be fresh on your mind from 11 days ago in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The 2016 Olympic opening ceremony was a performance, no doubt, but every element of the performance centered on Brazil and its culture—from the fireworks in the sky spelling out Rio, to the displays about the environmental threats surrounding the country, and more. The performers, outside of Brazilian model Gisele Bündchen, were not bigger than the performance and its message. The Super Bowl halftime show should be a celebration of the location, the reason all of these people have been brought to this location, through musical performance.

In 2012, London's opening ceremony highlighted the industrial revolution, the Queen and Daniel Craig as James Bond. Pick any Olympics, any city, and the opening ceremony featured the same celebratory structure and local focus. The audience never knows what's coming ahead of an Olympic opening ceremony, and while the way the selected Super Bowl halftime show artist will perform is up to chance, everybody has a general idea of what to expect. The audience knows an artist's catalog ahead of time, which gives them an out.

Super Bowl 51 will take place in Houston, Texas, next February. And what place is more closely associated with football than Texas? Nowhere. A Texas Super Bowl provides the NFL a perfect opportunity to test this model out. Or rather, re-test the original model seeing as in the 1960s Super Bowl halftime shows consisted of local college marching bands. 
So what are you waiting for, NFL? Kanye West is not walking through that door for Super Bowl 51. Or, is he? And if he did, would that level of superstar headliner actually be better than a 15 or 20-minute halftime performance centered around Texas, its musical and sports culture, and its football history? 

Explosions in the Sky can play the theme from the show based off the iconic Texas high school football book "Friday Night Lights." Texas natives ZZ Top can revive the tradition of old acts at halftime. Austin native Gary Clark Jr.’s meteoric rise could be tapped as both a big name and homegrown performer.

Of course, there are countless local marching bands — both high school and college — that could rock out the stadium, drawing on both the Texas football culture and a musical performance for the ages. The local tie-ins are almost endless, all celebrating football and Texas at the same time.

After all, Texas is football, with high school football drawing tens of millions of dollars under those Friday night lights, the Longhorns simply headlining the passionate college fan bases in the lone star state, and the Cowboys and Texans drawing interest across the country, if not the world.
It’s worth exploring. And if the NFL doesn't like the idea, there's always Houston native, Super Bowl halftime show veteran and queen of the world, Beyonce.



Can you name the Super Bowl halftime performers since 1991?

Some shows featured more than one performer. Answers will count as correct if you can any headlining or featured performer from a halftime show. 

SCORE:
0/28
TIME:
6:00
SB XXV
New Kids on the Block
SB XXVI
Gloria Estefan
SB XXVII
Michael Jackson
SB XXVIII
Clint Black, Tanya Tucker, Travis Tritt, The Judds
SB XXIX
Patti Labelle, Indiana Jones, Tony Bennett, Miami Sound Machine
SB XXX
Diana Ross
SB XXXI
The Blues Brothers, ZZ Top, James Brown
SB XXXII
Boyz II Men, Smokey Robinson, The Temptations, Queen Latifah
SB XXXIII
Gloria Estefan, Stevie Wonder, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy
SB XXXIV
Phil Collins, Christina Aguilera, Enrique Iglesias, Toni Braxton
SB XXXV
Aerosmith, 'N Sync, Britney Spears, Mary J. Blige, Nelly
SB XXXVI
U2
SB XXXVII
Shania Twain, No Doubt, Sting
SB XXXVIII
Janet Jackson, P. Diddy, Nelly, Kid Rock, and Justin Timberlake
SB XXXIX
Paul McCartney
SB XL
The Rolling Stones
SB XLI
Prince
SB XLII
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
SB XLIII
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
SB XLIV
The Who
SB XLV
The Black Eyed Peas, Usher, Slash
SB XLVI
Madonna, LMFAO, Nicki Minaj, M.I.A., Cee Lo Green
SB XLVII
Beyonce, Destiny's Child
SB XLVIII
Bruno Mars, Red Hot Chili Peppers
SB XLIX
Katy Perry, Lenny Kravitz, Missy Elliott
SB 50
Coldplay, Beyonce, Bruno Mars
SB LI
Lady Gaga
SB LII
Justin Timberlake

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