SUPER BOWL 50 Halftime show is a pop-culture peak

By David Bauder

AP Entertainment Writer

NEW YORK

Warren Duncan has something in common with Madonna, Beyonce, Mick Jagger, Bruce Springsteen and Prince – and doesn’t hesitate to let his grandchildren know about it every year about this time.

All performed at the Super Bowl halftime show, although it wasn’t quite the spectacle in Duncan’s time that it is now. He was at snare drum for the Florida A&M marching band at Super Bowl III in 1969, when the New York Jets upset the Baltimore Colts.

“I really hated to see it transition to what it is,” Duncan said. “I really wish it would be like the traditional band halftime show.”

Those days have gone the way of leather helmets. The halftime show has become one of the year’s top cultural moments, so anticipated that it is commonly seen by more people than the game itself. The British band Coldplay steps into the spotlight this weekend, with an expected cameo by Beyonce.

The Super Bowl show easily can be divided into two eras: Before Michael Jackson and after. His 1993 performance established halftime as something more than an afterthought. With the fireworks and extras, Jackson proved no gesture could be too big.

The NFL begins planning its halftime show months in advance, negotiating with chosen artists and mapping out how things will proceed, said Mark Quenzel, NFL senior vice president in charge of the halftime show. After Janet Jackson’s breast-baring episode in 2004, the league has maintained strict control.

“In some ways, it is the worst 121/2 minutes of my year,” said Quenzel, who watches from the sideline hoping for no wind, rain, electronic glitches or – shudder – wardrobe malfunctions.

By the time Katy Perry rode in on a mechanical lion last year, and soared away on a platform designed to look like a shooting star, she had rehearsed the show some 40 times. “Anyone who has ever done it has been scared,” she told Elle magazine later.

Today, it’s almost impossible to conceive that the second Super Bowl featured Miami- area high-school bands at halftime. Florida A&M’s band performed twice, once after Duncan graduated. The University of Michigan and Grambling State University bands were other two-timers.

The lineup for the 1980 halftime show – a salute to the Big Band Era with the youthful singing group Up With People – practically screams at anyone under age 50 to find something else to do.

It finally dawned on the NFL in the 1990s that halftime was a massive missed opportunity.

For artists, it is a chance to perform before an audience whose size cannot be duplicated. “It has become kind of a bucket list item for the biggest acts in the world,” Quenzel said.

After Janet Jackson’s unanticipated exposure, the NFL ushered in a dinosaur era of big rock acts such as The Who, Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty. McQuenzel has sought to make the bookings more current. One of his proudest moments was hiring Bruno Mars in 2014 despite fears the singer wasn’t well known enough, but it turned out well.