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Everybody’s Talking Music!
Thank You Super Bowl LVI
It was bound to happen. Elvis, Doris Day and Sinatra eventually stepped aside to make way for The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Hendrix, Dylan and company — who then stepped aside for The Eagles, Elton John, The Bee Gees, and Fleetwood Mac.
The 1980’s found us singing along to Springsteen, Michael Jackson, Billy Joel and Madonna — and the 90’s gave us Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, The Macarena, and . . . here it comes. . . . a young east coast Jay Z with a brilliant transformation of “It’s A Hard Knock Life” from Broadway’s “Annie” turned into a 1998 hip-hop opus.
Twenty-four years later America’s largest stage welcomed hip-hop with open arms and started a multi-generational conversation from coast-to-coast that is being played out in living rooms, on social media, in print, and in every other form of human communication you can think of.
This was the defining moment when the Boomers (1946–1964) realized in no uncertain terms that we are no longer the ruling, top of the heap in America. There are three named generations behind us — and one with their feet on the ground that has yet to be defined (currently called Gen Alpha). No longer is The Super Bowl advertising towards a crowd who attends The Who, Paul McCartney, or Billy Joel Concerts. This show was aimed at the lower end of Gen X…
