The outrage over the NFL selecting reggaeton superstar Bad Bunny as the next Super Bowl halftime musical artist led Turning Point USA higher-ups to jump into the fray and propose an alternative “All American Halftime Show.”
And it's not going well, reports Salon columnist Amada Marcotte, who suggested that fans of the late Charlie Kirk’s TPUSA appear to be out of touch with not only current music, but also are in a state of “complete cluelessness” about what people will watch.
As she wrote on Wednesday, TPUSA decided to let supporters provide input on the acts and style of music to be presented, and it has not gone well, and there is not the groundswell of enthusiasm they likely expected.
According to Marcotte, there is a divide between those who want a Christian-based halftime show and those who lean hard into older rock units in the twilight of their careers.”
“When TPUSA posted about their halftime show, there was a flurry of hyperbolic responses from MAGA followers, hoping that hate alone would somehow produce an entertaining alternative to one of the most popular artists in the world,” she wrote and added, “The results haven’t been announced yet, so we can’t know if 'Classic Rock' will beat out 'worship' music. But on X, there were plenty of eager Trump fans offering suggestions about the kind of artists they think will top Bad Bunny, who has been streamed nearly 100 billion times on Spotify.”
Pointing out a proposed lineup of “a murderers’ row of has-beens like Papa Roach, Nickelback, Staind and, yep, Creed,” the columnist quipped, “... basically, the same array of CDs you’d find in the floorboards of the least dateable guy you knew in the 1990s.”
With that in mind, she added, “Some people wanted music that’s even more unpopular. Multiple users demanded worship music, which is basically a blandly written verse and chorus about Jesus performed in an adult contemporary style that no one listens to outside of white evangelical circles," before pointing out, “Many people, without having a clue who will perform, declared they would watch this instead of the real halftime show. Some of them seemed confused, thinking TPUSA had somehow canceled and replaced Bad Bunny with [fill in acceptably white person] at the Super Bowl.”
“All of this reflects what is a small ray of hope in our bleak political moment. MAGA’s relationship with pop culture only has two forms: Complete cluelessness and/or resentment that most people think their taste stinks,” she suggested, and noted that the right-wing donors behind the rise of TPUSA would be throwing their money away.
Writing that, “MAGA couldn’t be better designed to repel the creative urge. The whole movement is based on a notion that difference is scary, change is bad and everything that’s happened since you were 11 years old is a travesty,” she added, “Fearfulness and intellectual laziness are kryptonite to the imagination. How can you think of something new when your ideological position is that everything new is bad?”
You can read more here.