On Feb. 13, over 100 million viewers watched  the 2022 Super Bowl from their homes. The Cincinnati Bengals and Los Angeles Rams played a close game, resulting in a 23-20 win for the Bengals. But for music fans, the actual reason to watch began around 8:00. This year’s halftime show showcased ‘90s hip-hop and starred prominent song artists including Dr.Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, and Mary J. Blige. 

The Superbowl halftime show has grown to be as significant as the game itself, with previous artists like The Weeknd, Shakira and Jennifer Lopez, Maroon 5, and Justin Timberlake displaying their talents on the Super Bowl stage. It’s a chance to perform popular songs for a nation-wide crowd. 

This year’s act started off with Snoop Dogg performing Dr. Dre’s hit song “The Next Episode,” followed by Dr. Dre singing “California Love.” The show featured a surprise drop-in from hip-hop artist 50 Cent, who performed his hit song “In Da Club.” Mary J Blige performed and then came in the legend himself, Kenrick Lamar, the only artist that seemed to appeal to the younger crowd. The show came to a close with everyone singing “Still D.R.E.”  

For persistent watchers of the halftime show, the performers have to be relevant in the specific timeframe leading up to the Super Bowl.  “I was expecting the halftime show to be more for our generation,” junior Neha Rudrakshala said. “ I wished the halftime show had more modern artists that our generation could relate to.” 

This year was a let down to many Generation Z fans who were looking forward to an entertaining show.  “I felt like I didn’t know most of the songs performed,” junior Meghana Dasari said. “Most of the artists were popular back in the day, and I couldn’t sing along to [the songs].” 

While the show was more targeted towards the older generation,  75% of people ranging from 18-34 planned to watch the 2022 Super Bowl. According to the same survey from Morning Consultant, most of the positive commentary from the general public were from millennials who grew up with ‘90s hip-hop and rap from artists like Dr. Dre and Mary J Blige, while the other half were negative comments from younger generations expecting more familiar songs such as “Venom” by Eminem. 

Last year, The Weeknd was invited to perform during the halftime show. The Weeknd rose to fame through the social media app Tiktok, used often by Generation Z and a small percentage of Millennials. When The Weeknd performed his hit songs “Blinding Lights,” “Save Your Tears,” and “Starboy,” the younger crowd knew the songs and enjoyed his performance.

The Weeknd’s halftime show is a great example of how a halftime show should be. Since he was the only one performing, it allowed him to present all of his most popular songs, instead of just one or two. This also allowed the audience to have a variety of songs to listen to, even if one of the songs he sang weren’t a fan’s favorite. “I couldn’t bring myself to watch this year’s halftime show,” junior Malavika Saritha said. “Most of the adults knew [the performers] were. This show wasn’t Gen Z -friendly. I’m not a big fan of The Weeknd, but I still enjoyed it more than this year’s.”

Another major flaw with this year’s halftime show was that there were too many performers present. The halftime show already feels short, but this year, with almost five singers, it felt even shorter. This made all of the artists only sing one of their popular songs, when they should’ve had more time to sing more. The setlist would be improved if Lamar had more time to sing “Humble,” and Snoop Dogg could have rocked the stage with “Drop It Like It’s Hot.” 

Blige also felt out of place compared to the other singers because she was the only R&B/Soul singer while the rest were rappers. 50 Cents “surprise” performance wasn’t really a surprise.  The performance was already too hard to focus and with his drop in for the show didn’t sit well. 50 Cent would’ve made more sense as a headliner and Blige as a surprise guest. 

The performances at one of the most watched music performances on TV should be given to trending artists or small artists that are yet to grow with a big fanbase. The Los Angeles city’s league and Glendale, AZ, the next hosts of the Super Bowl, should carefully assess which artists and music genres are trending in the year leading up to the Super Bowl and choose those artists accordingly. The host cities should also put out multiple polls before the Super Bowl to include fans feedback, ensuring successful and popular Halftime shows going forward.  

However, there are some good reasons as to why the city hosts picked the artists they did for this year’s show. With all the performers from all parts of California, the show paid tribute to the state by using performers who grew up there. It was only fitting that the entertainment commemorate the city that had such a large impact on hip-hop music and pop culture for the first Los Angeles based Super Bowl of the 21st century.

As this year’s halftime show was the first headlining hip-hop music, this show would have been more or a showstopper 15 years ago. We hope the city planning the next halftime show puts the younger generation, as well as the older generation, into consideration to make it even better.