Super Bowl 2012 Halftime Show: Music Has Taken a Back Seat to Theatrics

Even before M.I.A.'s one-fingered salute to the cameras in Sunday's Super Bowl halftime show, it was clear that theatrics and visual spectacle had overtaken the actual music.

Regardless of your feelings about Madonna, the fact is that she was lip-syncing throughout the performance. That's not music, that's performance.

For those music aficionados out there, the Super Bowl halftime show has taken a turn for the worse. Long gone are the days of The Who, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, Prince, the Rolling Stones and Paul McCartney. Even if you aren't the biggest fan of these bands, one thing could be said about them: They actually took the time to play music.

In my mind, if every Super Bowl halftime show is going to be primarily based on theatrics from now on. We may as well do away with the music altogether, because it's not true music anymore. It's become an assortment of remixes, where performers who have no business playing together (see: Slash and Fergie, 2011) try to make do, replacing authenticity with pure "star" power.

I'll give Madonna credit for being original on Sunday (she's never lacked in that), but it seems like, as long as you're original these days, that qualifies as good music. No, while originality is important, music is about far more than that.

I know what's coming next after M.I.A.'s drama-queen antics. The Super Bowl halftime show will be reduced to oldies bands like James Taylor, while we all sit there in complete boredom. The NFL will try to find the least controversial artist in the world. That way, there will be no more reasons for the FCC to come calling. In that sense, I'm not looking forward to Super Bowl halftime shows any more than I have been the last couple of years.

But maybe it will also open up the door to better music, where it's primarily about the music and not the spectacle.

You can't help but feel like M.I.A. was just caught up in the moment on Sunday. I'm not excusing what she did, but, let's face it, she's a performer and she was surrounded by a bevy of electricity. It's like telling Ozzie Osbourne to sing "Crazy Train" in his quiet voice while he's playing for an entire stadium of rabid Black Sabbath fans—it just ain't gonna happen.

My hope is that the halftime show will get back to being about the music and we can all head into the second half with "Purple Rain" once again stuck in our heads.