2011 Called: They Want Their Super Bowl Halftime Band Back

Marooned+at+Sea%3A+North+Atlanta+students+express+disappointment+with+the+news+of+the+considerably+outdated+Maroon+5+playing+at+the+53rd+Super+Bowl.+

Marooned at Sea: North Atlanta students express disappointment with the news of the considerably outdated Maroon 5 playing at the 53rd Super Bowl.

After a whole year of pop culture disasters, the worst has finally arrived. Alternative pop band Maroon 5 will be playing the halftime show for the 53rd Super Bowl. Led by singer Adam Levine, who is also a coach on The Voice, Maroon 5 was extremely popular with mainstream audiences in the early 2010s. However, over the years the band has slowly and silently slipped away from the spotlight as newer bands such as Imagine Dragons and Twenty One Pilots claimed their spots on radio stations and listeners’ playlists.

For all non-football fans, the Super Bowl halftime show is the most interesting part of the night, and most audiences expect to be able to disconnect from the real world for ten minutes and watch the live performance of a well-liked and relevant musician or band.

Maroon 5 has lost touch with the youth of this generation and most of their former fans with the subpar and underperforming pop music they’ve released over the past few years. Given the band’s recent track record of mediocre, bland offerings, the question stands: Why are they performing at the most watched TV event of the year? Most North Atlanta students agree that Maroon 5 isn’t relevant at all in pop culture these days. “I’m going to the Super Bowl this year if the Patriots are playing, and I definitely don’t want to see Maroon 5, of all bands, play at such a special event,” said sophomore Sophie Peck.

The Super Bowl is no stranger to questionable halftime programming decisions.  Last year, event organizers invited Justin Timberlake to play a set during halftime after his infamous wardrobe malfunction with Janet Jackson in 2004. The most compelling part of Timberlake’s entire set was the young fan in the audience who immediately became an internet star after taking a selfie with Timberlake while he was performing. In 2012, Sri Lankan singer M.I.A. was sued by the NFL for $16.6 million after flipping the bird on live television during her performance.

Unfortunately, this year, the people watching will have to be subjected to the annoying nostalgia of their middle school days when “Moves Like Jagger” or “Sugar” was their jam. Hopefully, the planning committee for the Super Bowl will listen to the already rampant public outcry and pick someone people will want to watch perform next year. At the rate they’re going right now, next year’s halftime stars will be Nickelback.