Although it was a clear victory for the Eagles against the Chiefs with an ending game score of 40-22, some of the other aspects of this year’s Super Bowl weren’t so set in stone. With the Super Bowl being the most watched program on U.S. television, for many, one of the largest draws for tuning in to watch this spectacular game is the highly anticipated halftime show. Whether you like football or not, the show brings an audience to channels such as ESPN and Fox Sports that is unmatched by any other sports event of the year and allows families to connect by immersing themselves in a unique performance with endless possibilities.
That being said, the halftime show doesn’t always live up to the expectations of the crowd and certainly never pleases everyone. My goal after this year’s performance by hip-hop/rap artist Kendrick Lamar was to gauge the opinions of the students here at Agoura High School; Were you a fan of this year’s Super Bowl halftime show?
After seeing the varied opinions of individuals and online news outlets surrounding the February 9th performance, I decided to ask teens my age about their thoughts on the production. I began by asking each person if they had watched the Super Bowl at all and then went on to ask a series of questions about what they thought of the show overall on a scale from 1 to 10, what they would have liked to see that Kendrick Lamar didn’t do, and also whether or not they are a Kendrick Lamar fan to measure any biases that they may have. Additionally, I asked one individual per grade to get an equal amount of responses from each age group.
My first interview was with freshman Arianna Esmail. When I asked for her thoughts on the halftime show as a whole, she claimed, “I think it was like—for me—probably an eight, mainly because I’m not a fan of that kind of music, but I think it was a cool performance.” She stated that she would have liked to see Kendrick play different songs of his and also shared that she is not really a fan of Kendrick Lamar usually but does like to listen to some of his songs on occasion. As she is not a big fan of the artist, it is likely that she does not hold much bias toward the performance that would affect the score she gave it. However, she did rate it fairly highly, which is a sign that even individuals who may not be a part of Kendrick’s fan base still appreciated the elaborate performance.
My next interview was with sophomore Nola Rose, who rated the performance a seven overall. When asked what she would have liked to see done differently by Kendrick Lamar, she stated, “He did not sing “Love”, which is a great song, and I was really disappointed by that because it’s a great song. I really wish he had given SZA more airtime because it should’ve been SZA featuring Kendrick Lamar, not Kendrick Lamar featuring SZA.” Already from this answer, it is quite evident that Nola may have had some bias toward SZA going into the performance.
The answer that further demonstrated such bias was when asked if she was a fan of Kendrick Lamar, she responded with, “No, I like some of his songs. I like “Luther,” but it features SZA. I like “Humble.” “Not Like Us” is fine; it’s just kind of overplayed, but I definitely prefer SZA over him.” Clearly, the bias that Nola had prior to the halftime show was a greatly contributing factor to her overall view of the performance in the sense that it led her to want the production to be centered around the feature of the performance, SZA, rather than focusing on the main artist, Kendrick Lamar.
After this, I moved on to interview junior Olivia Lee. Once again, when asked for her thoughts on the performance on a 1 to 10 scale, she claimed, “I thought it was a 7.5 to 8.” Based on the previous two answers, this seems to be similar to what most others thought. “I feel like the message he was trying to give got kind of lost because it was like a crazy performance and stuff like that, and there were a lot of different things he was trying to do, like bring in a lot of famous people on top of also trying to give a super powerful message. I don’t know. It kind of went over my head a little” was her response when asked what she would’ve liked Kendrick to do differently.
Finally, when I inquired about whether or not she was a fan of Lamar’s, she answered, “I would say yeah. I’m going to the Kendrick-SZA concert. I’m so excited.” This final response allowed me to gauge that her bias toward the performance was likely substantial since she is a fan of both individuals who played in the show. However, although she is a fan, she did state a few large downsides she believed the performance had, as she claimed it was maybe too elaborate to be as meaningful as Kendrick Lamar attempted to make it.
My final student interview was with senior Izsak Glasgow. “I really liked it. I really like Kendrick Lamar in general. I also really like SZA. So based on the two people, I thought it was already a ten out of ten. I thought the choreography was great. The outfit was great. The shade thrown was great. From everything, I really liked it.” He provided, when asked to rate the show. Again, it is quite obvious from this initial response that Izsak likely came into the performance with an altered view due to his admiration for both individuals performing.
His next response claimed, “I didn’t really feel like anything was missing. I liked it as it is,” when asked what he thought could have been added or changed which further cemented the belief of a preconceived bias. “Yeah, I like him in general. I listen to his music. Same with SZA, and so the duet between them for that song was great,” added Glasgow when asked if he was already a Kendrick Lamar fan. The bias that Izsak may have held before the performance may have greatly affected his opinion on the performance. However, based on these four interviews, the overall score the performance received from the Agoura student body was about an 8.2.
Although I set out initially to only find out the student’s opinions, I felt it would be important to ask a teacher as well to see if the score would differ depending on the age group. The teacher I decided to interview was Spanish teacher Señor Del Olmo. I asked Sr. Del Olmo all the same questions that I asked the four students. His response to what he would rate the show was, “I want to say a 6.” Already, the difference in opinion was evident.
My further questioning aimed to answer whether or not this was due to prior bias or if thoughts differed due to the altered demographic. “I wish I could have understood the lyrics that he was singing. I just couldn’t make out half the words he was saying, but I liked the beat. So, the beat sounded good” was his next answer. This struck me as something that may relate to age, as none of the interviewees prior had brought up this aspect.
Next, when asked if he was a fan of Lamar’s, Sr. Del Olmo replied, “I listen to him on Spotify from time to time. I’m not a crazy fan of his. I don’t dislike him”. This response solidified Señor Del Olmo’s neutrality on the performer and therefore cleared any question of bias I may have had. Ultimately, with this interview added to the others, the group score remained relatively similar at a 7.8.
The various student and teacher responses led me to believe that although not everyone in our Agoura High School family may be a fan of Kendrick Lamar, it is pretty widely agreed upon that the performance was well received in the eyes of students and teachers and enjoyed by the majority of viewers. Whether age played a factor in the responses is neither here nor there, as the opinions of both the teacher and students asked were generally positive, and with some minor tweaks, the show likely could have received an even higher score.
Ultimately, this year’s Super Bowl Sunday Halftime show was a success in the eyes of our school community, but now the question is: Can next year’s performance top this one?
