Now you might think I'm one of those old geezers, who if I was around in 1964, would be castigating the long-haired Beatles. But you would be wrong. There is a lot of great music being made today by artists such as Neko Case, Arcade Fire, The Hold Steady, Explosions In The Sky, Joanna Newsom, and many others. But you never hear them on commercial radio and you certainly won't hear them in an NFL halftime show.
There you go. Anyone of those would be great and I could come up with 100 more and you could come up with another 100 more.
The Decemberists were #1 last week. Iron & Wine are #2 this week. I think it should be a contest. Whoever has the highest selling record that week gets to play the Super Bowl.
It would be pretty huge. Almost every band would want that gig. And all they have to do to get it is have the top album.
And they would. They would release new material, that more people would buy, because their purchase goes not only to a record company, but towards a concrete goal that the fan wants the band to achieve. It would be massive. It would have a measurable positive effect on record sales for the year.
Another way to go is for the NFL to just say to Pitchfork - pick 4 good bands and they each play a song. That would just be a vast improvement. All Tomorrow’s Parties would be excellent.