Jordin Sparks and The Bowl
How an American Idol's Super Bowl Performance Can Ruin Pop Music
Jordin Sparks, the winner of American Idol in 2007, lip-synced the National Anthem at Super Bowl XLII. What does this mean for the music industry?
Jordin Sparks lip-synced the National Anthem at Super Bowl XLII. The scandal is not the lip-syncing (plenty of musicians have mouthed their performances on-air or on-screen. Sometimes it’s just the nature of the medium). The scandal lies in the fact that music, as a profession, has fallen on hard times lately. The timing of Sparks’ acting display comes at a time when the value and quality of popular music are being seriously questioned, while 95 million viewers just witnessed the best singer the modern music industry has to offer. And she was simply pretending.
American Idle
Jordin Sparks, the winner of American Idol in 2007, is a fantastic singer. She had the unique opportunity to show the world that music is not dead, and to send chills down people’s spines with the sheer power of her voice. She could have lifted the collective spirit of a worldwide audience, and kicked off America’s biggest sporting event of the year. Instead, she simply moved her lips.
The Super Bowl has always showcased music. From the National Anthem to the Halftime Show, it places the spotlight on singers and musicians. The halftime show is, admittedly, a spectacle (though in recent years there has been an attempt to ground it in respectable musicianship, with Paul McCartney, Prince, and the Rolling Stones as the main attractions.)
But the National Anthem puts the spotlight squarely on music, and music alone. It becomes a platform for the human voice and, really, American humanity. It is a poetic pause before a night of brutality and fierce competition. Yet when the performance is pre-recorded it becomes disingenuous. It becomes a sham. The football players sharing the field with young Sparks are preparing to put themselves through tremendous amounts of pain in an effort to give their all for their team and their profession. A singer on the field should be expected, at the very least, to actually sing.
Live Music in an Age of Speakers
Sparks was in a position to give her all for her team. That is, her fellow artists and musicians. Though it may not have been her fault, the powers-that-be in the music industry should have stepped up and insisted on a genuine live performance, since that is the last remaining commodity the music business has to offer.
There is no replacement for the immediacy and excitement of a live performance. Fans, and viewers, want to hear breaths and trembles, whether they realize it or not. These inconsistencies, however minor, are what ground a performance and evoke emotion. Sparks’ “performance” was perfect and, therefore, frigid. The last thing the music business needed was another sterile recording pressed through pale sound system, especially with all of America listening.
