Just my opinion (14 Viewers)

[superchuck500]

See the fins on the side? That's a GNX. The regular Grand national didn't have them. At least my '85 didn't.

The story of the GNX in the show:

Kendrick Lamar wanted a GNX. Not the one from the cover of his new album of the same name. One that could be gutted and turned into a “clown car” for his Super Bowl LIX halftime show. That’s how Shelley Rodgers, the show’s art director, tells it. Rodgers has solved such big-stage problems for everyone from Beyoncé to Lady Gaga; she won an Emmy for her work on Rihanna’s halftime show in 2023. A car wasn’t a huge deal, but she still needed to find one. They couldn’t borrow Lamar’s own Buick Grand National because they’d kind of need to destroy it to pull off the visual trick.

“That car was not easy to find, especially since he dropped his album,” Rodgers says. “We could have just used his, but I don’t know that he would’ve liked it after.”

Erik Eastland from All Access, the company responsible for fabricating the stage for Sunday’s show, was the one who found what Lamar wanted. Eastland and his team located the GNX at a mom-and-pop car lot in Riverside, California, after a thorough search and at least one near mishap.
. . .
So, about that GNX. While Eastland is “good at finding stuff like that,” Shelley Rodgers says it was still a challenge. Ever since Lamar released GNX, the 1980s two-door Buicks have seen a surge in popularity. Car aficionados have long held the GNX in high regard, and Eastland presumed no one who has maintained one of the cars for nearly four decades would want to sell it to someone planning to tear it apart.

Even those willing to sell presented peculiar problems. Before he located the one All Access eventually bought, Eastland’s car guy found himself in a pickle when a potential seller said their name wasn’t on the title because the owner was dead. “I don't know if it was stolen or not, but that's the kind of nonsense that we can run into,” Eastland says, recounting the story. “I think at the end of the day, it could have been a lot harder.”

Once he got the car from a used car lot in Riverside, he still had to gut it—something even he admits was “sacrilegious.” But, Eastland argues, the people who appreciate Lamar’s music and his passion for the GNX were “going to need to see the car and not a cheap imposter” during Sunday’s halftime show.

Still, I have to ask, could the car be put back together again? Sadly, no. It could go on tour with Lamar, Eastland says, but its days as a street-legal vehicle are over. Eastland says he’s lucky he bought the GNX before its appearance in the halftime show drives up its value on the used market even more. “I got to believe that the price for these things is going to go way up for a while.”

Lamar, and the GNX, now go down in history.

The Wild True Story Behind Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl Halftime Show

From the start, Kendrick Lamar wanted to turn his life into a video game for his big Super Bowl halftime show. The team tasked with doing that knew what to do—right down to sourcing a vintage GNX.

www.wired.com

 

[CapitalCitySaint]

Also, they did incorporate New Orleans music/artists into the game. Lauren
Daigle, Trombone Shorty & Jon Batiste & Harry Connick Jr all performed.

 

[sonicboom]

I didn't watch the Superbowl or the halftime show, but here is the halftime show on youtube.



Top two genre's currently are pop and hip hop, so if the halftime show was either pop, or hip hop, than it shouldn't shock any one.

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jackrighteous.com

I say, be thankful it wasn't Taylor Swift. Her music hurts my ears. Same goes with the Foo Fighters.

 

[TheRealJRad]

^ that is what Kendrick’s performance was about. Since you’re an older white guy living in a bubble, I wouldn’t expect you to notice anything beyond the “choreography”. Black people live in a different America than you.

Because this is who Kendrick is as an artist. He's telling stories, you just have to listen (I know you're not saying otherwise)

And he also called Drake a pedo in front of the entire Super Bowl audience, so I mean something for everyone

 

[superchuck500]

All the history of New Orleans music, and this is what they decided to have. This is what I was disappointed in…

They could’ve done an entire history of New Orleans music from Jazz, to R&B, to old school Rock and Roll, to Mardi Gras music and funk, to NO Hip Hop…

They certainly could have - but if you look at the history of the SB halftime show, it isn't really about celebrating the host city. There's a little bit of that but it's not really a "thing".

List of Super Bowl halftime shows - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Sun Wukong]

Yeah, it should have been some ancient boomer rock band.

The world passed a lot of you by, but ultimately that's a choice on your part. Stop crying about it.

Music has changed. Culture has changed. You can either change with it or live in a self imposed bubble of your own creation, but for the love of God stop whining about everything that isn't what you listened to in high school.

Talking about how diverse your tastes are and then exclusively listing musical acts from 40 years ago isn't proving the point you think it is.

 

[Arathrael]

I was listening to everything from Rush to the Police to Run DMC, Beastie Boys and Whodini to George Clinton and Soulsonic Force.

Formed in 1968, 1977, 1983, 1981, 1982, 1968 (if we're going with Parliament), and 1982. Not exactly pushing back against the "old guy wants the oldies, none of this new-fangled noise you call music these days," argument there.

Sorry FLIPPY, but it's happened to you:

 

[showtimesaints]

I got excited at the start, thought Debbie Deb was coming out, but only disappoint kicked in.

 

[efil4stnias]

I got excited at the start, thought Debbie Deb was coming out, but only disappoint kicked in.

i never thought that i would ever hear a sample of "When i hear music" in a rap song.

Certainly not while scoping out the talent at the Palladium ( or Kennys Key West ) in Metairie while it was blaring thru the speakers.

 

[superchuck500]

See the fins on the side? That's a GNX. The regular Grand national didn't have them. At least my '85 didn't.

I think this was about 10 years ago by now, but one day I was at our friends' place - they were having a party. This was approximately early 40s, everyone's got kids and stuff, it's just a cook-out. I start talking to my friend's next door neighbor Bob, who I had gotten to know a bit over the years that they lived there. He was a nice guy, I think involved in boat-charters or something. Just a clean-cut looking white dude from the suburbs and whatnot.

So that day, though, we're just drinking a beer and chatting, and we started talking cars - sports cars in particular, of which I am also fond. He mentions that he had a Grand National when he was younger, and of course I was like "damn, that's a hot rod! Tell me about it . . . " So he goes on to tell me that not only did he have a Grand National, he had it set up for racing - additional aftermarket equipment and I think even nitrous at one point. And it was hella fast.

But this was illegal street racing in the outskirts of the DC area, like Maryland mostly. He was really good and got to be known as "Grand National Bob" - and I'm like "holy sheet! This story is awesome." He raced in all sorts of impromptu and planned street drag races - often for a lot of money. He said it actually got to be a bit dangerous, he developed a reputation and people would come looking for him. But his adventures as Grand National Bob went on for a couple of years.

He basically chose to retire. He sold the Grand National and left that chapter behind. HA! I asked him questions about like an interrogation for about an hour, great story.

 

[superchuck500]

Formed in 1968, 1977, 1983, 1981, 1982, 1968 (if we're going with Parliament), and 1982. Not exactly pushing back against the "old guy wants the oldies, none of this new-fangled noise you call music these days," argument there.

Sorry FLIPPY, but it's happened to you:

 

[showtimesaints]

i never thought that i would ever hear a sample of "When i hear music" in a rap song.

Certainly not while scoping out the talent at the Palladium ( or Kennys Key West ) in Metairie while it was blaring thru the speakers.

haha, yup love freestyle music. I liked the sample worked into the tune. I even heard a Stevie B sample recently worked in.

To the crowd claiming that the old guard need to adapt to todays music, as Prince once said, good music never gets old

 

[Madmarsha]

Also, they did incorporate New Orleans music/artists into the game. Lauren
Daigle, Trombone Shorty & Jon Batiste & Harry Connick Jr all performed.

True. That was a great preshow (and even the Southern University marching band!).

 

[superchuck500]

To the crowd claiming that the old guard need to adapt to todays music, as Prince once said, good music never gets old

Fair point - but I don't think anyone is actually saying that the old guard need to adapt. I think what they're saying is that rejecting the show as terrible is a judgment based on perspective and bias.

Don't adapt, that's fine - but also recognize your limits when it comes to judging something. "I didn't get it" is a fair subjective response. "Worst ever - aliens will laugh at us" is something different.

 

[antipop]

as someone who is perpetually stuck in my own music bubble, i thought the show was pretty awesome....

certainly better than some geriatric rock star playing hits from the 70s