Kid 'rocks' the Super Bowl Halftime Show at Reliant Stadium
By Nate Seltenrich
Kid Rock's 1998 breakthrough album, "Devil Without A Cause," elevated him to the lofty status of popular music's celebrated white-trash icon. Ever since then, he has been making a fine career out of combining rock, hip-hop and Southern culture cliches into a distinctive blend of familiar genres and styles.
His subsequent albums, 2001's "Cocky" and 2003's "Kid Rock," have earned him critical acclaim and kept him hanging around the margins of mainstream music, but nothing he has done over the past five years has garnered as much attention as did "Devil Without A Cause."
Kid Rock, born in Michigan as Robert James Ritchie, will take another stab at superstardom this Sunday at the official Super Bowl Halftime Show. Throw in his fellow performers P. Diddy, Janet Jackson and Nelly, and you've got a veritable pop music orgy. Kid Rock may look like the odd man out in this group, but he should be able to hold his own, perhaps sparring raps with P. Diddy and Nelly or crooning with Janet, the marquee performer.
Football and music fans alike in Houston, where Super Bowl XXXVIII will be held, should take well to his southern rock persona, while his gift of gab should endear him not only to his stagemates, but also to a wider audience who likely won't be able to turn away from his over-the-top antics and shallow-yet-engaging lyrics.
Of course, that's the point of booking such a brash performer. CBS, who will be hosting the Super Bowl, has a wide range of halftime show events on other channels to compete with to capture the television audience.
The Super Bowl Halftime Show, which is being produced by MTV and sponsored by AOL, was originally set to include Jennifer Lopez and U2's Bono performing a song called "An American Prayer" that draws attention to the AIDS plight in Africa. Despite the initial go-ahead from MTV, the NFL decided against the idea about two weeks ago.
A day later, Kid Rock was announced as being officially added to the lineup. His most recent album, self-titled, debuted at No. 8 on the Billboard 200 chart and was certified platinum by the RIAA within a month after its release in November 2003. It looks like Rock is coming close to earning another fifteen minutes of fame, which is notable considering the waning popularity of the rap-rock fad that propelled him to celebrity in 1998.
Kid Rock had actually been performing and recording in much the same vein for a decade before "Devil" made him a household name. Citing the Beastie Boys as heavy influences, Rock recorded his first demos in 1988. His early fusion of rap and hard guitar work was considered to be significantly derivative of the Boys' "Licensed to Ill" album and was not received well. Rock continued working on his sound, and despite facing some very difficult economic times and being dropped by Jive Records, he survived through two more mediocre albums before finally getting it right with "Devil." A strong promotional push from MTV and his new label, Atlantic Records, helped bring Kid Rock's sound to the masses, and it stuck.
Within a year, the record had gone seven times platinum and Rock had landed a gig on Woodstock '99. In 2000 he released a collection of outtakes, demos and bootlegs from his early years, and in 2001, "Cocky" served as a solid follow-up to "Devil" that didn't try anything new.
Three years later, Rock continues to push to remain in the public eye, and his Super Bowl appearance, closely following the release of his new album, is likely a critical component of that plan.
The Super Bowl will take place on February 1st and will be broadcast on NBC. Beyonce Knowles of Destiny's Child will be singing the national anthem before the game.
û Contact Nate Seltenrich at (408) 554-4546 or nseltenrich@scu.edu.