At the Super Bowl, Nostalgia’s the Only Game
The New York Times
When the present is divisive and the future is scary, pop culture’s biggest event plays “remember when.”
“This is the millennium of Aftermath.” When Dr. Dre rapped that line on “Forgot About Dre,” from his 1999 album “2001,” he was referring to his record label. But from the vantage point of the 2022 Super Bowl, where he headlined the halftime show, it was also a pretty accurate forward-looking statement.
The big game, its spectacles, its ads and its trappings all shared a sense of looking backward — a nostalgia-saturated attitude that we were living in the aftermath of the best times, and that it was more comforting to look to the past than to the future.
This is not a knock on Dr. Dre, or the incendiary legends-of-hip-hop show he put on. For the game to finally center America’s biggest music genre in front of America’s biggest audience was overdue and thrilling.
It was an election year. An Olympic year. A year of brats and cowboys, witches and swans. Amid it all, these people, characters and things stood out.
After 11 years, Eddy Chen and Brett Yang are moving on from their beloved, enormously popular comedy duo TwoSet Violin.
The year 1984 was a watershed in pop music. The stars who’d made it big the previous decade had to embrace new instruments and MTV or risk being left behind.
The house goes all out for its V.I.C.s.
The “Succession” actor is an awards front-runner for “A Real Pain,” but his actual priority is being a dad: “That’s the whole point of life.”
A chance meeting in December 2017 plunged Zoë Kestan, a downtown “it” girl and social media star, headlong into an unpredictable affair.
The artist, who has supported the protests against the Tate group of museums, won the prestigious British award for an installation that includes a car covered by a giant doily.
A chance meeting in December 2017 plunged Zoë Kestan, a downtown “it” girl and social media star, headlong into an unpredictable affair.
The artist, who has supported the protests against the Tate group of museums, won the prestigious British award for an installation that includes a car covered by a giant doily.
Listen to how Tchaikovsky uses the celesta in “The Nutcracker,” unleashing the potential of the instrument to signal playfulness and fantasy.
In their bedazzled hoodies and crystal-embellished T-shirts, hype-driven shoppers may be the last true dandies left.