Super Bowl Halftime Show a Reminder That Life Moves Very Fast

Sunday night's halftime show at the super bowl was enjoyable. Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J. Blige, Kendrick Lamar, and even 50 Cent delivered a fun nostalgic set that was good for all time zones and especially excited those in my generation and the one behind us, Generation X and Mienniallls. Yet, I couldn't help but look at the performance and take it as a reminder that life moves very fast.

Perhaps, if Justin Timberlake hadn't revealed Janet Jackson's breast on national television during the 2004 Super Bowl Halftime Show, we would have seen artists like Dre, Snoop, Eminem, and company center stage at the Super Bowl much sooner.

Yet, after that incident, the NFL fed us a steady diet of boomer-friendly classic rock for six years. Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, Prince, Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen, and the Who would headline the shows from 2005-2010.

Of course, the Super Bowl Halftime Show has never really been about the hottest current artist. It's about the comfortable, safe for all time zones, artists. Sometimes those performers are currently pumping out hits like Aerosmith and N'sync in 2001, other times it's about an iconic artist like Beyonce in 2013. Yet they always have broad appeal, and while perhaps sometimes polarizing for Super Bowl viewers, generally it's not a performance that's going to rock the boat.

And that is why the halftime show was a reminder that life moves very fast. All the artists on stage were making waves and causing a commotion 20 years ago. Or even before that. I was a Top 40 personality and still plugged into a lot of the current music scene when Eminem introduced us to his alter ego Slim Shady 20 years ago. And I hadn't yet got my first commercial radio job when 2Pac and Dre scored a big hit with "California Love" 26 years ago. And I was even younger when I read an article in Spin or some other music magazine about Mary J. Blige and wanted to check her music out.

None of this seems all that long ago to me. Honestly, 1985 doesn't seem like it was 37 years ago either. I picked that year because I was fully invested in music by then with a burgeoning cassette collection and didn't go anywhere without my walkman.

Somewhere in my mind, the 1980s stopped getting further and further away. Even though I kept getting a year older every year and acknowledging that. It just seemed that yeah, the '80s were "20 years ago" even when they were 30 years ago, and now close to 40 years ago.

So yes, Snoop Dogg, Dre, Eminem, Mary J Blige, and 50 Cent's performance is a reminder for those of us of a certain age that life moves very fast. A decade can go by in a blink of an eye. Knowing that may not be all that comfortable. But it's good to know. Because at 50 years old, I've got a lot of knowledge to share, a lof concerts to attend, and a lot of life left to live. And I don't want to miss a minute of it.