Case Study - Usher's Unstoppable Ascent
Today's industry is optimized for artists like Usher
The Grammys may still claim to be music’s biggest night (and this year’s telecast did see a big boost in ratings), but there is an argument to be made that America’s annual interest in music peaks a week after the Grammys with the Super Bowl Halftime Show.
The Cadence has been obsessed with the yearly event since our very first newsletter which celebrated the iconic David Bowie-Tina Turner Pepsi ad while looking forward to the Weeknd’s appearance at the 50-yard line in 2021. And with Apple replacing. Pepsi as the halftime sponsor last year, there is no more salient example of the intersection of Music x Tech x Brands to be found.
This year’s Superbowl double-dipped the Poptimist party line. Reams of memes have already tackled the Taylor Swift of it all [Ed. - Hat tip to Rob Harvella for the “of it all” of it all]. Taylor is a cultural force beyond any industry machinations imaginable. A one-of-one.
Usher is not a one-of-one. He’s not even in the Top 50. But after last Sunday, he’s proven himself to be one of the few performers with enough gravity to pull the industry’s various worlds — streaming, sync, style, etc. — into orbit, at least for one week.
Starting with streaming, Apple’s second year as the sponsor for the half-time show proved that the Emmy-winning year one with Rihanna was no fluke. Apple’s first job after taking over from Pepsi was to de-saccharine the show. Rihanna is one of the world’s most enigmatic stars — accessible yet unknowable, not unlike the Apple brand itself — and her high precision red-leather-clad baby-bump-revealing performance was equal parts pretentious pop art and populist pageant.
Usher is a far more approachable popstar than Rihanna, and Apple leveraged his mischievous teddy bear persona to great effect — starting in September with a self-congratulatory interview with Beats Radio baron Zane Lowe as soon as the NFL made the announcement, and ramping up to a fever pitch with Apple Music playlists, Apple Fitness+ programs, and the playful “Where’s Usher” promo film that served as the perfect excuse for Apple to flex its immense celebrity-wrangling muscle.
Apple’s official sponsorship gave it the most access to the star, but tech is just one category to be monetized on such a momentous occasion. BMW also nabbed an Usher appearance for its Super Bowl commercial that featured Christopher Walkin and the singer repeating the word “Yeah,” to each other. It has been reported that the use of the informal adverb was enough to merit a full sync deal for the song “Yeah” according to reps from BMG and Sony Music (who represent four of the song’s six writers). And who are the missing two rightholders? Two gents who go by the names Ludacris and Lil Jon who might have been paid SAG-AFTRA scale (like $600) for their guest spots in the halftime telecast, but still got a big check in the background for being in Usher’s orbit.
You can’t perform at the Super Bowl naked — just ask Janet Jackson. Usher was allowed to free his nipples, but he also sported two fits that received plenty of shine. Following on from The Weeknd’s red Givenchy jacket and Rihanna’s redder LOEWES jumpsuit, Usher broke the color trend with two outfits, an 80s-inspired customized Dolce & Gabbana get-up and a Tron-esq biker-inspired costume by Off White, with chromed-out Air Jordan 4s. But the footwear that got the most attention was the singer’s roller skates, a collaboration with London-based Flipper’s Roller Boogie Palace, a brand descended (literally) from the infamous LA rink that ran from 1979-1981.
One of the biggest complaints about Pepsi’s decades-long halftime show sponsorship was the incongruity between athletic excellence and obesity. Gone are the days when we’re meant to believe that all of our biggest megastars can fit into their custom clothing if they’re swilling sugar water. But if cola is out, then cognacc is still very much in. Usher might have sent an A.I. in his place for the Rémy Martin 1738 promo shoot, but he did show up in person for the brand-sponsored Super Bowl afterparty.
And while we’re on the topic of virtual pop stars, did anyone else notice how much Usher’s uplit abs resembled the OG CG, hologram Tupac?
Of course, Usher plans on riding this wave as long as possible. A week before the Super Bowl, he announced the Usher: Past Present Future tour for later this year. It was your standard 24-city routing, but Live Nation was clearly planning for the best-case scenario, and the moment the halftime was a hit, they doubled down by adding additional shows in almost every city. We sure hope his crew gets double time in lew of any days off.
All in, it’s estimated that Usher will earn $100 million from endorsements, music, and ticket sales downstream from his 15-minute Super Bowl spotlight. But it could just be the beginning. The singer also used this opportunity to announce a development deal with Universal Studio Group division UCP for a TV series based on life in Atlanta and intended to “bring the music to life.”
Hopefully, Usher’s first foray into television series will work out better than The Weeknd’s low-key brilliant, high-key panned show, The Idol. A low bar, but if the show is even half a hit, it will further secure Usher’s newly sainted status as a multigenerational icon beloved by Gen X, Millenials and Gen-Z alike.
They say music is great at selling everything except for the music itself, and this could be the case for Usher. His classic album, Confessions re-entered the Billboard 200 in the leadup to the Super Bowl (post-game analysis shows Usher’s total catalog streaming up 46%). It remains to be seen if his new album, Coming Home, which was released the Friday before the Super Bowl will find a home on the charts, but daily data from Spotify doesn’t show anything from the new album in the top 200.
The Super Bowl has never pretended to be at the vanguard of music, and the odds of Usher having a breakout hit in 2024 are long, regardless of what happens in Vegas. But we live in the age of catalog consumption, where the elevation of old songs is normalized on DSPs, making decades-old acts the surest bet. If there was ever a time when the industry’s interests were in alignment with legacy artists, that moment is now, and that artist is Usher.
TAKEAWAYS
Salient statements from this week’s music news.
1. What New Opportunities Do Vision Pro and VR Headsets Bring to Music?
Artists and app developers are approaching the new AR/VR headsets with a mix of enthusiasm and uncertainty.
Takeaway: The immersive, three-dimensional experience that the headsets — and those from other companies, like Meta — offer is a test of where technology can go, and how humanity may interact through technology moving forward.
2. People Still Listen to Radio More Than Music Streams, Podcasts Combined
The ultimate lean back music consumption format continues to lead after decades.
Takeaway: The death of broadcast radio appears to have been greatly exaggerated. According to a new Edison survey, the average person in the U.S. Spends 36% of their daily audio consumption listening to AM/FM radio.
3. Anthropic Trained Its AI to Rip Off Copyrighted Lyrics, Music Publishers Allege
New evidence in the ongoing lawsuit led by Universal Music Group against the Amazon- and Google-invested AI company shows training logs that directly utilized famous lyrics like Don McLeans “American Pie” and 500 other songs.
Takeaway: The case can be viewed as a proxy war between the music industry – including the world’s largest music rights holder, UMG – and Big Tech over the extent of copyright law in the age of AI.
