🎤 Bad Bunny at the Super Bowl: Culturematics in Action

The Super Bowl is never just a game. It’s America’s biggest cultural stage, where sports, politics, business, and music collide in front of 100 million eyes. When the NFL announced that Bad Bunny would headline the halftime show, it wasn’t simply a booking decision—it was a culturematic moment.

A culturematic, as Grant McCracken defined, is an experiment dropped into culture to see what new meanings, identities, and debates it produces. Bad Bunny at the Super Bowl is exactly that.

1. The Global Play

Bad Bunny is not just a Latin artist; he’s a global superstar. Spanish-language songs dominate streaming charts, and his tours outsell U.S. pop staples. By putting him on stage, the NFL signals: this isn’t just America’s game—it’s a world spectacle. Ad revenue follows viewership, and with Bad Bunny’s fan base stretching from Puerto Rico to Spain to Chile, the halftime show becomes a magnet for international eyes and brands.

Culturematics question: What happens when a U.S. tradition like the Super Bowl is re-coded as a global event?

2. The Political Tension

Every halftime show doubles as a proxy war in America’s culture wars. When it’s hip-hop, critics ask, “Where’s the rock?” When it’s a Latino artist, critics ask, “Why not country?” This isn’t about music—it’s about whose culture gets to take center stage.

Trump’s team hinting about ICE at the Super Bowl is less a policy statement and more a symbolic jab. It’s a way of saying: this isn’t for you, it’s for them. The same way Colin Kaepernick’s kneel became a national dividing line, Bad Bunny’s Spanish lyrics and unapologetic Latinidad will be framed as a provocation.

Culturematics question: Is the halftime show now a political referendum disguised as entertainment?

3. The Business Calculation

For the NFL, it’s simple math: Bad Bunny brings eyeballs. Eyeballs bring advertisers. Advertisers bring billions. The halftime show stopped being about “musical legacy” years ago. It’s about cultural reach and audience expansion. By choosing Bad Bunny, the NFL is investing in the next generation of consumers—multilingual, multicultural, global in taste.

Culturematics question: Can cultural inclusion and corporate profit walk hand in hand, or do they inevitably clash?

4. The Cultural Experiment

This is why Bad Bunny at the Super Bowl is pure Culturematics. The NFL is tossing a new ingredient into America’s cultural stew and waiting to see the reaction: joy from fans, backlash from critics, memes from Twitter, and maybe even policy posturing from politicians.

If culture is a mirror, the halftime show reflects a fractured but evolving America—one where English is no longer the only language of pop, and where inclusion itself becomes both celebration and controversy.

✨ Conclusion

When Bad Bunny steps onto that stage, it won’t just be about music. It will be a live experiment in identity, belonging, and business. A performance that asks: Who gets to define America’s biggest cultural ritual?

That’s Culturematics at work—using entertainment to expose the seams of culture, forcing us to reckon with the future of who we are.