Quick Hits, Volume 2

Sonny asks Dalton about … Musicals
Do you think the most popular musical of the 2020’s will be one that begins as a traditional performance on Broadway, an original film, on a podcast, or one that somehow utilizes a somewhat new medium, like virtual reality?
DB: Let me start out with where the most popular musical of the 2020’s probably won’t come from. First would be a podcast. I am obsessed with both musicals and podcasts, but I only listen to 2 musical podcasts. One is called Off Book: The Improvised Musical, which I highly recommend, and the other is 36 Questions, a musical podcast based on the social experiment “36 Questions That Lead to Love.” The thing about 36 Questions is I only just learned about it from you, Sonny, the last person I thought would tell me to check out a romantic musical podcast. The fact that this existed, involves Jonathan Groff, and I only just learned about it proves that a podcast musical probably won’t be the most popular of the 2020’s.
The next thing that that probably won’t spawn the best musical of the 2020’s? Virtual reality. I admire your optimism about the importance of virtual reality in our culture going forward, but I think the idea of it producing the most popular thing in any medium, even video games, won’t happen for a long time. At the current moment it is too expensive and inaccessible to be truly ubiquitous as a form of entertainment delivery, and even most of those who can afford it treat it as more of a gimmick than anything else. We’re looking more at the 2030’s if we want to see virtual reality really leave its mark on society.
So now I’ll stop telling you where the most popular musical of the 2020’s won’t come from, and I’ll tell you exactly what it will be: Hamilton, which also happened to be the most popular musical of the 2010’s. In the 2020’s there will almost certainly be a Hamilton movie released based on the Broadway show, and that movie is going to beat up on movie musical records like they’re the British at the Battle of Yorktown.
There also aren’t a lot of people in Hollywood right now with more power than Lin-Manuel Miranda, who seems to work harder than anyone else in that town. When he inevitably wants to get the Hamilton movie made, it won’t take a revolution to make it happen.
Dalton asks Sonny about … LMFAO
I was confused when you wanted me to come up with a question about LMFAO, but now I’m glad you did, I’ve learned so much. Did you know that Redfoo is SkyBlue’s uncle? I had zero idea that was a thing. (I also didn’t even know their names, I learned those on Wikipedia). Actually, after the duo split, SkyBlue changed his name to 8ky, which is still pronounced “Sky.” They both made some bad music after the split, and Redfoo even made some horrendous music, so I guess my question is this: How did these goobers have one of the most popular singles of the entire decade?
Wait a second, so you’re telling me that ahead of the concert that you and I both attended at the Florida Gulf Coast University rec fields in 2010 — one of the many times we, Communication majors entering FGCU at literally the exact same time, must’ve crossed paths before we actually knew each other — that you didn’t know that an Uncle/Nephew duo named Redfoo and SkyBlue? I mean, even if you weren’t an avid LMFAO fan (and I certainly wasn’t), I at least did the Wikipedia search then, not nine years later.
Here’s what’s really interesting though: Six months after that concert at FGCU, the music video for “Party Rock Anthem” was released. As of September 2019, it had 1.6 billion — with a “B” — views on YouTube. It’s the third best-selling digital song in US history, and the sixth most successful song of all-time according to Billboard. Granted, they didn’t perform “Party Rock Anthem” at the concert, or any of the songs from their Double-Platinum “Sorry For Party Rocking” album, but I never once imagined that I was in the presence of what would be one of the defining musical acts of the 2010’s.
Now even I’ll admit that at first glance that statement looks as crazy as Redfoo’s hair, but I’ve thought about this topic quite a bit over the last few months. On our first day posting at Bingeable, I wrote about the Album of the Decade, and “Party Rock Anthem” was one of the most difficult cuts from the list. The truth is, I probably screwed up leaving it off. It’s entirely possible that the “Party Rock” genre of music that LMFAO pioneered will have the same legacy as disco did in the 70’s, and LMFAO will be our Bee Gees.
And in their defense, it wasn’t just that “Party Rock Anthem” was a one-hit wonder or that they had only 15 minutes of fame. “Sexy and I Know It” was LMFAO’s second number 1 hit, and they charted four other singles in the Billboard Top 100. They performed at the Super Bowl in 2012 with Madonna. They were featured in a storyline on The Real World: Cancun, and they provided the theme music for both Kourtney and Khloe Take Miami and Jersey Shore. At the very least, this was a case where they had 730 days of fame.
As for the “How” in your question, that I don’t have a concrete answer for. My best guess is that there was an influx of EDM/Party Rock/Electropop/Hip-House music that worked its way into the pop music rotation sometime around 2009 and had a nice five-year run, and for whatever reason, these goobers had one of the defining songs of that era. It’s just as inexplicable as it is that we somehow didn’t meet until after college, but regardless, it happened.
Sonny asks Dalton about … Adam Driver
Imagine that you’ve stumbled upon a very unique time machine. The only thing you can use this time machine for is to transfer Adam Driver to the past and replace whoever the lead actor was in a specific movie with Adam Driver. You can use this time machine three times, and you can only go to a specific decade once. Which three movies are you picking?
This time machine is already the greatest time machine ever conceived by the mind of a human. The DeLorean? Keep it. H. G. Well’s Time Machine? No thanks, too much existential dread involved with that one. But a time machine that allows me to put Adam Driver in whatever movie I want? Perfection.
Here’s the thing. It’d be easy for me to just stick Adam Driver into any movie of the past 100 years and convince you it’d be a better movie, but there’s nothing interesting about that. Let me tell you something about my boy Adam, he looks fantastic in a hat. He wears many different hats in his movies from cowboy hats, to fedoras, to bucket hats. Whatever the headwear, he pulls it off. So I’m going to use your time machine to put Adam Driver into movies where his hat game can continue to flourish.
Jurassic Park
Sam Neil rocks a very stylish aussie style hat for the majority of Jurassic Park. Not only does it look good, but it’s practical too. It serves the very important role of keeping the rain out of Dr. Grant’s eyes as he tries to escape a murderous T-Rex. But with all due respect to Sam Neil, Adam Driver could pull the hat off better. Plus, Sam Neil’s Dr. Grant manages to lose the hat, which is something I can’t imagine Adam’s could stomach. Picturing those long black locks pouring out from under that aussie hat has me wishing for what could’ve been, but with you, time machine, I would have to wish no longer.
American Graffiti
George Lucas hasn’t done much meaningful directing outside the galaxy of Star Wars, but American Graffiti is one of his masterpieces. One of the coolest looking characters in this movie is Bob Falfa played by Harrison Ford. He has a badass car and wears a cowboy hat because Harrison Ford didn’t want to cut his hair for filming. While it’s hard to beat Han Solo on looks, or the ability to look fantastic at any given moment, I can’t help but wonder, what if?
What if Adam Driver played Bob Falfa? He’d certainly look just as cool in the hat, if we agree it’d be impossible for him to look cooler. And with no way to tell you why, I’m sure that Adam Driver’s Bob Falfa would win the drag race at the end of the movie, saving the car and his pride.
Casablanca
There doesn’t need to be much introduction here. Casablanca is a classic and one of the greatest movies ever made. Humphrey Bogart is inimitable, especially in a dope fedora, and it is inconceivable to make Casablanca better without him, but this is my universe and my time machine, so I’m going to do it anyway. Adam Driver standing on the tarmac, fedora resting on his head, sending Ingrid Bergman away forever is a shot that that the real universe will always be lacking.
But in both universes, we’ll always have Paris, and Adam Driver will always look great in a hat.
Dalton asks Sonny about … Super Bowl Halftime Performances
This is less of a question and more of a task. Please curate your perfect Superbowl halftime performance. You can use any performers you’d like alive or dead, but here are some guidelines to follow:
2 headline performers
1 surprise guest performer
1 giant display (fireworks, drones, Prince hologram, etc.)
1 Stunt (Think Lady Gaga swan diving off the roof).
Plus whatever else you think you need to make a great performance.
This is nearly the exact question (i.e. task) that I was hoping you’d send my way, only you threw me for a loop with the “1 surprise guest performer” tidbit. The good news is I’ve thought about this for quite some time so I was easily able to call an audible, and I’ve got the perfect performance lined up for Football/Music fans everywhere. Let’s get to it, shall we?
Headliner #1: LMFAO
(I kid)
The Headliners: Prince and Led Zeppelin
Because of the reputations of each of my two headliners, I don’t feel as though I need to spend a great deal of time justifying either of my choices. Prince is the greatest musician of all-time. Led Zeppelin is the greatest rock band of all-time. Both of those points are indisputable … in my opinion. And if you’re thinking: “Hey, are we sure these two acts would be able to co-exist musically? Aren’t they pretty different stylistically?” I’d respond: “Please spend more time thinking about the two sentences you just read that said Prince is the greatest musician of all-time. Led Zeppelin is the greatest rock band of all-time. And y’all also spend a little more time going over the discography of these two musical acts before you start critiquing my choices for a fictional Super Bowl halftime performance!”
The Set List
We’d kick things off with perhaps the greatest arena rock song ever: Kashmir. It’s my personal favorite Led Zeppelin song and it would kick things off with a bang … literally. The opening notes would be accompanied with a practically safe, yet borderline dangerous amount of fireworks. Check 1 Giant Display off the list, and let’s hire a good lawyer in case our fireworks display goes off the rails. We’d let Robert Plant and co. jam for about 3 minutes before all of the lights in the entire stadium went out, except for one spotlight that shone on a long rampway that carried all the way back into the entrances to the field.
At this point, we’d hear the revving of a motorcycle engine and the start to Let’s Go Crazy. Prince would come flying down the rampway on his trademark purple motorcycle and at this point the members of the crowd who avoided injury during our fireworks display would be going nuts. Check 1 Stunt off the list while we’re at it. From there, Prince (with Led Zeppelin playing back-up) would go into a medley of When Doves Cry, Raspberry Beret, and Purple Rain.
From Purple Rain, we’d transition into an underrated Led Zeppelin classic, Fool In The Rain. Throughout the course of the song, Prince would play every instrument on stage just to flex on everyone in the crowd who was still second-guessing my decision to put Prince and Led Zeppelin together.
Dalton, I know what you’re thinking. Back to back songs about Rain, that’s a whole lot of rain, isn’t it. What do we need to combat the rain? Umbrellas. And now making her way down the ramp way, singing her first megahit Umbrella, is our Surprise Guest Performer, Rihanna.
Prince, Led Zeppelin and Rihanna on the field together … what more could you ask for?
I suppose you could ask for the second half of the Super Bowl to start.
Sonny asks Dalton about … The NFL
Without even the tiniest bit of sarcasm, say five genuinely nice things about the NFL.
1. That’s not a question.
2. But I’ll give you 3 answers.
3. Sometimes there are wonderful commercials during the Super Bowl.
4. It was the biggest selling sport at the retail sports store we both worked at, so without the NFL Bingeable may never have been born.
5. It’s very bold to name a sport football when only like 2 players use their feet.


