The 50th anniversary of Saturday Night Live is upon us, and it has sparked a flurry of specials and events celebrating the legacy of this iconic weekly program. Most recently, “Ladies & Gentlemen… 50 Years of SNL Music” provided insight into the thousands of musical performances on SNL. As an avid SNL viewer, I was very excited to see this special, as I always love learning more about the behind-the-scenes aspects of the show. This special didn’t just deliver on that hope, but sparked a new interest.
To start, the introduction was long. So long that I thought the whole special might just be listening to musical numbers, since that’s all the beginning was. It highlighted a montage of songs jumping rapidly across SNL’s legacy. For the first two minutes, I was interested, but by the eight minute mark, I was starting to get bored. Sadly, this special falls into the trap so many pieces of media have been falling into recently — an insanely elongated run time, with it being over 3 hours long while a normal SNL episode will range from 60-70 minutes.
After the intro, the special was finally allowed to start, but not without a second opening act focused on the dialogue of former cast members. It’s nice to hear from them, but compounded with the musical intro, this second act made me want to stop watching.
Even so, I stuck around, and I’m happy I did. After that excruciating start, the special got pretty interesting. Of course there were points of over-explanation and information invaluable to the topic, but that’s a theme in every documentary. Many artists were brought on, including Billie Eilish and Jack White, and they explained just how monumental performing on SNL is. It’s a hallmark for any successful artist – if SNL believes in you, you’re almost bound for success. There were musical performances from Sabrina Carpenter and even Prince, highlighting the variety of music SNL has supported over the years. No matter what your music taste is, I can guarantee an artist you like, or appreciate was in the special.
There was a lot of emphasis placed on the power of SNL as a platform for social change. Due to its live nature, an artist can theoretically do whatever they want, as the production team has no capability to edit something airing live. Artists like Rage Against the Machine and Sinéad O’Connor brought their messages to SNL, spreading information on important issues like pedophilia and rape. Many of these artists were interviewed, and it was interesting to watch the performance and hear the true motivation behind these artist’s actions.
This special opened my eyes to artists “before my time” and gave me a deeper understanding of the art of performing music, especially in the SNL format. In the modern day, most SNL performances are of well-known groups or singers. These artists view it as a crowning achievement, something that proves they are truly in the industry. But this special also emphasized the lesser-known artists who became “mainstream” through SNL. This documentary encapsulated a wide variety of genres and styles of performance, and for a music nerd like me, it was amazing. If you have any interest in music history, performance music or SNL, I would highly recommend this special. Just maybe skip the intro.