The centerpiece of the most watched sporting event in the world began with two marching bands and a high school drill team.

The halftime entertainment at Super Bowl I was devoid of flashy pyrotechnics and elaborate stage displays. Instead, the University of Arizona and Grambling College bands performed for a crowd of more than 60,000 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, forming shapes including a paddle boat and the Liberty Bell.

For this year’s halftime show, Coldplay will headline a 30-minute, multi-million-dollar concert that, if it replicates Beyonce’s performance in 2013, will draw more viewers than the game itself.

Clearly, the Super Bowl halftime show has grown into a spectacle that has mirrored the growth of the NFL’s championship game.

“The NFL understands they have a captive audience and there’s a certain level of expectation that comes with the largest and most important game of the biggest sport in America,” says Jon Kendle, an archivist at the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Throughout most of the game’s first two decades, the halftime show occasionally featured stars of the day — Al Hirt, Ella Fitzgerald and Carol Channing were among the early notable performers — but high school and college marching bands remained the backbone of the entertainment. Kendle says that began to change in the late 1980s. In 1991, however, most of the country didn’t get to see the first major group to perform solo at halftime — New Kids on the Block — because ABC decided to tape-delay the halftime show in favor of a Gulf War news report.

The next year, when Gloria Estefan performed at Super Bowl XXVI in Minneapolis, the Fox network siphoned an estimated 20 million viewers from the proceedings by airing a live episode of the sketch comedy “In Living Color” at halftime. In 1993, many thought the NFL was leaving nothing to chance when it booked Michael Jackson for the festivities. The King of Pop put on an electrifying show, ushering in an era when halftime TV ratings began to equal or surpass those of the game.

“Ever since Michael Jackson, it seems like (the halftime show) has taken on a life of its own,” Kendle says. “That’s when you started to see some bigger names, and better production involved in it.”

Jackson’s sister, Janet Jackson, played a prominent role in arguably the biggest scandal in the halftime show’s history in 2004. That year, during the broadcast of Super Bowl XXXVIII, Justin Timberlake exposed her breast on live television for about half a second near the end of their performance, giving the phrase “wardrobe malfunction” a permanent place in the nation’s entertainment lexicon.

The incident, broadcast to an estimated audience of 143.6 million viewers, led the Federal Communications Commission to fine CBS a record $550,000 and provoked debate about censorship, free speech and decency standards in broadcasting. MTV, which had produced the Jackson-Timberlake show, was barred from being involved in future productions, and the government increased fines for indecency violations more than tenfold.

For several years after that, the NFL made more conservative choices for the show, including aging rockers like Paul McCartney, Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen. Those decisions, Kendle says, have only heightened the anticipation over who will be chosen each year.

“Of course the game itself captures the country’s attention, and the excitement is global now,” he said. “You look at how the game has gotten bigger, and (the halftime show) is one of those mega-events during Super Bowl week — like Media Day, Radio Row and so forth — that have grown right along with it.”