Thoughts on Lip Synching at Concerts

[Wario]

The awesome Justin Beiber basing/fanbase thread is one of the most interesting threads right now and its got me thinking:

What are your thoughts on lip synching during a concert?

Personally lip synching is a cheap FU to the audience who payed good money to see you PERFORM.

Granted some studio vocals may be necessary, but only in small chunks and maybe for a few lines or so (such as a few instances on 3 Bats Live and MSO - Testify and monsters loose come to mind). And of course on TV for something like TOTP.

I personally think its the worst sin you can do.

[wolfy35]

If you pay good money to see someone live a live performance is exactly what you should get and any artist that intends to have any lifespan in their career gives their fans just that.

[AndrewG]

Michael Jackson got away with it for years. I think the last time he did full shows with live vocals was in 1988 and even then he lip synched Man in the Mirror and several other parts.
If you look at the non mimed recordings there is an energy and excitement which is completely absent from the subsequent entire mimed performances. Saw him in 1996 and very exciting show and visuals etc but could have just as well put on a CD at home music wise.

~~~~ing hate lip synching.

[Vickip]

If you pay good money to see someone live a live performance is exactly what you should get and any artist that intends to have any lifespan in their career gives their fans just that.

Exactly :-)

[Julie in the rv mirror]

I agree with the others; a live concert should be exactly that- live. I can maybe live with live singing over a backing track if the artist is also dancing a lot; it can't be easy trying to dance and sing at the same time.

Since the artists I usually go see are singers/musicians primarily, I would feel ripped off if they lip synched.

TV appearances are a different case; that is usually done for sound reasons.

[anotherday]

Michael Jackson got away with it for years. I think the last time he did full shows with live vocals was in 1988 and even then he lip synched Man in the Mirror and several other parts.
If you look at the non mimed recordings there is an energy and excitement which is completely absent from the subsequent entire mimed performances. Saw him in 1996 and very exciting show and visuals etc but could have just as well put on a CD at home music wise.

~~~~ing hate lip synching.

In fairness to MJ, if you went to see him live, most people went to see his dancing.

[AndrewG]

In fairness to MJ, if you went to see him live, most people went to see his dancing.

I personally think he could have continued to struck a balance in the 90s as he did in 88. It looked from the This is It film that the O2 shows might have been live vocally, but then who knows. :shrug:

[Mr. Happy]

I think it really depends on where the focal point of attention is. If the music itself is the main attraction, then I think you should be delivering live vocals, because that's sort of the entire point of you even getting up to perform in the first place. If it's not, though, and it's the dancers or whatever that intended to be catching everyone's interest, I guess it's a little more acceptable. I still wouldn't like it personally, but I can see how you can justify it.

Honestly, though, I'd rather watch someone who can't sing for the life of them wail away hopelessly into the microphone than watch someone lip sync :shrug:

[dalearmstrong18]

To be honest miming doesnt annoy me as much as the use of auto-tune.
You buy the albums, they sound amazing and then you go see them live Because you think they'll be amazing and fair enough they sing live ....... but sound absolutly terrible. Now that is extremley annoying !!

[JennaG]

I think it depends on the nature of the show.

I've seen Steps and yesterday I saw The Big Reunion and I think that on occasions the show was mimed but as the dance moves played a significant part of the performance, I think it was less of an issue than it would be if it was an artist whose performance was just about the song.

Saying that though, there is still something that doesn't seem right about paying to see a show that you are led to believe is live when it's not.

[dalearmstrong18]

I've seen Steps
I also seen steps last year and i think about 95% of the show was live but a few songs were deffo mimed. But tbh i think that if you have an amazing time at a mimed show its worth it but shows were the singers cant sing a note are just cringeworthy

[wolfy35]

Just seen a video of where Justin Bieber was attacked by someone from the audience at a show...

In the 2 minutes between the first contact being made with Bieber that took him to the floor through the attacker being restrained by security staff to Bieber returning to the piano at no point did Bieber stop singing or playing the piano.

Strange considering he could clearly be seen swearing & shouting and was at points up to 20 feet away from the piano he was supposedly playing.

On the balance of probabilities I think its fair to say not only was he lip synching but was also miming playing the piano.

[Cherry.Loaf]

I wouldn't see an act that lip synced what's the point of spending extra money if I have the CD that sounds exactly the same at home..