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Reasons For The Art of Lip Synching

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i thought it was worth making a thread about why an artist might lip synch.
1. if there is no time for a soundcheck.
2. if an artist is established, has many fans, but is hated by the media, and venue owners are easily influenced by the media, but want to make a mint off the artist, because the venue owner is keenly aware that the artist still has a big time fanbase, but because of media influence, is not courteous to the artist, like he was, back in the day, when the artist was at the apex(the point where the media was just getting started on the artist, but the venue owner hadn't heard the bulk of the media venom, yet.(i realize this is all speculation, but, i've heard from some fans that some of the music of this artist isn't considered suitable for children, in their country.[i assume, they mean, by the government.] yep,,the fan told me the unassumed part.)

3. A venue owner considers music to be the least of their concerns, though the national anthem, for example, is sung before every sporting event, for example.

4. the sound engineer isn't very good.

All in all, if an artist manages to transport the fan into escapism, in the moment of performance, the artist has proven that lip synching is an art.

i was hoping that if anyone else has ideas as to why an artist may need to lip synch, if indeed, the artist is lip synching, peeps would help me to bring possible understanding as to why lip synching can be considered legitimate..especially since the artist has already proven that they have the talent. This is, in no way, an endorsement against live singing, when all is clear in the situation, and there's really no reason for lip synching to be necessary.

Thanks :)
 
  • To save their voice if they have hundreds of concert to perform so they don't damage or rip their vocal chords.
  • if they have throat problems laryngitis etc and can't perform the songs up to their standard
  • If they are winded out of breath because they are incorporating dance into their performance.
  • If they want the song to sound like the studio version rather than a live version
  • If they are extremely tired, sick , dehydrated and unable to give more than a playback.
 
We discussed it recently in other threads, such as the HIStory Tour thread. I think mainly there are two types of artists when it comes to concerts from this aspect:

1) There are those who cannot sing live to save their life and that's why they use lip-synch. For example: I don't know if the videos on YT about Britney Spears singing live are legit, but if they are she sounds terrible as a live vocalist. And she's not the only one. You can make a bad singer sound well enough on record, but he/she won't be able to sing live.
And then there are those "artists" who did not even sing on their records, such as Milli Vanili.

2) Then there are those who can sing live if they want and they can do it well, but they have various reasons not to always sing live:

- having vocal chord problems,
- saving their voices,
- to avoid sounding out of breath when the performance includes intense dancing,
- having problems with physical fitness
etc.

I don't have a problem with it if they proved that they are able to sing live. They should not be put in the same category as those who simply cannot sing live.

Still, I prefer live singing.

Having said that, a lot of artists do lip-synching from time to time and not only the Britney Spears types. I have read on Amazon in the comments of a Peter Gabriel concert that he lip-synched in that concert. There are videos on YT proving that Roger Waters (Pink Floyd) lip-synchs in his concerts:


I have no doubt that both Gabriel and Waters are able to sing live, and they aren't even dancing on stage, but they certainly had their reasons to lip-synch.

Then there are artists, like Pink, who say they'd never lip-synch. Pink actually called out other artists, like Chris Brown, for lip-synching and said that if she's able to hang from a trapeze upside down in her concerts and sing live then there's no excuse for anyone else to lip-synch. Kudos to her if she's indeed able to do that without lip-synching but IMO that's more a matter of proving her fitness than proving her superiority as a singer.
 
Artists who no longer feel that singing is a martial arts form to be undertaken until the windows burst... (and believe me, singers abuse themselves regularly to be able to sing live) they feel that singing wise they have accomplished what THEY wanted to do. They no longer feel the need to constantly prove themselves vocally, they no longer need the recognition based on vocal recognition. They might have grown artistically - which leads me to the next paragraph.

They strive for a comprehensive "Gesamtkunstwerk" - 'nuff said...
 
1) becoming paranoid about your voice "going wrong" live. After the laryngitis of the late Bad Tour, I believe MJ became more paranoid about his voice.
2) "being "lazy"
MJ lipsynced slow songs like YANA and HWT, yet he always sang WBSS live. (well the reason for that was the break and stuff)

MJ's voice in HWT wasn't the best but the only times his health was pulled down was 1) Korea to Taiwan and 2) Vienna and Munich. He was in good shape for most of the tour otherwise.
 
^^ How do you know how healthy were his vocal chords?
 
Artists often lip-synch during strenuous dance numbers in both live and recorded performances, due to lung capacity being needed for physical activity (both at once would require incredibly trained lungs). Michael Jackson was an example of this, he performed complex dance routines while lip-syncing and live singing. His performance on the television special Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever (1983) changed the scope of live stage show.

Ian Inglis, author of Performance and Popular Music: History, Place and Time (2006) notes the fact that "Jackson lip-synced 'Billie Jean' is, in itself, not extraordinary, but the fact that it did not change the impact of the performance is extraordinary; whether the performance was live or lip-synced made no difference to the audience" thus creating an era in which artists re-create the spectacle of music video imagery on stage.
[SUP]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lip-synching_in_music[/SUP]
 
the fact that Michael seemed to have the courage to do that, first, as if he knew the audience would still be mesmerized definitely adds a spiritual aspect to his life...and is a microcosm of his surrealness. Yet we're talking about a very real artist and human being. Makes me believe anything is possible if it is only believed. Impact is impact, and it makes me marvel over the vanity of complaining. If you're entertained, why complain?
It's not about being 'right'. It's about being successful the right way. And if it's truly successful in the true way, why is it important that it gets done 'our' way?
 
qbee said:
Artists often lip-synch during strenuous dance numbers in both live and recorded performances, due to lung capacity being needed for physical activity (both at once would require incredibly trained lungs). Michael Jackson was an example of this, he performed complex dance routines while lip-syncing and live singing. His performance on the television special Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever (1983) changed the scope of live stage show.

Ian Inglis, author of Performance and Popular Music: History, Place and Time (2006) notes the fact that "Jackson lip-synced 'Billie Jean' is, in itself, not extraordinary, but the fact that it did not change the impact of the performance is extraordinary; whether the performance was live or lip-synced made no difference to the audience" thus creating an era in which artists re-create the spectacle of music video imagery on stage.
[SUP]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lip-synching_in_music[/SUP]
Click to expand...

Yes, but Billie Jean is even more amazing when he sings live AND dances at the same time.
 
*random thoughts*

I'm fine with backing tracks that contain backup vocals or fragments of the original recording to support the main vocal, but I prefer a singer sing live.

What I don't get is when back up singers are lip synching. I saw Rihanna live once, and while SHE was singing live, the 2 backup singers were miming to the track which was Rihanna's backup vocals. Weird.

The singer Robyn has a live band, but no backup singers. They play along to a track of her backup vocals, which totally works,

I was in awe of the last Nine Inch Nails world tour. I looked at the dates and was shocked at how little down time Trent Reznor had between dates.
Pretty much the entire U.S. dates had 1 day between shows, and that was simply for the sake of traveling to the next city.

And while Trent isn't dancing, he's yelling a lot more (and singing, of course. He doesn't just shout. He's got a beautiful voice), he always sounded spot on. Sometimes hoarse, but always came through.
He cancelled only a handful of shows from the last 4 tours he did Between 2006 and 2009) for being sick.


Bjork in recent years has had some vocal problems as well, having to cancel or postpone shows.

Just this week, she said she had laser surgery on her nodes and she's says she's hitting her notes like she used to and can't wait to get back on the road!

/*random thoughts*
 
I think some of it was wanting his voice to sound "perfect."

Like with Motown 25, he sang the first two songs live, seemed out of breath by that point, and Billie Jean was from the record. I think he did that because he knew he would sound breathless by then, and would likely feel that may detract from the song, so he wanted it to sound as good as possible.

Some of it's also because of songs like Earth Song, where he'd wreck his voice if he did that each stop of the tour, I remember him telling someone that in the studio for his song he did it at the end so he wouldn't hurt his voice for other songs.

I also prefer his live singing. But I feel a lot is said about his later Dangerous, HIStory miming, when all his tours up until then had been live (except the beginning part of Man In The Mirror).
 
Hunterr said:
I was in awe of the last Nine Inch Nails world tour. I looked at the dates and was shocked at how little down time Trent Reznor had between dates.
Pretty much the entire U.S. dates had 1 day between shows, and that was simply for the sake of traveling to the next city.

And while Trent isn't dancing, he's yelling a lot more (and singing, of course. He doesn't just shout. He's got a beautiful voice), he always sounded spot on. Sometimes hoarse, but always came through.
He cancelled only a handful of shows from the last 4 tours he did Between 2006 and 2009) for being sick.


Bjork in recent years has had some vocal problems as well, having to cancel or postpone shows.

Just this week, she said she had laser surgery on her nodes and she's says she's hitting her notes like she used to and can't wait to get back on the road!

/*random thoughts*
Click to expand...

You cannot expect all artists to have the same physical fitness and health. Some are more resistant to vocal chord problems, some are less. It's like with athletes: some are more prone to injuries, some less. I also heard that if someone sings high notes a lot (like Michael did) that is more damaging to the chords on the long term than "normal" singing.
 
respect77 said:
Yes, but Billie Jean is even more amazing when he sings live AND dances at the same time.
Click to expand...

Exactly!!

I actually prefer out-of-breath Billie Jean version. ;)
I looooove his live singing even though it's not always the best, but the thing is, I hear and I know that he puts his soul into the song and that always gives me chills..
 
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