Everyone Does It - What's The Big Deal?

Adult Contemporary/Pop Music Forum

Ashlee Simpson Not Alone

Acts from Britney to Kiss use prerecorded music live

When Ashlee Simpson was caught lip-syncing on Saturday Night Live on October 23rd, it was an embarrassment for the singer and the show. But the use of backing tracks in concerts and TV performances is hardly the shock it was when Milli Vanilli was revealed to have lip-synced in 1990.

"In the long run, it's about performance," says Alexandre Magno, a choreographer on Madonna's 1993 Girlie Show Tour. Madonna did most of the vocals live, he says, but some were prerecorded to play back during complex dance numbers. "If you're up there and you know what you're doing, it doesn't matter if you're lip-syncing or you're singing live," says Magno.

"It's extremely common," says Simpson, who maintains she was unable to sing because she was ill with acid reflux. "You go to people's tours, and you see them dancing extremely hard -- do you really think they're singing that well all the time? You try it. You'd be gasping for breath. At awards shows they're singing so perfect, and it's definitely not just them."

Reviews of Britney Spears throughout her career often mention lip-syncing. Spears has denied the allegations, although earlier this year her then manager, Larry Rudolph, told the New York Times that she occasionally lip-syncs while dancing.

Saturday Night Live executive producer Lorne Michaels was unavailable for comment, but he told AP Radio that artists have lip-synced on the show before. (Eminem's camp has been denying speculation that the rapper lip-synced during his SNL set this past weekend.) Adds Kid Kelly, a Top Forty-radio veteran who oversees pop programming for Sirius Satellite Radio, "Just about every band that's playing live TV has an accompanying track -- with the possible exception of a jam band."

Many rock bands use backing tracks in concert, too, to re-create the studio sound of their albums. "A lot of the heavy acts do that -- they thicken up the guitar sounds when they play live," says a concert-industry source. "Kiss has backing tracks galore." And bands aren't embarrassed by it. "When you go into the recording studio you have layers and layers of guitars," says Evanescence manager Dennis Rider. "Unless you have three or four guitar players onstage, you can't duplicate that. And people want to hear the record they bought."

- Rolling Stone

It's true, everyone does it. It's just that Ashlee got supremely caught out.

Read their lips: Ashlee Simpson didn't invent lip-synching

It seems Ashlee Simpson will forever bear the scarlet "L" -- for lip-synching.

The 20-year-old "singer" has been lampooned and shamed, held up as an example of today's style-over-substance culture -- all because of one lip-synch gone famously awry on "Saturday Night Live."

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Having trouble with her voice last month during rehearsal for "Saturday Night Live," a teary Ashlee Simpson leaves the stage. She left the stage again when a music glitch during the live show revealed she was lip-synching.

Yet must Simpson bear the cross alone, while all the entertainment world goes free? Consider this:

Now-classic footage from shows like "American Bandstand" featured artists lip-synching.

Michael Jackson mouthed part of his superstar-making moment on the "Motown 25" TV show in 1983.

Whitney Houston's spine-chilling rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the 1991 Super Bowl was prerecorded.

And perhaps the only moments when Britney Spears did not lip-synch during her recent tour was when she said hello and goodbye to her audience.

"It doesn't make the least bit of difference," said Dick Clark, America's oldest teenager and the creator of the now-defunct "American Bandstand."

"Every motion picture you've seen, every 'American Bandstand' you saw, most of all MTV you see, it's all lip-synched," he said. "(What's important is) the impression you get as an audience. If you're pleased with what you saw, who gives a hoot how it got to you?"

It never seemed to matter in the past.

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Britney Spears reportedly often lip-syncs because of her strenuous workout during performances. Such shows, in which singers dance, prance and almost do back-flips while singing but aren't a bit out of breath, are commonplace.

We've all watched performances where singers dance, prance and almost do back-flips while singing -- but aren't a bit out of breath. Or when they sing earnestly to a prerecorded ballad during a TV show. Or rap along to their own song, a la Eminem, also on a recent "Saturday Night Live."

Producer Jimmy Jam, who has worked with artists ranging from Janet Jackson to Usher, said he too was surprised over the Simpson incident -- surprised that it was such a big deal.

"I thought everybody knew that everybody lip-synched," he said. "I just thought when you went and saw Britney Spears, you knew that she lip-synched the whole concert. ... They're seeing a show, and to them, that's what a show is."

Not for everyone. R&B veteran Patti LaBelle, known for her booming voice and creative improvisations, lamented that "the whole world is so phony today so people are accepting it. People are loving phonies."

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Singer Patti LaBelle says she never lip-synchs at shows. Sounding hoarse from recent performances, LaBelle said she never lip-synchs at shows. But she's seen plenty of it, and not just from singers with feather-light voices.

"I was surprised when I heard some of the people who were doing it," she said. "When some of the bigger stars who can sing their butts off are using some enhancements, I'm like, why?"

Steve Leeds, a former record executive at labels such as Virgin and Universal, offers an explanation: "People want to hear what's on the record. You've got to supply that expectation with whatever's necessary. Studio wizardry is definitely part of a live music show today."

Sometimes, performers just plain lip-synch. Other times they add an extra vocal of the song, and sing along to it so their voices sound fuller. Then there's live help -- background singers to make the star's voice sound stronger.

And sometimes, they just want it to sound perfect.

"There's more of a premium of getting it right," said Jam. "Whitney, when she did the national anthem, which was the greatest national anthem that we ever heard, what we heard over the air was prerecorded. The reason it was prerecorded was, that was a moment that no one wanted any mistakes. They didn't want any feedback, they didn't want any technical difficulties ... and it was great."

While Taylor Hanson of the group Hanson acknowledges that not all lip-synched performances are evil, he complains that record companies today are manufacturing artists who can't perform live even if they wanted to.

"There's so many great bands who are performing, and singing their guts out every night, and the prevalence of artists being represented ... and saying, 'Hey everyone does this, everyone sings to track,' I just think it's lowering the standard," he fumed. "It's totally insulting to so much great music out there."

But P. Diddy says the practice has become standard, especially in an era where it's become more common for entertainers to do everything but juggle onstage.

- Seattle News

well at least avril dosent lip sync

How do you know? If Whitney can do it at the Superbowl, there's nothing to say that Avril can't get away with it too.