lip-syncing is now okay (1 Viewer)

wow, Jennifer Hudson's pre-recorded rendition of the National Anthem is now available for DL on itunes. also it's totally open that she and Faith Ford both lip-synced their songs:

Jennifer Hudson Lip-Syncing National Anthem During Super Bowl XLIII

so now it's okay.

i realize she's just coming back from an emotional place, but this is just the beginning. in a few years i guess everyone will be open about doing it. singers will be more actors than anything else.

At least it was actually her voice unlike the lip sync at the Beijing Olympics.

Seriously, though, just sing the damn song. I'd rather hear a real live performance with a few flaws than a perfect lip-sync.

From what I understand, the producer of the Super Bowl show pretty much insisted they lip sync to pre-recorded tracks to avoid any disasters. I don't know how much the performers really had a choice in the matter.

Just to be clear, I'm placing blame on everyone, not just the performer.

The producers and network. While they put a tape delay on half-time (15 seconds) and then fix it after, they can't do that before the game, because a tape delay is specifically forbidden by the US government to prevent it's impact on illegal gambling. (people who bet on the coinflip... someone in the stadium could know the answer, place the bet, and win on insider knowledge, etc.)

Out of fear that an obscenity or other event could occur, and unable to pad and come out of it on time with a tape delay, the intro is always going to be lip-synched from here on, no matter who the performer is.

Dislike it all we want, that's going to be how it goes from here on.

If it's going to be lip synced, why bother with the farce of a real performer? Save everyone the bother and the press releases, and just jumbotron the thing with pre-recorded video.

I have no problem with pre-recorded songs, but to present a "live" performance and then later reveal it was fake serves no good.

I suppose next we'll learn that the fighter plane flyover was digitally added for the TV audience.

Or you're going to tell me that the yellow first-down line on the field is digitally added for the TV audience.

Faith Ford sings?

I think he meant Faith Hill. Although, Murphy Browns not on anymore and the bills are still coming in. Ya never know...

The quartet at the inauguration played over a recording as well.

--
H

Maybe The Three Stooges had it right after all (the fact that they're a trio, and the differences in instruments, notwithstanding).

You know who I feel bad for....Milli Vanilli. Their careers were destroyed over this kind of thing (one of them committed suicide some time later) and now it's commonplace.

Quote from the producer:So now the slightest glitch would devastate the performance? Gimme a break. I still remember the bugler playing Taps at JFK's funeral made a mistake. It added to the emotion of the experience. It mirrored the lump in my throat. That producer is so full of BS.

Now if he's claiming that he did it because of Hudson's emotional state, that's another thing, but I don't get that from the quote. If her voice had broken while singing, there would have been millions of people feeling the emotion right with her. As it is, I think this is at least a little dishonest.

The quartet at the inauguration is more understandable. As I understand it, it was too cold for the instruments to be played. They should have, however, announced they were "lip-syncing."

In this case, I don't really care. I mean who watches the Super Bowl for a real, live musical performance? It's a nice distraction for some, I can understand, but if you're really hoping to fill your "live music" needs by watching the Super Bowl, then you don't really deserve good live music!

On a serious note, I'm sure someone in the network studios has studied this and can provide me an answer, but when was it decided that everyone who watches football is a country music fan? I really hate the "Are you ready for some football" that precedes MNF and that Faith Hill sang a variation on. And for all of the people I know who watch it, no one actually likes them. There must be a huge demographic who does, though, because it doesn't seem to be going away...I mean it's not even *good* country music! I mean, when the formula can be broken down to:

[Superstar 1 on Team A] and [Superstar 2 on Team B] are ready for a fight
All my rowdy friends are here on Monday night

- Repeat ad nauseum every week -

That's just sad.

The NFL has required a "backup track" since 1993, so I'm not sure why this is such big news this year.


How is it "this kind of thing"? Milli Vanilli sold millions of albums under false pretense. They did none of the singing, it was all done by studio artists.

Jennifer Hudson had to perform over a backup track because she was required to.

I don't see the similarities.

Why should people really care so much about that? The songs on the album that someone bought are still the same no matter who is actually on the cover. The only crime here is that the people who actually sang didn't get proper credit. But they might have known that was the deal anyway.

So you really don't see the difference between finding out that an established artist never actually sung any of his song, vs an established artist who openly lip-synchs at the occasional venue, to her own voice, because the venue requires it? You really think these are comparable situations?

This is disingenuous in the extreme. If you found out today that your favorite artist was a fraud, you wouldn't care?

As it happens, Milli Vanilli was my favorite group (I know I am gonna regret admitting this in public. Yes I was young).

--
H

Why should I care all that much, I can still play the albums and they would sound exactly the same. I would be hesitant to see a live show, but I don't see myself enjoying the music any less

Peter Gabriel lip synched his performance of "Imagine" at the Olympics last year too. But he recorded it just a few days before, custom, for the event. It is not as if it was singing along to one of his cds.

I've seen singers trying to sing live in coliseums only to be flustered by the acoustics bouncing back their voices. Unless they have really good ear plugs to cancel it out, and in-ear-monitors, they can get pretty lost in a venue that was not designed with acoustics in mind.

So maybe the network was just afraid that a technical snafu with the earplugs and IEM could result in disaster (as opposed to concern that the performer will start ad-libbing swear words).

I was in Raymond James Stadium this past December for a football game and had seats where I was close enough to be able hear the performer directly during the national anthem (it was a saxophone performance). There is a huge delay from the microphone to ear over the loudspeakers. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 1.5 to 3 seconds. I was shocked the saxophonist didn't screw up at all, because hearing it from the instrument and also from the speakers on a huge delay was extremely disconcerting.