November 05, 2004

Aimez-vous parler la vérité avec mois, ce soir ?

From CNN.com:

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

"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?"

Fuck you Dick Clark.

Producer Jimmy Jam, who's 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."

Fuck you Jimmy Jam.

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."

Patti LaBelle, you go girl!

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."

Fuck you Steve Leeds.

Especially in light of the recent, allegedly temporary, closing of First Avenue, it's important to shine a light on this little bit of our pop culture. I once saw a guy sing roughly 3 terrible songs about his ex-girlfriend, sitting on a homemade swing, playing a ukele in the Entry, but, he wasn't lip-synching, and I'm 99.9% sure that nobody I've ever seen there was either. There's a line of psychology that says abnormal behaviour, in an abnormal environment, can appear normal. Seems like kind of a truism, but the thrust of the point is that if a drunk guy wanders into a room full of drunks, no one's going to really notice if his pants are around his ankles. This is exactly the same kind of sick thinking behind this whole lip-synch issue. Trotting out corpses like Dick Clark to say "everybody does it and the old stuff is considered classic now," is wrong. Wrong wrong wrong.

The next time you plop down $85 to sit in the front row for a big name performer who does a lot of dancing along with his or her show...after paying $10-$20 to park...after spending $15 on the latest CD...after spending $20 on the t-shirt...after spending almost exactly the same amount on the person next to you so they could join you...ask yourself if you care that they're faking it. And while you're at it, look closely next Tuesday night at the Country Music awards show that's going to be on TV; there's gonna be a whole lotta lip-synching goin' on on that show for sure, and for two reasons: 1) most of those people are plastic to begin with, and 2) the dirty little secret in Nashville is that most of them can't sing a note, tone deaf like a drunk New York alley cat.

Posted by Jack Sparks at November 05, 2004 02:43 PM

« November 03, 2004 | Main | November 11, 2004 »