Artists lip syncing and miming concerts

Zardoz

Ok this is something that has been on my mind for quite a while. Artists and bands lip syncing and miming the lead vocals of most of their concerts.

This guy Fil aka Wings of Pegasus does trojan work to expose these artists using audio analysis software. He has been gradually building up, he has already exposed Dua Lipa, Don Henley, Lenny Kravitz but his latest expose is none other than the mighty Taylor Swift. He is brave I will give him that.

I've always suspected Swift was lip syncing large parts of her show, someone performing for over 3 hours four nights in a row is nigh on impossible and she has past history for it. So his analysis reveals that the only songs Swift actually sings live are the acoustic ones, but these are actually pitch corrected in real time by autotune live.

The rest of her songs are lip synced, the lead vocals are prerecorded, pitchcorrected and identical each night, he compared over 2-4 different nights in different cities over the tour.

So her concert is ~ 85% lip syncing to backing tracks, and people are paying thousands of dollars for this sham. Some people will argue its very hard to sing and dance, especially pop singers, so its acceptable to lip sync a few high aerobic songs.

With the advent of pitch correction software and autotune live can you actually trust your ears anymore ? What is coming out of the speakers at the shows ? What is a live performance anymore ? Are we just listening to tapes.

Concert tickets are now very costly and I'm old school. To me a singer should sing the whole show live, the lead vocals should be live. If I want to listen to a studio track I can do that at home. Obviously backing tracks for certain instruments, and click tracks are perfectly fine, Im specifically talking about lead vocals.

This to me is fraud on an epic scale.

What are peoples opinions on this ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8rMNMURShM&t

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9DgsUEMWh4

Stillill42

My opinion is that Taylor Swift fans will not give a single fcuk about this and will continue to remortgage their houses for concert tickets and buy merchandise on an industrial scale. Taylor will soon be crowned Queen of the World and everyone will be grand with that. Nobody cares at her level. Same with Coldplay and the likes.

Stillill42

I can assure you that Mercury Rev, for example, weren't miming the other night if that's any good to you.

Irish Aris

It doesn't bother me.

The first gig I attended when I moved to Ireland many many years ago was Ms Britney Spears. 90 minutes of a show, I don't think she sang a single note. I still had a great time though because I knew what I was going to see: a pop show with lots of dancing, change of clothes and the likes.

OP, I can appreciate your point of view, but like you say this is old school, before technology enabled certain things. Though I'm of a certain age, my attitude is different when it comes to big shows: I go for the spectacle and I want as much pizazz as possible. If there are prerecorded vocals, so be it.

It's obviously different in small gigs, where there are no gimmicks and it's all about the music.

I guess you need to know what you're going to see/hear.

Rooks

Music isn't authentic anymore. No one sings, no one writes their own songs it's all fake.

FortuneChip

I know spectacle matters, and some fans likely don't give a f*ck... but I don't think it's crazy to expect some transparency before purchase. Certain artists are heralded as GODS for their all-live performances.

"Show contains some prerecorded lead vocals" isn't a stretch to caveat

Irish Aris

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122796895#Comment_122796895

Would it really make a difference to the fans of the artists? Chances are they know it already.

Maybe a fair point for a casual listener with disposable income, although I have less sympathy for someone that goes to a gig just for the sake of it.

NIMAN

Normally if singers are miming, you can see it fairly easily, as its impossible to sync your mouthing of the words perfectly to the audio track. We all remember TOTP back in the day, some terrible examples.

Yet on these concerts, it's not noticeable that they are miming. Have they discovered some new way of covering it up that I'm not familiar with?

Live shows have probably been fake for years now. I remember seeing U2 a few times live over the years and marvelling at how big a sound 4 guys could produce. They I found out that they actually have supplemental band members either off stage or under the stage helping them.

It's all a con.But as many have said, it's still a spectacle and most fans will come away saying "that was amazing".

Shocked to see Don Henley listed. One of my all time favourite singers. I suppose these folk are getting very old now, and often the voice goes to pot as you age. My logic would be, if you can't sing any more, stop doing concerts. Retire. But I suppose there's a market there, and people will pay big money to see old crooners on stage, like Henley or Stevie Nicks.

Zardoz

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122797192#Comment_122797192

I think it would, look at the abuse Dave Grohl received from Swifties when he said Foo Fighters actually play live and insinuated Swift didnt.

Music isn't authentic anymore. No one sings, no one writes their own songs it's all fake.

Autotune has seriously damaged modern music, almost everyone uses it now.

Alot of artists are just fronts for big labels now, they dont really write their own music, changing one word in a song can be deemed co writing a song.

Bands are dying out because its easier to promote a singer, who will be provided songs by the production line behind them.

Live shows have probably been fake for years now. I remember seeing U2 a few times live over the years and marvelling at how big a sound 4 guys could produce. They I found out that they actually have supplemental band members either off stage or under the stage helping them.

Fair enough, bands do have extra musicians and backing tracks to help supplement the sound.

I don't really have an issue about that, Bono still sings live and the rest of the band are playing and their instruments are going out in the sound mix.

Falling in Reverse cancelled a concert recently when they discovered their laptops containing backing tracks used for live performances went missing from their rehearsal space.

“We have no other option” “As a band in 2022 you need your laptops. It’s like driving a car without an engine.”

Coldplay are another back using a huge array of pro Tools prerecorded tracks for live shows, only ~40% of the sound is live.

A lot of the instruments and definitely all of the synths are being played through a track, and theres a couple songs that Chris’ vocals are pre recorded and he’s syncing over

https://www.reddit.com/r/Coldplay/comments/1f0ysxi/behind_the_scenes_how_coldplays_massive_pro_tools/

https://www.reddit.com/r/Coldplay/comments/16vkx2y/100_live_performances/?chainedPosts=t3_1f0ysxi

Dontfadeaway

depends if you want an artist to just stand there and sing or if you like a bit of a show too. It was obvious Taylor mimed and her fans would get mad when anyone would say so, but all pop stars do it though.

The same people complaining about miming would probably complain that someones voice is gone and can no longer sing from all the years singing live.

Zardoz

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122798035#Comment_122798035

Its possible to do both, sing and put on a show.

Brandon Flowers, Mick Jagger, Bono, Bruce Springsteen, Samuel Herring, Jon Bon Jovi even Rod Stewart.

Prefect_1998

just put this link here….

Walk Like A Man- Frankie Valli 2023 Last Encore

Tauriel

Shania Twain was so bad at lip syncing during her Musgrave Park show that at one stage they put a giant cloud over her head on the big screens. Doesn't help that she doesn't know the words of her owns songs either.

Ash.J.Williams

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122796894#Comment_122796894

That's silly talk

Ash.J.Williams

Silly talk

Rooks

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122799078#Comment_122799078

Try reading song credits. Any recent popular song I've liked wasn't written solely by the "artist".

Ash.J.Williams

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122799087#Comment_122799087

Exactly, you said music isn't authentic anymore and it seems you are not talking about music you are specifically talking about manufacturered pop

odyssey06

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122799087#Comment_122799087

Hasn't that been mostly true for solo artists going back decades?

Singer-songwriter seems to be more of a minority approach.

Rooks

I'll give an example. Two "artists" whose songs I liked recently were Chappel Roan and Olivia Rodrigo. I decided to look up who wrote the songs and it turns out they both work with the same (male) writer.

So I like his songs, it seems. It's funny because we're supposed to be having this female solo artist revolution right now but it turns out a man is writing the songs. Lol.

Ash.J.Williams

Nikko mcbrain aged 72 is recovering from a stroke and still touring and will play malahide castle in June with no fakery

Rooks

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122799094#Comment_122799094

I'm talking about what's popular today. Back when I was young enough to be relevant there were actual bands and solo songwriters in the charts.

Rooks

......

Rooks

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122799097#Comment_122799097

See above.

Padre_Pio

People already know this and they don't care. They attend the shows for the spectacle and the shared experience with other fans. Whether it's live or lip-synced has minimal impact.

Hoboo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122799105#Comment_122799105

Artists aren’t musicians or songwriters.

They are just an image to sell.

So I’m really not surprised, if you call yourself an artist it’s because you don’t possess the other skills to call yourself something else.

Vague nonsense for Americans.

Padre_Pio

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122799094#Comment_122799094

Hasn't it mostly been the case? The famous "difficult second album".

Bands get famous off their own work, then pay for songwriters and producers to create hit tunes.

Elvis, Whitney Heuston, Elton John, Cher, they all relied heavily on songwriters

Pudsy33

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122799113#Comment_122799113

I'd say Chapell Roan and Olivia Rodrigo are stronger arguments against the point you're making rather than for it. They both seem to have one co-writer on most of the their songs which seems pretty normal to me. There are of course hit factories where faceless songwriters churn out hits for manufactured bands, I'm thinking One Direction, but the two acts you mention seem to be on the more genuine side of things.

Rooks

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122799160#Comment_122799160

I'd say they were in the room when the song was being written for sure.

By the way, most of Roan's songs have more than "one co-writer". Some of them have up 4-6 writers. Red Wine Supernova has five. Catchy little tune though. It'd want to be with so many writers.

Hit factory indeed.

Tell me more about how I'm wrong and you're right though.

Padre_Pio

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122799171#Comment_122799171

That's no guarantee of quality.

Seven people are credited with writing this masterpiece:

Work, work, work, work, work, work

He said me haffi work, work, work, work, work, work

He see me do mi dirt, dirt, dirt, dirt, dirt, dirt

So me put in work, work, work, work, work, work

When you ah gon' learn, learn, learn, learn, learn?

Me nuh care if him hurt, hurt, hurt, hurt, hurting

Rooks

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122796894#Comment_122796894

Clearly I need to remind people already about what I originally said.

I have nothing more to say really. I'm right.

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Ash.J.Williams

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122799158#Comment_122799158

And Aerosmith 😀