Artists lip syncing and miming concerts

Ash.J.Williams

Obviously wrong 😀

Padre_Pio

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122799224#Comment_122799224

I would say * popular * music is processed and autotuned. There is plenty of authentic music released

Zardoz

Coldplays recent release "We Pray" has 15 writers. Yes 15

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwmPPNC61Wk

Synth based, programmed drums, no guitars, maybe a bit of bass input from Coldplay themselves.

Most of the songs on the new album have 10 or more writers, compared to their earlier albums which was just the band and 1 other person.

Padre_Pio

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122799235#Comment_122799235

Golden oldies like Buddy Holly, Dean Martin and Sinatra.

Zardoz

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122799272#Comment_122799272

But they all sang live.

Ash.J.Williams

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122799259#Comment_122799259

Wow. I'm not a fan but I'm shocked to hear that

Ash.J.Williams

That vid is fascinating, listening to the song I can't hear any band input, the bass is sub synth

thehairygrape

There’s a plethora of tribute acts around. I wonder if they lip synch to the actual band? Or use autotune? Wouldn’t that be something: a fake band singing fake songs.

Padre_Pio

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122799272#Comment_122799272

If Sinatra had to dance around the stage at Glastonbury then he'd be lip syncing too.

NIMAN

To be honest I don't think you'd expect certain singers to be able to sing and perform their exhausting stage act as well without help.

Swift does a lot of running around, dancing etc during her 3hrs. Can you even sing properly whilst dancing on a stage, concentrating on hitting your mark, be at this part of the stage etc?

odyssey06

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122799658#Comment_122799658

You cant - not if the shaky vocals of eg Eurovision acts that try copycat energetic staging is anything to go by.

delbertgrady

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

Elton John wrote all the music for his songs. He needed to work with lyricists, Bernie Taupin being his lifelong collaborator, as he doesn't write lyrics himself, but that's not the same thing.

Plenty of writing partnerships have a composer and a lyricist, but you wouldn't dismiss either party because they rely on a partner to fulfill the role. I certainly wouldn't equate Elton John with the non-writers you've listed.

Rothko

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

Lol, what a load of nonsense

Rothko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122799141#Comment_122799141

More nonsense

Ash.J.Williams

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122799658#Comment_122799658

Personally I enjoy how my favourite bands cope and overcome the obstacles you mention live without backing tracks

CelticRambler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122799658#Comment_122799658

Can you even sing properly whilst dancing on a stage, concentrating on hitting your mark, be at this part of the stage etc?

Yep - if you're properly trained. Thousands of singer-dancers do it every night on Broadway, in the West End, and in opera houses around the world.

But the kind of person who's going to pay three (or four) figure sums to attend a performance in a football stadium, surrounded by 5, 10, 20 thousand screaming others, listening to a soundtrack being piped through speakers the size of lorry isn't really there for any kind of musical purity, so does it really matter if the performance is "live" or "pre-recorded" ?

I was at an event a few weeks ago, up the back end of a valley on the French-Swiss border. As one group finished up their set, the lead musician announced that she had surprise for us while the stage was being re-configured for the next group. She told us she had a piece of music that she'd always envisaged being played by a particular line-up of instruments, and that weekend, after many many years, she'd found herself with the right people in the right place at the right time.

So she sat herself down in the middle of the hall, pulled in various members of four or five other groups, laid out a mess of pages on the floor (variations on the theme of sheet music) and warned that they'd only played the piece once before - that afternoon. No mics, no amps, nothing but raw audio straight out of each reed and string. It was the highlight of the whole weekend.

Padre_Pio

"music in my day was better"

Said every generation ever.

Strumms

the music ‘industry’ don’t give a fûck… if it meant on a financial level they could get an extra ‘performance’ a week by having a band lip syncing say 80% of a show and get away with it, they’ll do it.

Look at the Stones, they on their last tour were doing about one show every 4 days, few years back they’d be doing 4 shows a week…Mick and Keef are in their eighties and Ronnie Wood getting there…

If the music industry can normalise ( and believe me they’ll attempt to ) lip syncing/miming at concerts they will, more money and less effort, artists can stay on tour longer performing more shows back to back….

I’ve noticed kids nowadays seem less inclined to be into the artistic integrity or musicianship of bands, they want their event junky fix…as long as they have a pathway to likes, comments and attention on TikTok, facebook, twitter etc… “ look I was at…🥰 “ so there might not be much resistance there.

I’d never pay money to see a band or artist not playing 100% live, both vocals and instruments…id rather save the time, effort and money and listen to Spotify.

Zardoz

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122800910#Comment_122800910

Good points.

Acts make the bulk of their money these days from touring so they want to try and do as many dates as possible with as little downtime as possible.

Thats one of the main reason acts are lip syncing large portions of shows, its easier on their voices so they can play more back to back nights.

Shania Twain who was mentioned earlier did 8 shows in the UK and Ireland in 11 days on her last tour. This is a woman who had serious vocal issues in the past.

Wooderson

This boring aul trope again? Truly the refuge of the twatty.

Dolly Parton mimed like Frankie Valli at Glasters and it is one of the most beloved shows in recent memory. No one cares.

wench

People will pay good money to watch an entirely synthetic ABBA "performance", so I doubt a little lip synching will bother them.

Royale with Cheese

I saw Avicii once at a festival. On top of a big podium hitting play on some of his songs and waving his arms about with some flashing lights around him, and 50,000 people appeared to be loving it. I had to leave after 10 minutes, it actually made me angry.

That's not to take away from his musical talent or of anyone in that genre, you just can't do that style of music "live" though. Once that became acceptable as a headline performance at a festival then really what is the difference between that and pop singers miming while doing a dance routine.

Zardoz

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122801517#Comment_122801517

But we arent talking about a little lip syncing, its acts lip syncing the bulk of a concert.

swededmonkey

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122801572#Comment_122801572

You can, but avicii wasnt one of those that chose to or had the ability, i'm assuming its the latter. Bicep, chemical brothers, underworld are a few that produce an excellent live show. The big difference is, heads are down and there's no crowd engagement.

Zardoz

Another expose on Taylor Swift.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMNYiDH-fDY

The results are revealing.

He analysed 1 hour and 10 minutes of two different shows and they were exactly in sync, every song perfectly in sync, never diverged at all.😂

The same version of the songs night after night just being played back. One big tape in essence.

The band do play but its debatable if they are going out in the mix.

The whole show is autotuned to the max, it regularly snaps Swifts voice to the incorrect notes.

Parts of the vocals are live but most is the backing track. Even some of the "acoustic" songs are a backing track.

The whole thing is a farce.

Strumms

did you notice recently how in talking about live gigs…. A lot more use from labels, promoters, bands / artists & ticketing agents of the words.. ‘ performance ‘ & ‘ event ‘, ‘ tour ‘ or ‘ date ‘…… you won’t even see the term ‘gig’ or ‘concert’ or ‘live’ in most listings now….. Dua Lipa who has been accused of miming lots of her performances is one example.

Mrs Shuttleworth

I think it's fraudulent where over 50% of a show is lip synched. ABBA Voyage (which I've seen) is not an appropriate comparison as you're paying to see a representation of something that can't be presented now i.e. the four band members in their prime and the second half goes very "Tron"/Daft Punk as if they were that younger age now to suggest what kind of an act they'd be. Incidentally there's a live band pounding away in that show which reveal themselves towards the end.

I love Fil from Wings of Pegasus he's a very brave lad for sure. He did a brilliant analysis of Celine Dion at the Olympics singing the Edith Piaf song on the Eiffel Tower. He got savaged but then did a second video defending his opinion really well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oq1RUQOERWc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qS557_yPgCM

Fanirish

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122825561#Comment_122825561

yeah cause nearly all big arena or stadium shows are well oiled performances to the second. They are not spontaneous gigs, they are time coded and choreography entertainment, which usually includes visual/props/set design/background dancers to move it into another form of entertainment.
Dua lipa in the academy in 2016 was a gig, dua lipa in the 3 arena/aviva is a show.
a rammstein show is a show, it’s not a gig. It’s a spectacle of entertainment.
it’s apples and oranges.

Bogey Lowenstein

I think it has to do with the type of music. Most pop fans seem not to care about it, they are more into the dancing, outfits and stage show, but imagine if it came out that Oasis were miming on their comeback tour. There would be a lot of angry fans demanding a refund.

Fanirish

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122826902#Comment_122826902

the thing is oasis vocals and instruments will be fine tuned and modified by the sound engineers same as what happens at a Taylor Swift or dua lipa show. That’s the good of sound engineers these days,it’s to live adjust and amend the vocals with backing tracks/auto tune and vocal Fx