Lip Sync

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Beyonce Sucks Even if Howard Stern Tape is a Hoax

Published April 24th, 2009 by Karen

Ok, so apparently there has been some buzz going around because Howard Stern aired tape that was allegedly a recording of Beyonce’s vocals from her performance of “If I Were a Boy” on the Today show last year. The tape was supposed to prove that the “Single Ladies” singer lip synchs during her “live” performances.

The vocals on the tape are horrible, cracking and struggling in vain to stay in tune.
(Unlike Beyonce’s usual vocals, which are over-sung, over-produced and melodramatic.)

However, Beyonce fans can relax, because now it is being reported that the whole thing was a hoax and the tape was created by a blogger.

However, we have to wonder why so many people were so eager to believe this story.

Was it because people like to see stars screw up?

Or was it because many listeners are getting tired of her boring pop songs and were sort of relieved that this might finally put an end to her reign over the airwaves?

We think it’s the latter. What do you think?

Fortunately, the tape of David Lee Roth’s hilariously awful “Running with the Devil” soundboard vocals is not a hoax. If you haven’t heard it yet, go now.

"Agreed. He blows."

ASeTT

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Kanye West Sucks Even When He Lip Syncs on American Idol

Published March 13th, 2009 by Karen

photo credit: ialex16

It seems that Kanye West’s most notable gift may be his big mouth.

Unfortunately, he doesn’t have a voice to go along with it.

On Wednesday’s episode of American Idol-which is allegedly a singing competition-West was the superstar guest performer.

However, we’re not sure what kind of role model West is for these young singers since he basically showed up and lip-synched (horribly) to his awful new song, “Heartless.”(See it here.)

If West had been a contestant on the show, we imagine the judges would have called it a bad performance and a lousy song choice.

It’s bad enough that West can’t sing live, but even the pre-recorded, Auto-Tuned track sounded horrible. C’mon Kanye, if you’re going to lip-sync, you should at least use a decent backing track. Maybe West should get Chris Cornell or Cee-Lo to record his vocals for him next time.

Even William Hung sounds better than Kanye.

Kanye West sucks and we don’t understand why TV and radio continue to force him on the public. He can’t sing, he can’t dance and odds are he can’t act either (although, it’s probably only a matter of time before he gets his own sitcom or reality show).

Does anybody really like Kanye West’s music?!

"Lip syncing should be banned. If your voice only sounds good once heavily processed through a computer then you are a fake. Most 'stars' today classify..."

Phunk

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Lip Sync Scandal for American Idol, Spears, Timberlake and More

Published March 26th, 2008 by Karen

Oh, how time flies!

We’ve just marked the 18 year anniversary of the Milli Vanilli lip sync scandal.

For those of you who don’t remember this fake German pop duo known for songs such as “Blame it on the Rain,” consider yourselves lucky. They sucked and their popularity is fairly inexplicable.

When it was exposed that when performing live the duo lip synched (to recordings of other singers’ voices), the band was ruined and forced to return their Grammy awards. (The fact that this garbage won a Grammy to start with is a rant for another day.)

However, this wasn’t the first—or last—pop group to lip synch (heck, even the Beatles did it during some TV appearances). And while it destroyed MV, lately it seems that lip synching is the norm.

So, when bad pop music sucks “live”, it’s no accident, since it was all pre-recorded in a studio anyway. A lot of effort went into making this awful music.

Scary.

When did our expectations get so low?

Pop singers such as Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake and Chris Brown have all been known to lip sync during high-profile performances such as Spears’ disastrous comeback attempt at the MTV VMA awards, seen here. Often, the faked vocals are meant to free the singers up to dance, as was the case with Chris Brown’s MTV VMA appearance, seen here. Even 50 Cent was busted faking his vocals at the BET Awards.

But are silly dance moves more important that vocal talent? Is pop music just pretty faces pretending to sing songs that they probably didn’t even write? There are some pretty terrible bands in the world (ahem, Nickelback), but at least they write and perform their own material.

One of the more offensive cases of pop star trickery involves Paula Abdul’s recent appearance at the Super Bowl. Debuting her comeback single “Dance Like There’s No Tomorrow” Abdul lip synched her way through a choreographed set.

This is someone who gives singing advice to aspiring stars on American Idol. Her job is to help singers learn to perform live and she can’t even do it herself?

Seems a little rotten to us.

Free Music from Famous Fakes

Britney Spears—Gimme More

Justin Timberlake—SexyBack

Ashlee Simpson—Pieces of Me (SNL video)

Chris Brown—Kiss Kiss

Milli Vanilli –Blame it on the Rain

50 Cent—Ayo Technology

Is it ever ok for singers to fake it? Leave a comment and tell us what you think.