Recently in China there have been a few issues with "miming", another term for lip-syncing. Americans are familiar with this problem as well...Anybody still remember the Ashley Simpson incident on SNL? See below...
Anyway, BBC reported on these two Chinese pop stars that are being sued for lip-syncing. You see, according to the article, "miming" has been banned in China ever since the 2008 Olympic in Bejing. Why, do you ask? Well, at one point in the opening ceremony a young girl appeared to sing 'Ode to the Motherland', but later it was revealed that the song was prerecorded by another little girl. This left China extremely embarrassed, because it was also revealed that part of the reason the actual singer didn't preform it herself was because it was decided that she wasn't "cute" enough!
Aside from this disturbing decision, I thought it was interesting that there has not been as much backlash in American against lip-syncing. Maybe it's because we assume that it is normal and we just don't expect that much from musical artists anymore. Or as they say about television, "the media don't give us what we want to watch; they give us what we're willing to watch". In other words, maybe sometimes we settle for what they hand us. This similarity, between television and singers, caused me to recognize other strong comparisons. I realized that music artists are like products in themselves.
Pop stars = Products
Croteau and Hoynes mention in their book, New Media that, "music videos are also used to develop and promote 'star identities,' which is key to long-term economic success in the music business,". I completely agree. These days most musical artists try to create a persona...cough cough Lady Gaga. This persona makes it easier for the public to identify them; and it is vital that people recognize them and their "talent", so that they can sell albums, and even represent other products (by being in commercials, or having their catchy songs in ads). One important element, aside from style, that comes into play with creating this identity, is what their voice sounds like or their ability to sing. (Sadly, does not seem to be as important anymore, but I digress...) Now, one way for artists to maintain their success is for them to preform perfectly live, which is usually only possible through lip-syncing to their prerecorded tracks. Wait a minute! So, if musical artists are "products" then could lip-syncing be considered a false advertisement?
Pop stars = the product
Lip syncing = false advertising?
Because if the audience is fooled into believing that the artist is talented and can sing, when really they aren't preforming live at all, then they are being manipulated, in a way, to buy the music or album. If this is true, shouldn't the government put a stop to the practice (like they did in China)?
I personally think so, because I think it devalues those artists who really are gifted and can actually sing live! So, check out this little paragraph or two on how false advertising is defined by the Federal Trade Commission, then...
Let me know what you think!
Sincerely,
C
I would say that lip synching is not necessarily false advertising. If they are performing along with the track for the album, I guess that would technically be very accurate advertising! The issue would be if they advertised a live show, and the singer turned out to be lip synching instead.
ReplyDeleteBack in the 1950s, it was discovered that game shows sponsored by marketers for consumer products were fixed; that is, the sponsors could manipulate who won and who lost the games in order to maximize the shows' ratings and, therefore, the return on their sponsorship investment. It was a national scandal and led to congressional hearings and changes in the way TV shows were funded and produced.
ReplyDeleteBut I often wonder what would happen if it turned out, today, that a game show was rigged. Would anyone care? I guess it depends on a lot of things. Professional wrestling and reality TV, for instance, are notoriously artificial, but fans don't mind because we want entertainment & drama from these products, not necessarily "truth." Maybe it would be more of a problem if a show like Jeopardy proved to be fake because part of its appeal is the breadth and detail of the contestants' knowledge (some would argue that Jeopardy has "cheated" by gradually dumbing down the questions).
I wonder if the lip-synching question would be answered like that, too? Where it depends on the appeal of the artist.
Incidentally, do you remember that Yo-yo Ma "faked it" when he played cello at President Obama's inauguration? In that case, the reason was the extreme cold, which would have caused problems with the strings and the bow. :-)