Do you think artists should be allowed to mime when performing 'live'?

[pawsntails]

I think artists should be allowed to mime but only if there is a good reason, eg high energy dance routine which would make singing v.hard

[Muu_Puklip]

Short answer is that the person or people who are supposed to be singing ought to be singing whether on stage or on a recording. Miming is a huge no-no. Anyone who remembers Milli Vanilli knows the score on that one.

The longer answer is that it's not a black and white division between singing and not singing. Pretty much every singer uses some kinds of effects, whether that be a touch of reverb and a little EQ tweaking all the way through to running the vocals through a distortion pedal so they are no longer in a natural human vocal range or using a great deal of pitch correction to hide an inability to sing in tune. It would be unrealistic to expect every singer to ditch all the effects and rely solely on their natural voice, and it would deny us all a great deal of genuine musical expression.

I'm also somewhat surprised that people tend to consider lip syncing or miming to generally dreadful but are much more tolerant of electronic music artists doing 'faked up' performances. Perhaps it's not such a big deal whether an artist is faking it, it's whether they get caught or not?

[Mohawk52]

If my favourite artists mimed during a live performance that I paid good money to see, they would cease to be my favourite right there and then and I would cease purchasing anymore of their product.

[HinataHyuuga]

Why would I pay a hideous amount of money on a concert ticket, spend long hours in the car to get into the concert and not hear any actual singing in the end? That would only frustrate me.

[Spoonmage]

If people are paying to go and see an artist, and that artist is just miming to a track of that song, then that is taking the mickey to a large extent. I find it especially annoying when media outlets crap on and on about how fantastic these supposed "artists" are, when they do nothing but lip synch.

I tell you, you never see lip synching in death metal. \m/

[mistress-pandora]

I've seen an awful lot of bands over the last 6 years and none of them have lip-synced. Whether they sounded terrible or amazing, it added to the experience and made me feel like I got my money's worth. If they sing for a living, they should sing on stage for their fans!

[mistress-pandora]

Originally Posted by Spoonmage

I tell you, you never see lip synching in death metal. \m/

Here here X3

It would have been interesting for me to go and see Soilwork and Dark Tranquility and Machine Head etc to then see them miming X3 it'd have been really god awful, but oddly amusing I'm sure :P

[GRCC]

Originally Posted by Spoonmage

I tell you, you never see lip synching in death metal. \m/

Probably because you just have to make some kind of noise with your vocal cords

[GhostHuntGirl]

I think it should be up to the performer and on their heads be it.

Of course no one wants to go a long distance to hear their favourite band lip sync but then again, if the artist wears their vocal chords out, no one wants to turn up to hear the artist croak through their set or even to find it cancelled.

If they are intent on lip syncing some of it to save their voices then maybe they should, but if they're just doing it to be lazy...well, as I said before...on their heads be it.

[DTR]

I think the choice should be with the performer... BUT they should have to state that parts of the show will use pre-recorded vocals.

I wouldn't want to pay to see someone live, and then see them mime, so a warning would solve that. Arguing that they can't sing live with complex dance routines, shows exactly what some people think is the important part of the show.

The worst case I saw (or rather heard) was Geri Halliwell performing at one of the summer pop concerts, on the radio, miming. Which seemed poitless beyong belief, you could tell she was miming because the sound changed when she did a small speaking part mid-song.