GUEST BLOGGER

Due to my lack of blogging time, my dear friend Jed has kindly volunteered to submit a post on lip-synching. I haven't read it yet, so tell me how it is.

In Response to Lip-Synching

The Ashlee Simpson fiasco on “Saturday Night Live” should have been enough. It wasn’t. Now Lindsay Lohan, teen goddess, was caught lip-synching on “Good Morning America.”

As an ardent music fan, I have felt the need to comment on this for some time. The New York Post makes an interesting point, saying “Today’s teen-pop queens are too young to remember the shame that befell lip-synchers Milli Vanilli in 1990.” They may be, but I am not. Milli Vanilli was the ultimate embarrassment to music; they were the butt of jokes for years afterward, and one of its members was so ashamed, so destroyed by the haranguing, that he committed suicide. What about pop culture and music has changed so significantly that these divas are let off with the wrist-slap embarrassment of a Page Six article? Are the vast majority of teenybopper Americans complacent enough (or ignorant enough) to continue to support these talentless hacks?

When Rolling Stone commented on the Ashlee Simpson snafu, one TV producer commented that only a jamband would perform completely live on television, without the aid of a backing track. Whether you like jambands or not, you cannot doubt their commitment to purity. The Strokes by all accounts sucked when they last played on TV, but at least they went out there and actually played their instruments. And I’m sure many other bands would refuse to use backing tracks as well, at the risk of singing off-key or playing a wrong note. Kim Jakwerth, a representative for Lohan’s label, said that Lohan used backing tracks so “you make the song sound exactly like the record.” That is the problem right there. When I see live music, I want what’s different from the record. I don’t want an impersonal, perfectly mixed, studio effects laden performance; I want something raw and energetic. I want the band to make mistakes; they’re only human, and it’s how the band plays off the mistakes that makes them great. I want to see the artist, on-stage, doing what he or she loves to do simply for the sake of doing it. Art for art’s sake as it were. I don’t want a derivative and formulated product; I want something slightly defective, heartfelt and true. When will the American populace wise up? On that note, I think the website youhavebadtasteinmusic.com should be required viewing for all. Did you know that Evanescence has more Grammy awards then Bob Marley, or the Who?