Yeah, and also count out any band that's ever used electricity.

There is a HUGE difference between not actually performing the singing at a concert or appearance billed as a live performance of singing and using a pre-recorded synth beat or an echo effect on your mic.

Allison Moorer's album "Miss Fortune" comes with a sticker on every CD that says "Absolutely no vocal tuning or pitch correction used in the making of this album." It's sad that an artist feels they need to go to that length to point this out. And even sadder that her amazing voice isn't heard by as many people who have heard Britney and other pop stars "sing".

There are a lot of bands that you think are live but use backing vocals from tape....example Aerosmith for many years.

My fav band uses pre-recorded vocal tracks live...U2 (I know the Oooh, ooos at the begining of Elevation on the last tour were pre-recorded)

As the posters above me have said, there are probably a lot of bands that do some amount of pre recorded vocals. The band Fuel recently kicked their drummer Kevin Miller out of the band. After they did this, he brought to light the fact that the lead singer has on used pre recorded vocals for some shows. Brett responded by saying that with the rigorous tour schedule they try to accomplish, his voice could not hold out every night.

I don't see much problem with this. People are paying to be entertained by the band at the concert. For instances like this, where the artist can actually sing, but chooses to save their voice on a night every now and then, that seems fine. But for people who use vocals because there voice is so shifted in the studio, that they can't sing live, that is not right. They should not ever be recorded in the first place, especially if they are not writing the music. At that point you are only selling them on appearance.

Just want to clarify: that was an intro for both N Sync and Spears. I think it was the 1999 or 2000 MTV Video music awards. They did their thing then they introduced her and she did her thing while they danced behind her.

She sings live. The slow songs anyway. She has done it on SNL and on that concert I saw on Showtime.

I guess my point is, when somethign is dubbed a "live" peformance, they better be playing/singing. IF its on a CD, i'll take my chances that its not really them.

The reason this is all continuing and i really don't see an end is that our kids are completely brainwashed into listening to this crap.

Who?

I really don't think that is anything to brag about. I agree with most everything that has been said in here but as long as the music sounds good I enjoy it. I may be in the minority but I almost always prefer the album version of songs to the live ones.

Exactly. Notice, you're not wondering who the lip syncing, studio tweaking, pop stars Britney or Ashlee are.



Allison Moorer is a singer with an amazingly beautiful voice who co-writes all her songs (with her husband) and who's music treads a fine line between alt-country, pop-country and rock. Her latest album, "The Duel" has been compared favorably by critics to Neil Young. Her best album "The Hardest Part" is a dark concept album detailing a doomed relationship (drawing heavily on her parents relationship, which ended tragically when she was a kid). Despite being nominated for an Oscar for her song in The Horse Whisperer and being very well received by critics, she gets almost zero airplay and isn't well known.

You're right it shouldn't be. But with many pop and country superstars resorting to studio tricks to 'fix' songs, she felt she needed to make it known that it's 100% her voice featured on her album and not the work of tweaking recordings in the studio. The reason I brought her up was because others were talking about artists who 'adjust' their voice for recordings and I'd always felt it was kinda of sad someone such as her had to announce the fact they don't use those methods.

BTW, she's also got a live CD/DVD out which was recorded in a small bar-like setting with, of course, no lip syncing and it sounds fantastic.

I wonder if this whole trend started with the "backing tapes" (or whatever they're called) that most every band uses whilst playing live. These tapes are synched to the live performance, so that if something goes wrong - someone breaks a drumstick or loses their only pick - the sound guys can press a button and start the tape on cue and no one in the audience is the wiser of the technical difficulties.

I think this (in general) is a good thing, but OTOH, I can also see where this would create a thin, fuzzy line where a tour manager of a highly tweaked performer (yes, Britney, I'm looking at you) would push for bonafide lip-synching.

I was watching my SADE: LOVER'S LIVE dvd the other day and up until I read this thread I thought she was doing most if not all of the singing. Now I'm not so sure. I can certainly understand that being on tour can be tough on singing voices, so I can forgive a certain amount of pre-recorded stuff. Some parts seem very "canned" in that the vocals are perfect. Like they were made in a studio. Also, although she does a good job lip synching, sometimes her lips aren't always synched up. Granted I could be wrong about this but I don't think I am.

For some tv shows I can understand why they make the bands lipsynch. A lot of those studios can't produce a nice music sound. They almost always sound like some crappy bootleg made with a tape recorder shoved down someone's pants.

Live award shows otoh are much different. I can't think of any excuse why any artist would lipsynch. Those things are held at music venues and take days to set up.

I don't understand why a band would need tapes for a live show when touring either. If they're worried about their voice holding out, don't schedule shows too close together. If they need background tapes/musicians, hire background singers & musicians. I don't pay $$$ to go to a concert to listen to the cd I already bought at the store.

As for the original question: I guess some artists are just scared. The true musicians that are well known are outnumbered. And it will continue as long as the public keeps buying the lipsyncer's records and going to the concerts. Record companies are a business, as soon as it's not profitabe anymore to produce & promote "entertainers" they'll move on the next big thing.

also i believe she sang as well on the older songs on the showtime concert, since Howard Stern the next morning made fun of how bad she sounds (even by playing soundbites)

Gene definitely didn't play bass on all the songs on all the albums. For example, on the Dynasty and Unmasked albums, Paul and Ace played bass on their own songs. Ace didn't play anything on "Creatures of the Night", Vinnie Vincent did (this was before he was made an official member of the band). From what I read, this fact was hidden for contractual reasons. I think that record contracts would have to have been re-negotiated if only 50% of the original members were left in the band. So for "Creatures" KISS tried to hide Ace's departure by putting him on the album cover and having him play on the "I Love it Loud" video (which was his last official job with the band). I'm not sure how much involvement that Peter and Ace had with "Psycho Circus" other than vocals, but I wouldn't be surprised if Peter didn't play any drums at all.

Ace did not play on a lot of the albums after Rock n Roll All Over. Bob Kulik was a common ghost guitar.

That's true. From "Love Gun" to "Music From the Elder", Ace played guitar on his own songs, but who knows how much he played on the other songs.