Saturday Night... Live?_Simpson Says She Would Never Lip Synch

Angry Country.com ^ | 10-24-04 | Michael Allison

[My Favorite Headache]

News and Views: Added: 10/24/04 Saturday Night... Live? By Michael Allison - AngryCountry.com Staff Writer --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm going out to let my real talent show, not to just stand there and dance around. Personally, I'd never lip-synch. It's just not me. - Ashlee Simpson in Lucky Magazine

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Saturday Night Live was not as "Live" as people expected last night. Musical Guest Ashlee Simpson poorly lip-synched her first song, and then a technical glitch or mistake led to the wrong vocal track being played for her second performance proving her fraud as she stood there confused while her recorded voice filled the airwaves . Simpson's band picked up the slack, attempting to save the show as Ashlee walked off the stage. Just a minute in (on a musical segment usually four or more minutes long) SNL pulled the plug, cutting quickly to a commercial.

Also this week it has been suggested that the vocal performance of "God Bless America" by a very talented country artist during the Major League Baseball playoffs was also pre-recorded, though having watched that game myself I am not certain that it was not just an audio delay in that case. I can say that I have attended concerts where it seemed that at least some of the performance was taped, and I routinely see performances on TV where the lip movements of the artist doesn't match the sound.

Lip-synching is nothing new (Remember Milli Vanilli) but for some reason it has become more accepted, especially for television shows and special events. But is it fair? Is it fair to the fans who tune in to see a LIVE performance, for them to instead be presented with a living puppet acting out a CD track? I don't think so. And more than unfair, I think it's a fraudulent act. Tricking people into believing they are watching a live performance should not be allowed.

My solution is a simple one... but it will not be popular with the untalented artists and unscrupulous promoters of the world: Concerts and television broadcasts should be required to specify when a performance is not LIVE both vocally and visually. I've been sitting here for twenty minutes trying to figure out a politically correct and kind phrase to serve as the disclaimer for this new rule, but so far I've come up empty. No one is going to warn viewers or concert attendees that their performance is going to be lip-synched. Perhaps they could label it a "dramatic performance" which would at least admit that they are 'acting' like singers, without actually singing.

Obviously this wouldn't apply to scripted television (such as sitcoms) and movies where the audience expects to see acting and special effects, but when someone gets on stage at a concert or televised show (SNL, award shows, Variety shows, etc) there is an expectation of a genuine musical performance.

Live should mean Live, and if it's not live be honest about it!

[FReepaholic]

...Let's be honest: Does anybody admire either of the Simpsons for their talent?...

I do. Homer is great!

[hole_n_one]

The west coast airing had the vocal track edited out. All that was heard was the band.

Apparently, Simpson wasn't the only one attempting to perpetrate a fraud on the public.

[Paleo Conservative]

Is that picture faked? Her family are big supporters of GW.

Are all your family members Republicans who always vote straight Republican?

[A CA Guy]

They blocked out her track singing without her in the second song.
Then this loser decided the best thing to do is to blame the BAND.

I think she will fall back on her other choice for a vocation and will be a B level pole dancer that hums her sister's songs during the performance for wrinkled dollars.

[RichInOC]

Oh, those Simpsons are fine. I meant Jessica and Ashlee.

[weegee]

Rock and Roll PING! email Weegee to get on/off this list (or grab it yourself to PING the rest)

Saturday Night Live was not as "Live" as people expected last night. Musical Guest Ashlee Simpson poorly lip-synched her first song, and then a technical glitch or mistake led to the wrong vocal track being played for her second performance proving her fraud as she stood there confused while her recorded voice filled the airwaves.

John Lydon/Johnny Rotten did this deliberately on American Bandstand when he appeared with PIL. He also got the audience out of the stands to dance on the main floor while the band was out there. Johnny used the crowd to lose the camera man who was to follow him and keep him on while the song played.

He would deliberately hold the microphone at arm's length pointing away from him while the lyric played.

[Tacis]

I actually was watching that last night and couldn't figure out what had happened. Now I understand.

Shouldn't we being referring to her as "Ashlee Vanilli?"

Anf doesn't the issuue of whether her sister's are "talents" or "attributes" simply depend on how well you know her?

[Yaelle]

In its heyday, Saturday Night was always Live. (Some musical guests probably wished it weren't, even back then...) When Britney Spears was on a few months ago, it was obvious she was 100% lipsyncing. A shame.

[hole_n_one]

The west coast version would read......

Saturday Night Live was not as "Live" as people expected last night. Musical Guest Ashlee Simpson poorly lip-synched her first song, and then a technical glitch or mistake led to the wrong vocal track being played for her second performance proving her fraud as she stood there confused while her recorded voice filled the airwaves.

[beaversmom]

Even those talents are fake. Nothing is real anymore with these plastic people.

[LiberalBassTurds]

She's definitely the "poser child" for Kerry supporters. There's some clips of this on gnutella now. After being busted she doesn't have the character to own up to it...or just shut up. She comes out at the show's closing and blames her band. Pitiful.

[Eastbound]

In all fairness, every performance should be billed as a contest. Whoever guesses correctly that the artist was lip-synching after the performance gets a free beer. That should take the edge off.

Hey, it takes as much talent to lip-synch as it does to sing live. Don't folks have no appreciation for effort these days? Besides, wouldn't you rather hear a first-rate lip-synch than listen to a scratchy sqeeky voice, hoarse from over-use?

[evets]

Watch and be amazed:http://www.collegehumor.com/news/ashlee_snl.wmv

[mad_as_he$$]

I am VERY sure Jessica's are homegrown. I saw a bio on her and when she was a gospel singer at a very young age they went to great lengths to hide them.

[bella1]

Here is a better suggestion-- stop watching and certainly stopping buying their music. Simple as that.

[theFIRMbss]

>Then this loser decided the best thing to do is to blame the BAND

Bad, bad, BAD Ashley!
Blame the techies, blame the suits,
don't blame MUSICIANS!

[wideminded]

There's another factor involved here besides Ashlee Simpson. If she is so untalented, why would SNL have her appear? The answer can only be that there is some financial advantage to the network or the show's producers.

[theFIRMbss]

>Saturday Night... Live?_Simpson Says She Would Never Lip Synch

"Since when has lip-synching been live?" he asked. "Anyone who lip-synchs in public on stage when you pay 75 pounds (134 dollars, 109 euros) to see them should be shot."

[Vroomfondel]

I saw Ashlee Simpson last night and she is very bad at pretending to sing.

Could be worse. One year at the MTV Video Music Awards, Annie Lennox attempted to simultaneously lip-synch both audio tracks she had done for a song. I fell out of my chair laughing.

(that was the year that the lip-synching got so bad that one of the bands came on stage without microphones)

[searchandrecovery]

Those are attributes not talents.

Dude, have you ever seen them workin'? There's talent in there somewhere. Can't say anything about either of their music, though - I think one can sing, one (from what I hear) lip-syncs da live stuff.