Is this it?: Lip syncing for dummies
By now it's old news that Nelly Furtado and Bryan Adams were lip syncing at the 2010 Olympics Opening Ceremonies; in my opinion, it should have been old news before it even happened.
I don't like lip-syncing, but there's certain people I expect it from; Britney Spears doesn't have much going for her, and we've heard Ashlee Simpson sing live and realized it might not have been so bad with a backing tape or two. It happens. Pop artists haven't been genuinely talented since we invented auto-tune, digital editing and sex tapes. How should American Idol interviews really go?
1. Do you look good?
2. Is your IQ high enough that you can sing along to a backing tape of your (very manipulated) voice?
3. Is your IQ low enough that you won't care that you're not credible enough to perform on your own?
Thing is, Nelly Furtado and Bryan Adams aren't untalented, whether you like their music or not, they're two gems of Canadian pop music that are clearly credible enough to open up the 2010 Olympics. So why did they lip sync?
IT'S A STADIUM! Stadiums are not built with any strong intention of concerts or presentations in mind; come on, the roof is made of fabric!
B.C. Place was built for football and home and garden expos. Of course, bands perform there all the time, but that's because it's high capacity, central, and popular. Anyone who's seen a concert at the Air Canada Centre knows that it was built for the same reasons. Yes, the acoustics suck, but once again, it's the highest capacity venue in Toronto, so it'll do.
They lip synced because it's the opening of the Olympics, bad sound quality is a small fact that makes a huge difference in an event as important as this. You want to make sure everything goes according to plan? Then don't leave room for mistakes; play the track over the performance.
Now I want to explore two options here.
Option #1: The recorded track was played inside the stadium and broadcasted over every major Canadian television network.
Option #2: The recorded track was played over the air of the television broadcast, meanwhile Furtado and Adams were actually singing in the stadium.
Most people see option #1 as the only one, and that's because most people don't think closely enough to realize that what you see and hear on TV might not really be what's happening. CTV could have just popped in the mp3.
Option #2 gives a bit more credit to the artist and to the performance in general. I'm not saying that's what happened, I'm still believing that you don't want to have a single mistake in the Olympic ceremonies so they took the easy way out, I just expected this. I would have been surprised if they actually recorded the real performance sound.
I'd love to check videos online to see if I could back anything up, but it looks like every company who's ever had a link to the Olympics has been staffing up in preparation for this week. Their job? Sit on YouTube and flag videos. It's not just that though, I can't find any television website that has any archived video from the Olympics - you would think they would at least want to have something up as a form of promotion.
In sum, I'm not trying to legitimize lip syncing, and I certainly don't expect it from talented artists, but I think in this case it was the most logical thing to do. Though apparently the bright lights and cheering can still be too much for Bryan Adams to not get distracted.
I don't like lip-syncing, but there's certain people I expect it from; Britney Spears doesn't have much going for her, and we've heard Ashlee Simpson sing live and realized it might not have been so bad with a backing tape or two. It happens. Pop artists haven't been genuinely talented since we invented auto-tune, digital editing and sex tapes. How should American Idol interviews really go?
1. Do you look good?
2. Is your IQ high enough that you can sing along to a backing tape of your (very manipulated) voice?
3. Is your IQ low enough that you won't care that you're not credible enough to perform on your own?
Thing is, Nelly Furtado and Bryan Adams aren't untalented, whether you like their music or not, they're two gems of Canadian pop music that are clearly credible enough to open up the 2010 Olympics. So why did they lip sync?
IT'S A STADIUM! Stadiums are not built with any strong intention of concerts or presentations in mind; come on, the roof is made of fabric!
B.C. Place was built for football and home and garden expos. Of course, bands perform there all the time, but that's because it's high capacity, central, and popular. Anyone who's seen a concert at the Air Canada Centre knows that it was built for the same reasons. Yes, the acoustics suck, but once again, it's the highest capacity venue in Toronto, so it'll do.
They lip synced because it's the opening of the Olympics, bad sound quality is a small fact that makes a huge difference in an event as important as this. You want to make sure everything goes according to plan? Then don't leave room for mistakes; play the track over the performance.
Now I want to explore two options here.
Option #1: The recorded track was played inside the stadium and broadcasted over every major Canadian television network.
Option #2: The recorded track was played over the air of the television broadcast, meanwhile Furtado and Adams were actually singing in the stadium.
Most people see option #1 as the only one, and that's because most people don't think closely enough to realize that what you see and hear on TV might not really be what's happening. CTV could have just popped in the mp3.
Option #2 gives a bit more credit to the artist and to the performance in general. I'm not saying that's what happened, I'm still believing that you don't want to have a single mistake in the Olympic ceremonies so they took the easy way out, I just expected this. I would have been surprised if they actually recorded the real performance sound.
I'd love to check videos online to see if I could back anything up, but it looks like every company who's ever had a link to the Olympics has been staffing up in preparation for this week. Their job? Sit on YouTube and flag videos. It's not just that though, I can't find any television website that has any archived video from the Olympics - you would think they would at least want to have something up as a form of promotion.
In sum, I'm not trying to legitimize lip syncing, and I certainly don't expect it from talented artists, but I think in this case it was the most logical thing to do. Though apparently the bright lights and cheering can still be too much for Bryan Adams to not get distracted.
