Does Anyone Actually Give A Shit About Lip-Synching? The Daily Nooner (EST)!
Awesome Video Of The Day
Some Band Called Squeeze Squeeze Theeze Pleeze Gets Busted Lip-Synching
Whenever I hear about these so-called lip-synching “scandals” it kind of makes me want to kick King Tut in the balls1. What difference does it make if Britney Spears or Ashlee Simpson are actually singing their songs in concert? They’ve got all that dancing and running around to worry about, and it’s pretty much impossible for them to have the lung capacity to do both. Besides, after all of the processing and production that goes into making a studio album, you could probably make the argument that pop vocalists barely even sing their own songs on their RECORDS, let alone in concert. I know they make like trillions of dollars or whatever, but I still think the expectations we’re setting for our pop stars are a little bit ridiculous.
When I personally go to a concert, yeah, sure, I expect the band to actually perform their songs with real instruments and vocals, but I don’t go to very many Britney Spears concerts (only every once in a while). Britney fans don’t give a shit about musicianship, do they?! Aren’t they just there to see their favorite singer dancing with all the flashing lights behind her and stuff? When you’re in an arena packed with 5,000 screaming 14-year-old girls, you’re probably not going to be able to hear anything anyway, right? Why NOT lip-synch?
I guess I can think of one really good reason not to lip-synch: it’s completely humiliating when you get busted doing it (and completely hilarious to everyone who isn’t you). Particularly when it involves falling off of a stage in front of millions of people. Just ask the guy in this video. I don’t know who Squeeze Squeeze Theeze Pleeze is, but that must have been pretty embarrassing. I hate to give credit to this douche, but the guy played it off about as well as anyone possibly could. By which I mean he didn’t burst into tears and bludgeon himself to death with the microphone in front of a live television audience. I’m pretty sure that’s the “normal” response in that situation.
1 This is my new favorite expression.
January 22nd, 2008 at 1:47 pm
You don’t know who Squeeze is? What, were you under a rock in the 80’s? And then in the 90’s, when all they did was replay 80’s music all through them? “Pulling Muscles from a Shell”, “Is That Love”, “Cool For Cats”. Jesus, a recent bubble gum commercial used their song “Tempted” in it.
If you don’t know who Squeeze is, then it is YOU, sir, who have metaphorically fallen off a stage whilst lip synching.
Also, that was hilarious.
January 22nd, 2008 at 1:59 pm
I’m pretty sure “Cool for Cats” is my favorite album ever.
January 22nd, 2008 at 2:02 pm
Sorry Alanis, but this is a Portuguese band with the full name Squeeze Theeze Pleeze - the video title on YouTube says simply Squeeze.
Maybe something is lost in translation, but that has to be the worst band name of all time.
January 22nd, 2008 at 2:03 pm
I can’t hear the lyric ‘I take her back to my place and I give a dog a bone,’ without bursting out laughing.
It cracks me up every time I hear it.
January 22nd, 2008 at 2:20 pm
“Girl you know it’s…girl you know it’s…girl you know it’s…girl you know it’s…girl you know it’s…girl you know it’s…”
January 22nd, 2008 at 2:31 pm
How the hell did he fall off the stage? He’s not doing any real singing; the only thing he has to concentrate on is appearance.
January 22nd, 2008 at 3:12 pm
Congratulations to Portugal on entering the 1990s.
January 22nd, 2008 at 3:42 pm
Dammit. Mussels. MUSSELS from a shell. Serves me right for getting all self-righteous about the wrong band.
(Captain Ross my favourite line is “All I get is bitter and a nasty little rash”.)
For the record, Ross, you’re quite right. I don’t care about lip-synching when there’s a good singing/dancing/costume changing/look at the pretty lights show to be seen. If I were there to see them stand there and sing at me, that’d be different. But a show’s a show. As long as it’s entertaining, who gives a rat’s ass?
January 22nd, 2008 at 5:24 pm
King Tut’s Balls, PARANOIA!!!!!
January 22nd, 2008 at 7:12 pm
I love that none of his bandmates check to see if he’s okay and just keep ‘playing’ the song. What would have happened if he didn’t get up? Would they just have walked off the stage without him?
Anyway, this band lip-synced.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXG83p2nkHw
And they were meant to be good weren’t they?
January 22nd, 2008 at 7:42 pm
If anybody gets a pass, the Beatles get a pass.
January 22nd, 2008 at 7:56 pm
Wow. Falling of the stage has to be the best way to get caught lip-synching ever.
Thank God that didn’t happen to me at my 6th grade talent show, or people wouldn’t refer to me as “That dude with the awesome voice.”
They’d probably call me “That dude who fell off the stage.”
That would suck.
January 23rd, 2008 at 9:33 am
Another cool way to be caught lip-synching would be to have the “singer” on stage, faking his craft, and then suddenly be given a good old-fashioned Casnadian Destroyer (Paranoia!) in front of a live audience.
January 23rd, 2008 at 11:05 am
How can anyone be surprised he was lip-synching? None of the band’s instruments are plugged in to anything!
January 23rd, 2008 at 12:11 pm
Eh - you have a point, but if I’m going to pay over $50 for a Britney Spears ticket (or $500 for a Hannah Montana ticket) the very least she could do is sing her songs, even with all the dancing and flashing lights. I guess it’s just frustrating to see the muscianship being taken out of being a musician. That’s the biggest problem people have with lip-synching.
January 23rd, 2008 at 2:31 pm
Of course, you realize that when you’re watching a music video, its got very little to do with a music performance.
Those are boring as hell sitting down in a studio and crafting a song in three to five second chunks. No excitement or interesting visuals at all.
What do you expect? That the band is doing this live? And that it will sound exactly the same every time? While they’re supposed to be prancing around? Puh-leez.
I’m just waiting for some video producer and band to see the humor to putting the wrong music on a video. (”a la” Weird Al’s “Rico Suave” but they could really send it up by having everything just slightly off kilter.)
January 23rd, 2008 at 2:35 pm
I believe you’re thinking of Weird Al’s “Taco Grande.”
Sadly, I didn’t need to look that up.
January 23rd, 2008 at 2:35 pm
KidCthulhu, never head of wireless mikes?
(But they weren’t plugged in, were they? Saves the studio a lot of expense that way.
January 23rd, 2008 at 4:36 pm
If you’re appearing on television as a musical act, there’s approximately a 95% chance you were not given the chance of not lipsyncing. Setting everything up for a live band performance takes a lot of time and work (=money) and they don’t like to risk you fucking up or playing something their audience doesn’t want to hear. It sucks, but that’s how it is. Practically nobody anywhere performs live on television.
Conan O’Brien’s show is an exception, usually.
January 24th, 2008 at 9:00 am
I remember when The Smiths went on BBC in the 80s to play ‘This Charming Man’ and Morrissey, in his ever loving doucheness, decided he wasn’t even going to pretend to make it look real. He sang the song whilest swinging around a bunch of flowers like he did in the song’s video.
But really, what a fucking douche.
January 26th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
Alanis: “I don’t care about lip-synching when there’s a good singing/dancing/costume changing/look at the pretty lights show to be seen. If I were there to see them stand there and sing at me, that’d be different. But a show’s a show. As long as it’s entertaining, who gives a rat’s ass?”
This is exactly what is so wrong with pop music today, and people like you have caused it. You’re not a fan of music, you just like to look at shiny things. There are a lot of incredibly talented people out there who could put on a great show LIVE, but if they are not pretty and plastic, no one wants to hear from them. DIAF.
January 27th, 2008 at 11:33 am
CM, what can I say? I am deeply abashed. I appreciate now that only you and a handful of other humans on the planet are REAL fans of pop music. I have to admit, it was a shock to hear that I am not one of them. I mean, I really did think I enjoyed some of it (it’s so CATCHY.) Wow, is my face red. But, live and learn, eh?
Don’t worry, though, I’ll tell the others and maybe they’ll stop ruining popular music by enjoying it, too. I can’t speak for the rest of them, but for myself, I can only say I am SO sorry. I guess I just wasn’t thinking. “My bad”, as the kids say.
As for all the other musical genres I enjoy, your opinion can suck my dick. I’ll like what I like -you don’t get a vote.
February 17th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
So does this mean that Miley Cyrus is off the hook? Cause I say ‘no’….
February 26th, 2008 at 2:30 am
I’m with CM on that one.
February 27th, 2008 at 9:33 am
Some things are too funny to make up. The lead singer’s name, for example:
Assalino.
Seriously.
April 3rd, 2008 at 11:00 am
Why does almost every funny article/blog entry pulls along a bandwagon of douche comments from people who see themselves as superior to others? I’m looking at you, CM.
I couldn’t care less about pop music, but as long as I don’t have to hear it, why not let other people enjoy it?
Also, on a serious note here: lolzorz achieved on the video.
April 5th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
I cant stand spears or Hitlon, i think the only reason why they are so talked about is either
a) theyre christian
b) they spread thier legs to every Dick’s dick
c) they make money (with thier legal brand of prostitution)
I wouldnt give a rats ass about those two idiots, and it would please me greatly if they got hit by a bus, same with that Jamie Lynn ditz.
April 5th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
Hilton even*
April 27th, 2008 at 8:45 pm
Hey! I’m a screaming 14-year-old girl that thinks Brittany should just overdose already..
And Squeeze is awesome, by the way!
“And he wakes to find the fire’s out and arrows in his ass”
- Cool for Cats = best album ever!