I remember Bing lip-synched (sunked???) once on a Merv Griffin show in the 70's. He appeared only if Merv permitted him time to promote some fish & game preservation program he was fond of at the time.

If people pay big bucks to see an artist perform "live," then I think rock music fans (or fans of any other type of music for that matter--what if a symphony orchestra pretended to play while pre-recorded music was being piped in?) have every right to complain if that artist lip-synchs onstage. The problem with acts that include a lot of dancing (Madonna, Jennifer Lopez, Beyonce, et. al.) is that they can't possibly sing "live" without being at least occasionally out of breath... yet they lead the audience to believe that they are doing just that, with full lung capacity and vocal control, by wearing those little mics on their heads. Bruce Springsteen, on the other hand, who performs one of the most physically strenuous shows imaginable, does in fact sing "live" throughout his performances. And it's obvious that he's really singing, because his voice will sound a little strained following particularly physically demanding stretches of his show, and you can see the muscles contract and the veins bulge on his neck. With the formerly mentioned head-mic'd acts--Beyonce's performance in this year's Super Bowl halftime show is a good example--all the vocal subtleties, nuances, and whispered phrases that are possible only within the controlled environment of a recording studio, minus the screams of the audience and other distracting noises, are intact, as though the singers were, well... standing still in a recording studio. Their concert audiences are paying for glorified play-acting. Whether or not these audiences care or if they've convinced themselves that those little mics are actually turned on is another issue. 

TV and movies form two halves of a different animal altogether, particularly when we go back to Bing's era. It would have been impossible to film the elaborate routines in all those classic MGM musicals without cuts, re-takes, set changes, make-up re-application, and lip-synching. Likewise, in this brief clip from Singin' in the Rain the camera is on a boom and shooting from a considerable distance from Gene Kelly, who couldn't possibly be mic'd without the microphone being visible, and his weak voice still sounds crystal clear, because of the limited technology of the day: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EVYPwBtZQc  The Warner Brothers musicals of the early sound era, while charming and enjoyable in their own right, suffered audibly from primitive microphones being hidden throughout the sound stages and sets by necessity, and many musical numbers (and, for that matter, non-musical scenes) were filmed in long, continuous takes while off-camera orchestras provided the accompaniment as the cameras rolled. Incidentally, John Scott Trotter once revealed in an interview with Gord Atkinson that the practice of lip-synching to a prerecorded track was adopted during the filming of Bing's Pennies From Heaven in 1936, with the rest of the film industry soon following suit. The bottom line is, we know we're watching something that's not real when we go to the movies, and are prepared to suspend our disbelief because of the very nature of the medium. When attending a live show we expect a completely live performance, or at least I do.

Bing and others would often lip-synch in television performances in the '50's and '60's. This may be because of simple logistics, as in dance routines where it would be difficult to follow the singer around with a boom mic. But this is forgiveable, to my thinking anyway. When watching TV, all one is asking for is to be entertained in his or her living room while vegging out on the couch, especially in the pre- pay TV era when broadcast television's sound quality wasn't all that good to begin with. When you pay hundreds of dollars and travel several miles in some cases (especially with gas prices being what they are) to see someone perform live onstage at a concert venue, then the least they can do is actually sing. 

As far as Beyonce's lip-synching the national anthem during the presidential inauguration ceremony, I suppose it's OK, considering the need to avoid any foul-ups on live TV during such an internationally prestigious event. What is annoying is that she tried to keep it under wraps, not admitting for some ten days that it was a "canned" performance. And singers much greater than her have sung live before Washington, D.C. audiences in the past: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAONYTMf2pk 

And, just for fun... 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovMNl0gGFNY

Last edited by Jon O. (23/3/2013 1:39 am)