Beyonce Lip Syncing – Right Or Wrong?

Interesting conversations flooding the web in the aftermath of the Presidential inauguration about Beyonce lip syncing the national anthem. If she was, it was a great performance – which after all is what it’s all about in a situation like that. And let’s face it, it was her actually singing – whether it was in a studio before hand or live on the day. It’s an interesting dilemma for an artist in that situation. Lip sync and deliver a perfect performance, but deal with the masses having a crack at you for doing so; or sing live and potentially have a problem that will have the masses having a crack at you for doing so.

It’s part of a greater issue of live performance versus technology helping out. With lots of my songs I’ll use a loops. Now all of those loops (a bass line, a guitar rhythm section, a couple of bars of drumming) are actually my playing. Is it wrong that I haven’t actually played the part through the whole song? Only if you’d like to have either a) your ears bleed from a terrible performance or b) me go insane re-recording endlessly to try and get the part perfect!

I’d argue that what we like to listen to are good performances. Yes, they need to be true reflections of the artist’s ability (don’t get me started on auto tune…) but that’s exactly what Beyonce delivered. Whitney Houston, at a Super Bowl a few years back, did one of the most famous US anthem renditions – and yes, that was a lip syncing effort. It still sounds awesome. So did Beyonce’s one.

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