A dark moment in music history occurred 21 years ago this weekend. That’s when the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences had to strip Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus of what may be the most controversial Grammy Award ever handed out. Since then, the duo known as Milli Vanilli has been synonymous with cheating and artistic deception. Their name came up again recently when a contestant on X Factor got caught lip-synching.
Even before the microphone neared Leroy Bell’s lips, viewers of the Nov. 3 episode of Fox’s singing competition could hear his voice. It was obvious his vocals had been pre-recorded. Some fans were outraged. In response, a spokesperson for X Factor explained that this is actually a common practice for ensemble performances, but assured the public that “survival songs,” which determine a singer’s fate in the contest, are always performed live.
I suppose that’s some consolation. But how does it feel to know that the group-sing numbers are as phony as a buy-one-get-one-free coupon for a 2012 Ferrari? The Los Angeles Times wondered aloud whether Cowell’s latest series is actually searching for the best singer or “the next great Milli Vanilli.”
There’s that name again.
In case you weren’t plugged into the music scene in 1990, just months after Milli Vanilli won the Best New Artist Grammy, someone confessed to allegations that Morvan and Pilatus didn’t provide the vocals for hits such as “Girl You Know It’s True” and “Blame It on the Rain.” During public performances and music videos, the pair lip-synched. Music fans insisted on authenticity, and their career was over. Yet Morvan has watched the industry evolve over the past two decades, and reasons that some of what artists are doing now to enhance their art isn’t so different from the offense that got him and his partner banished to musical Siberia.
“I have to say something and be clear about it,” Morvan told popeater.com last year. “When people say, ‘Well, you didn’t sing on the record’… OK, cool. I didn’t. But to be technical, when someone records in a studio and Auto-Tune does your job, it isn’t you anymore. It could be anyone, because you’re not doing it anymore, the machine is doing it. … When it comes time to perform it live, you can’t replicate it. So when people say ‘You should sing on the record, man.’ Well, yeah, but now technically a lot of the people who are singing on the record with Auto-Tune aren’t doing their job.”
What do you think? Is it all good if it succeeds in entertaining us? Is integrity less important than a flawless performance? What’s the difference between lip-synching one’s own work, relying on electronic enhancement (in or out of the studio), or passing off someone else’s voice as your own? And how does Milli Vanilli’s use of “vocal doubles” compare with the uncredited dancing double who helped actress Natalie Portman win an Oscar for Black Swan? We accept that the entertainment industry is a fantasy factory. But at what point does creating a welcome illusion cross the line?
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