Lip Service

Yesterday President Obama was sworn in for his second term in office. You would think that since I am usually such a fan of both pomp and circumstance that I would have been glued to my TV, but I must admit that while I checked on the ceremony here and there and had it on in the background during the day, I never gave the inauguration my undivided attention. However, unlike the people who refused to watch on some kind of moral stance about the government spending money on a party when the economy is still so tough (I would respect this stance more if I ever heard the people whose party won the election saying it. Coming from Republicans yesterday it just sounded like sour grapes.), the reason I didn't watch it was because I know sequels never live up to the original. Plus, it combined three of my least-favorite things: beat poets, politics when there isn't an election going on and newsreaders trying desperately to fill time by telling us who we are looking at and reading us the graphics which are on the screen. It's that third one which really made me stay away. I understand that budgeting 6 hours of coverage for an event which will only have an hour of actual action can make for some tough moments for the on-camera talent, but I contend the easier solution would just be to not have as much coverage rather than forcing these people to think on their feet.

It is that level of desperation to have any new thing to talk about which resulted in the mini-controversy that everyone going overboard this afternoon - Beyonce Knowles' rendition of the National Anthem which everyone was blown away by... right up to the moment it was revealed that she had been lip-syncing. In some circles this is being treated as though it is treason of the highest order. (Personally, after finding out Whitney Houston lip-synced her mind-blowing version of the Anthem at the Super Bowl, nothing surprises me anymore. That moment ruined my ability to trust live performances for the rest of time.) Some people are upset because they felt it was disrespectful to the gravity of the moment and the honor of being asked to perform should have trumped her personal need to sound good. I think others are mad because they couldn't tell she wasn't singing live and this shows how easily they are tricked. As for the rest? After a week of being bombarded with Lance Armstrong's weak apology and Manti T'eo's fake girlfriend, it may just be they are sick of being lied to. Whichever side they fell on, some people were so mad about it you would think their inauguration was the one being sullied.

Don't get me wrong, I'm no fan of lip-syncing. I happen to think the excuse that certain performers have to use pre-recorded music due to all the dancing and other stage antics they do is crap because what they are really trying to do is cover up how awful their music actually is. No one who is confident in their song catalog has ever worried about dance steps. Give me a stage, a singer and a guitar over pyrotechnics any day of the week. But even with that bias I can concede why no rational person would have a problem with the fact that Beyonce may have felt the need to lip-sync - it was cold out, she may have been nervous (all you ever hear from musicians is how hard a song the Anthem is to sing), worried about the lyrics (ask Christina Aguilera how much fun it is to mess them up in front of an audience of tens of millions) and I'm going to guess the front steps of the Capitol Building aren't exactly known for their acoustics. (Still, it should be pointed out that Kelly Clarkson didn't appear to have any issue.) Also, it is not like we have never heard Beyonce sing acoustically before, so whether or not she has the pipes to pull if off is not in question. She probably didn't need to do it, but I can see why she would rather be safe than sorry.

I think the main problem is that ever since Milli Vanilli, lip-syncing is seen as a dirty word. It adds an air of deception to the proceedings, even if the performer has a sterling resume. It's a little like a baseball pitcher who doctors a ball. Certain guys do it on occasion and while people don't like it, they accept it as part of the game. It is when those pitchers start to do it excessively and to the point where you don't know if they would still be playing if they were forced to stick to the same rules as everyone else that the opposing manager comes out and asks the umpire to take a look at the game ball. I just found the entire 'controversy' ironic because with all the forced banter and terrible cutaways the inauguration coverage reminded me a lot of watching a parade on TV and every performance you see on those telecasts is lip-synced. Funny how no one has a problem with it on those days. I guess the moral of the story is the following: if you are going to artificially enhance your performance, do it on a day when the news networks don't have hours of coverage to fill, because eventually they are going to examine every last detail. No one cares what you do if it's a busy news day.