10. Most Pop Stars Lip-sync Onstage
Sleep deprivation, the struggles of staying in shape, keeping your vocal chords loose and ready to belt each high note to crowds of thousands is no easy task.
Naturally, some pop stars decide to cut corners wherever possible. Because a robotic, autotuned sound is a small price to pay for perfection, right?
While some musicians experimented with live overdubbing during performances before him, Michael Jackson was one of the first artists to blatantly let the machine do the singing for him onstage. Fans argue this was a necessity so he could perform his complex dance routines without passing out. Whatever the reason, the effect was clear.
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Today, it’s rare to find a pop act that performs any live vocals at all. Britney Spears, Lady Gaga, and Madonna almost always mouth along to a recording, and frequently that recording has had so many effects applied to it in post-production that it sounds nothing like their actual singing voices.
Ashlee Simpson famously stormed offstage during her performance on “Saturday Night Live” after the crew began playing the wrong track. Whether or not this practice is a cheap cop out or just part of the show is up to you, but the fact remains that real, unfiltered vocals are getting rarer by the minute in pop music.
