That’s Entertainment?

Last night Manfrengensen and I sat down to watch a little boob tube, and what do you know, boob is what we got. The American Music Awards were on. We tuned in time to see Christina Aguilera performing a medley of her hits, and we couldn’t turn away because it was such a train wreck.  Put aside the lyrics, I can do that, but then what we’re basically looking at, when we watch Christina Aguilera on the American Music awards, is a bad lip syncer wearing Madonna’s old undergarments, prancing around with a lot of flash to disguise the lack of genuine talent. It’s not like the AMA’s weren’t aware that the lip syncing was bad.  The camera kept pulling back to the wide angles because Aguilera’s lip sycing was so obviously fake.  A few times, she even got the lyrics wrong.

I don’t mean to dis Christina Aguilera.  There’s certainly a place for lyrics like I’m a genie in a bottle, you gotta rub me the right way, but if she’s such a great performer, why does she have to lip-sync?  They’re lip-syncing, and then giving awards for it.  Am I going insane? Don’t you think that as audiences we should start to demand an end to the industry-wide practice of lip syncing?.  It’s a con and a crock. It’s what Milli Vanilli was vilified for.  And rightfully so. It isn’t in any way genuine or real.

This wasn’t even an isolated incident.  There are fans out there who pay three figures for tickets to shows where the artist lip syncs!  That’s highway robbery in my book.  It’s a common and disturbing practice.  I really think that as fans, you – we deserve more.

There are thousands of bands out there who are actually writing and performing their own music, and these people can’t get any kind of recognition from the industry because they’re too honest.  They’re too genuine.  They should be the ones who get support, not these American Idol-type hacks. They’re not prancing in underwear singing into what might as well be a hairbrush because it’s really just a pre-recording that who-knows-who really sang.  Face it, for all you know, Christina Aguilera’s voice could actually come from some fat lady with acne and facial hair, but what you see is Christina shaking her pert and ample ta-tas, singing along to the recording.  That’s music?  No.  That’s crazy.

Hell, I can lip sync.  I wouldn’t do it in my underwear in front of an audience, but if that’s all it takes to make millions of dollars and be called an “artist” then frankly, there’s something wrong with the system.

Demand more, people.

p.s. — Here’s another crazy thing.  In researching those lyrics, I found out that Aguilera also has a Disney version of “Genie in a Bottle,” which I guess changes some of the lyrics.  But the “you gotta rub me the right way” isn’t one of the lines that’s changed.