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Lip syncing debate continues in Australia
By CMU Editorial | Published on Tuesday 10 November 2009
The lip syncing debate continues in Australia, with the country’s Musicians Union stepping in and backing an Australian politician’s call for artists who mime to state so on their marketing literature.
The miming debate down under has kicked off thanks mainly to the arrival of Britney Spears, who is doing fourteen dates in the country. It was the Fair Trading Minister of New South Wales, Virginia Judge, who got the ball rolling last week by saying her state government was considering new rules to force promoters to tell ticket buyers if artists would not be singing live at events, either on promotional literature or printed tickets.
The story gained momentum when some Australian media reported that fans had walked out of Spears’ first gig in the country in protest at all the miming, reports Spears’ people have strongly denied. Promoters of Spears’ Aussie dates say the popstress makes no secret of the fact she mimes, and insist she puts on a great show anyway.
Some might say that artists who stage lengthy energetic dance routines as part of their live shows will inevitably mime at least some of their songs, simply because they’ll be too out of breath to sing.
But the Musicians Union Of Australia says that it backs Judge in her call for more transparency from artists as to whether they will be singing live. The Union’s federal secretary, Terry Noone, told ABC News that he didn’t have a problem with Britney miming, but that he agreed show publicity should clearly state that would be the case.
Noone: “It’s not right that people are going to the concert when they are being misled. That’s the issue. It’s not about music, it’s about false advertising. We’ve got extremely strict regulations governing truth in advertising and misleading the public for every other product or service that’s sold in this country. Everything is regulated here, except for the music industry. We just say it doesn’t matter. The fact that this is the attitude is a demeaning attitude to the music industry, and it is saying music is not important and not recognising the extremely high level of skill that is required”.
I would like to stress at no point did I lip sync while writing this story.
