Mime in singing often referred to as Lip sync or lip-synch (short for lip synchronization) is a technical term for matching the lip movements of talking or singing person with sung or spoken vocal.
Lip-syncing audio is created by using a live sound amplification system. The term can refer to any of a number of different techniques and processes, in the context of live performances and audio-visual recordings.
In film production, lip-syncing is often part of the post-production phase. Dubbing movies in a foreign language and creating animated speaking characters both require elaborate lip-syncing. The music industry uses lip-synching by singers for clips, TV and film appearances, and some types of live performances. Lip syncing by singers can be controversial for fans attending concerts who expect to see a live performance.
Miming Can Be Done to Music as Well
Mime to music- or finger synchronization – is the act of musicians pretending to play their instruments live, on an audio-visual recording, or a broadcast. Musical Instrument playing is the equivalent of lip-syncing for musical instruments, with the act of pretending to sing while pre-recorded music is heard on the PA system, television, or film. In some cases, musicians will pantomime playing on their instruments, but the singing will be live. In some cases, the musicians will mime playing their instruments and the singers will lip-sync. This has been criticized by some professionals in the music industry and it is a controversial practice.
Not every type of mime in music is criticized. When a band appears in a clip, there are often no microphones on stage and the guitars are not plugged in. With clips, it is generally accepted that the audience does not see the band playing live (the exception is live performance videos).
Pretending to be playing an instrument is mainly associated with popular music performances and rock music in huge halls, TV broadcasts, music videos, and movies. However, there are cases where even some classical music groups (e.g. string quartet) or orchestras have been miming the playing of their instruments while a pre-recorded track of the music was played.
Why Is Mime in Singing Considered Bad?
It depends. Mime in singing or music performance is not always a bad thing.
All successful recording artists have mouthed the words to their recorded vocal tracks at some point during their careers, especially on televised events that are not designed for high-quality live sound performance. In other words, a TV show is a visual event, and therefore it makes sense that the performer is putting the emphasis there, on “giving a show” and less on the vocal side of things.
And it is quite common. Even the great Beatles performed on the TV show Thank Your Lucky Stars in 1963, the guitar and bass were not plugged in and there were no microphones on the stage, so the band was miming their instrument playing and lip-syncing the vocals.
Initially, bands performing on the UK TV show Top of the Pops mimed the commercially released record, but in 1966 after discussions with the Musicians’ Union, miming was banned. After a few weeks during which some bands’ attempts to play lives were somewhat lacking, a compromise was reached whereby a specially recorded backing track was permitted as long as all of the musicians on the track were present in the studio.
Another example is Whitney Houston’s performance of “The Star-Spangled Banner” with a full orchestra before Super Bowl XXV, where a prerecorded version was used. Orchestra director Kathryn Holm McManus revealed in 2001: “At the game, everyone was playing, and Whitney was singing, but there were no live microphones. … Everyone was lip-synching or finger-synching” (source).
Music critics and other “purists”, however, evaluate a singer’s ability to perform their vocals live as a barometer of the singer’s true talent. Confident vocalists can deliver. In the end, this is an issue of personal opinion.
The more clear-cut cases are when a performer is lip-synching or miming playing an instrument to deceive the audience.
During the early late 1980s and early 1990s, the Grammy award-winning song by a European group called Milli Vanilli, had their grammy rescinded after it was discovered that they were not the actual singers in it, and were going around lip-synching to the recorded music all along. Singer Charles Shaw had revealed that he was one of three actual vocalists on the Milli Vanilli album and that the two performers (Pilatus and Morvan) were impostors.
It was one of the two performers who eventually told on themselves, because he was overwhelmed by the great success, and he didn’t think that it was honest to keep on deceiving the world. It was the producers on managers who had convicted the whole thing.
So, lip-synching is not a bad thing, especially when a known artist – who does know how to sing – comes down with illness but “the show must go on.” But if it is used as a means to gain fame and fortune by creating a facade – then it is quite frowned upon.