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With three hit #1 singles, seven million albums sold and a Grammy for the best new artist they were cute, sexy and stylish and their catchy pop tunes certainly caught me. I thought it was pretty hilarious and disappointing when the truth came out they hadn’t sung a word but a good lesson that things aren’t always what they seem, nevertheless.
Quote:Pop music has always been part talent show, part magic trick. This has never been more apparent than it was on November 15, 1990, when German producer Frank Farian revealed in a press conference that then-superstars Rob Pilatus and Fab Morvan, members of the pop duo Milli Vanilli, hadn’t sung a note on Girl You Know It's True, their 1989 multi-platinum debut album.
Milli Vanilli truthers had long speculated that Rob and Fab, two guys with thick European accents and limited command of the English language, couldn’t possibly have crooned hits like “Girl You Know It’s True” and “Blame It On the Rain.” And yet the news came as a shock to many. Milli Vanilli instantly went from Top of the Pops to laughing stocks. Rob and Fab were stripped of the Grammys they had won for Best New Artist, and duped fans filed class-action lawsuits.
It was one of the biggest scandals in music history, though it wasn’t an isolated incident. Around the same time, dance-pop groups Black Box and C+C Music Factory got caught doing almost exactly the same thing.
Source
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
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(04-11-2021, 11:45 PM)Freija Wrote: With three hit #1 singles, seven million albums sold and a Grammy for the best new artist they were cute, sexy and stylish and their catchy pop tunes certainly caught me. I thought it was pretty hilarious and disappointing when the truth came out they hadn’t sung a word but a good lesson that things aren’t always what they seem, nevertheless.
Quote:Pop music has always been part talent show, part magic trick. This has never been more apparent than it was on November 15, 1990, when German producer Frank Farian revealed in a press conference that then-superstars Rob Pilatus and Fab Morvan, members of the pop duo Milli Vanilli, hadn’t sung a note on Girl You Know It's True, their 1989 multi-platinum debut album.
Milli Vanilli truthers had long speculated that Rob and Fab, two guys with thick European accents and limited command of the English language, couldn’t possibly have crooned hits like “Girl You Know It’s True” and “Blame It On the Rain.” And yet the news came as a shock to many. Milli Vanilli instantly went from Top of the Pops to laughing stocks. Rob and Fab were stripped of the Grammys they had won for Best New Artist, and duped fans filed class-action lawsuits.
It was one of the biggest scandals in music history, though it wasn’t an isolated incident. Around the same time, dance-pop groups Black Box and C+C Music Factory got caught doing almost exactly the same thing.
Source
I remember their music playing on the radio in the kitchen at the restaurant I worked at back then. It was good stuff! Such a shame that it was lip syncing and the true vocalists got screwed!
What I don't understand is why the lip syncing? When the scandal broke and they were trying to do damage control they performed live and sounded good. With a little mixer magic it would have been great.
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That's it! I'm burning my Milli Vanilli t-shirts.
Next you'll tell me singers today use auto-tune.
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The laughable part was that if they'd stayed within the UK music business, lip-syncing is standard on the
one-time chart-hit show ' Top Of The Pops'! I believe it was due to lack of appropriate studio equipment
and the correct sound-stages for live music broadcasting.
So the Musicians Union sought a deal with the BBC to have songs pre-recorded and the bands mime.
For many viewers, this later-revelation was their first eye-opener to what the world of television was
really about.
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Never heard of em 
Those shoulder pads though 
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Nature gave us one tongue and two ears so we could hear twice as much as we speak.
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04-12-2021, 01:50 PM
(This post was last modified: 04-12-2021, 01:56 PM by Michigan Swamp Buck.)
Think of what "The Monkees" had to endure for having a "kids" TV program and being characterized as the "Pre-fab Four". One of the main criticisms was they had song writers and producers calling all the shots, but they actually played instruments, sang the material and eventually produced their own albums. But none of that was good enough it seems. Jimi Hendrix was back up band on one early tour and they were friends with the Beatles, John Lennon called them, "The Marx brothers of music", but they were still considered a fake band. That attitude continued on to screw Milli Vanilli when they got caught "faking it".
So, Milli Vanilli did some lip syncing, so what? An auto turner, so common on pop vocals now a days, is just as bad, if not worse (I hate it). Back when digital sampling was all the rage (still is), whole band performances were "faked", the band Yes comes to mind.
You want real music, go to a local band performance with real live music, if you are allowed to. Otherwise, you want a big production with all the whistles and bells, go to those, but don't expect to hear real music.
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